The Great War

={Chapter 31: Close Encounter}=

={WARNING: CUSSING AND SLIGHT BLOOD}=

Molten moved through the house as quickly and quietly as he could, failing to find Michael anywhere else in the house except for the kitchen, it was the last place he could look, but getting to the kitchen meant going through the living room, and the living room had windows, meaning if Nightmare is here, than he could spot Molten through those windows. Molten stood hunched in the hall, staring out the windows of the living room, but he didn't see anything, so he made a run for it, and he's not sure wether he was seen or wether it was a coincidence, but someone started banging on the door the second Molten got into the kitchen. Molten looked around quickly, and saw that the large pantry door was open, so he quickly made his way over to the pantry, and saw Golden, SpringTrap and Michael inside. Molten walked in and almost slammed the door shut behind him, he wasn't sure if Nightmare would break into the house, but he wasn't taking any chances. "Michael! Come on, Ennard won't barricade your closet door unless you're hiding in there with us," Molten hissed with a quiet tone, ignoring SpringTrap and Golden. "Wait-, ok, let me get this straight, there's some animatronic here that's supposed to be hunting down you and Bryan? That SpringTrap sent?" Golden asked with a confused and panicked tone as he waved his hands around. "Yes, but I only told Nightmare to find the two before you made me change my mind about the whole war thing," SpringTrap responded quickly with an exasperated tone. "Ok-, well obviously my house doesn't look abandoned, so I've gotta go answer that door, before he just breaks in," Golden replied quickly as he rubbed his face for a moment. "Should I stay here or come with you?" SpringTrap asked before Golden left, and Golden turned around with a puzzled expression. "Stay hidden and listen in on the conversation, don't get involved unless you think you should," Golden replied quickly before walking out of the pantry, and SpringTrap waited a moment before following. "Alright, let's go," Michael stated after a few moments, slowly opening the pantry door and peaking his head around the doorframe. "You go back to your room, Ennard and Bryan are hiding in your walk in closet, tell them to go ahead and barricade the door, I'm going to listen in on the conversation," Molten stated quietly, as Michael took the first step out of the pantry, and he turned his head back to Molten with an unsure expression before nodding, and then hurried through the living room and down the hall. Molten hesitated before leaving the pantry, but he had to figure out how the hell Nightmare had found him and Bryan, so he forced himself to exit the pantry and hide behind the wall next to the kitchen doorway, he was able to hear Golden and Nightmare because the two sounded angry, and they spoke with raised voices.

Molten poked his head around the wall to see the situation, Nightmare was outside at the front door, Golden blocking the entrance as he held the door open and SpringTrap hiding behind the open front door, ready to get involved if needed. "I don't know who the hell you are, but I'd like for you to get off my property, before you're chased out," Golden growled with a low tone, his grip on the door tightening, although he didn't have a weapon or anything in hand at the moment. "I'm just looking for someone, an animatronic called Ennard? He's more of an endo skeleton than anything else, with a clown mask, have you seen him walk by or something?" Nightmare replied calmly, holding his hands behind his back, his eagle was nowhere in sight, but Molten could just barely hear the flap of the bird's large wings somewhere outside. "No, never seen anyone like that," Golden replied with a stern tone, he was putting on a good act. "Well, now I know you're lying, meaning you've got something to hide, because I sent Sharp up there to follow Ennard," Nightmare replied calmly, a smirk growing on his face as he pointed towards the sky, most likely pointing at his golden eagle flying around. "What? The bird talks to ya or somethin'?" Golden replied with a challenging smirk of amusement. "Actually, he does, but not in the way you're thinking. Of course a bird can't speak, but he's been trained to understand certain words, so when I point at someone and say track, he'll follow that person until he physically can't, and once he can't anymore, he'll find and return to me, if he deems what he saw the person do as something I should check out, he'll circle me and screech his heart out until I follow him, if he doesn't, than he'll return and act completely normal, sitting by quietly until I give him a command," Nightmare replied, maintaining his smirk and calm tone. "So, let us look around, or we'll force our way in," Nightmare stated coldly, before sticking a sword up, pointing it straight at Golden's throat, it was close enough to slightly graze Golden's fur. Molten considered turning himself in for the promise of Golden's and Ennard's safety, but as he hesitated, SpringTrap jumped in first. "The hell are you doing here?" SpringTrap asked with an oddly calm tone, with a hint of irritation in his voice as he moved out from behind the door, grabbing the sword with one hand and pushing Golden back with his other hand. Due to the sudden appearance, Nightmare pulled the sword away quickly, which sliced open SpringTrap's hand, but SpringTrap only took a quick glance at his bleeding hand before shoving it behind his back and shaking it a bit. "SpringTrap? Why are you here?" Nightmare replied quickly with a confused tone, he must not have noticed SpringTrap's injury. "Gold here is a old friend of mine, now again, the hell are you here for? And why the fuck do you think you can threaten Gold in his house?" SpringTrap asked in response with a harsh tone, glaring at Nightmare. "I was just following Ennard, an unfamiliar animatronic is a threat," Nightmare replied calmly, looking at the ground for a short moment, he obviously lost his confidence when faced by his king. "Only if such animatronic is on my land, but this land doesn't belong to my kingdom. Ennard is a friend of Gold's too, he's allowed to visit a friend, now do what Gold said, get off of his damn property," SpringTrap replied coldly, he moved closer to Nightmare with a glare, and Nightmare backed up. "Yes sir, your highness," Nightmare mumbled before turning around and walking away, and Molten heard the golden eagle's wing flaps slowly grow further away.

SpringTrap closed the door quickly, and spun around and quickly glanced at Golden's neck before looking at his bleeding hand. "God dammit Spring, can you not get hurt for five minutes?" Golden asked with an annoyed tone as he grabbed SpringTrap's wrist and overlooked SpringTrap's wound, before dragging SpringTrap into the kitchen. "Here, run your hand under warm water, rinse it off and all, don't put soap on it," Golden instructed as he stuck SpringTrap's hand under the faucet in the kitchen sink, turning on the water before walking back out of the kitchen hurriedly. "Thanks for covering for Ennard," Molten mumbled as he slowly approached SpringTrap, crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned back against the kitchen counter next to SpringTrap. "No problem, I know what it's like to be in a for-, to be in your position," SpringTrap replied with a small smile, before he cut himself off and mumbled with a frown. "What? You were going to say something else," Molten replied with a confused tone as he slightly tilted his head to the side. "Don't tell Golden I told you," SpringTrap stated with a mumble, and Molten gave a small nod, SpringTrap let out a sigh. "I was going to say that I know what it's like to be in a forbidden relationship, obviously I'm the king, Golden's an exile. Don't start with hundreds of questions, I'll tell you. Golden was a soldier once, while I was a blacksmith, me and Golden just slowly worked our way up the ranks, I eventually became the kings choice to be the next king, while Golden made it to commander of the army. Someone that Golden used to be friends with ended up killing the king's brother, I'm not sure why. He also for some reason decided to frame Golden, and then killed himself after, even making his death look like Golden had killed him too, there was no way to prove Golden's innocence, so the king exiled him. Nightmare didn't recognize Golden because he wasn't around at that time, Nightmare Freddy was the leader of the nightmare's before he asked me to build another nightmare animatronic, and that was a few years after Golden's exile. Golden tends to go with the whole 'preferring solitary life' act because he doesn't like the topic of his exile, it's hard to talk about being completely betrayed by someone you were closest to. Golden can't come back to the kingdom either, there's still some animatronics there that witnessed his exile," SpringTrap stated with a low tone, a sad expression on his face. "That sounds awful. By the way, when Nightmare threatened Golden, didn't he say 'us'?" Molten asked with a curious tone. "Yea, Funtime Foxy was with him," SpringTrap replied with a grunt as he experimentally flexed his injured hand. "Why was Foxy with him?" Molten asked in response as he watched SpringTrap lean onto the counter. "Give me your hand," Golden walked back into the kitchen, holding a pair of scissors and a bandage in hand. "I think that's Freddy's doing, Rockstar Freddy. He's been struggling to choose his new deputy, it's between Nightmare and Funtime Foxy, he mentioned something about pairing them up together to see who does a better job at whatever task he gives them," SpringTrap replied as he held his hand out to Golden, letting Golden wrap the deep wound in bandages as he turned the kitchen faucet off. "Seriously? Nightmare's way too aggressive to be a deputy, much less become a commander once Freddy dies or retires," Molten replied with an annoyed grunt, slightly rolling his eyes as he looked at the kitchen floor. "Tell me about it. But Freddy doesn't want the army to think he's biased or anything by choosing Foxy, since you were Foxy's mentor," SpringTrap stated with an exasperated tone, giving Molten a bored expression. "I'm going to let the others know the coast is clear," Molten mumbled as he stood up straight. "I already told 'em, they said they're removing the stuff they used to barricade the closet door," Golden replied quickly before Molten moved anymore, and used the scissors to cut the bandage before tying it into a knot on SpringTrap's hand, and Molten gave only a nod in response. "Oh, last thing, why'd you hide your hand after Nightmare's sword sliced it open?" Molten asked with a curious tone, and SpringTrap only looked away with a frustrated expression. "Spring doesn't want anyone else to know about his human corpse inside his suit, so he hid his hand so Nightmare didn't see the blood, because it should've been leaking oil," Golden replied for SpringTrap with a careless tone. "You told him about the corpse thing?!" SpringTrap replied in almost a yell with an offended tone. "Well what was I supposed to say when he asked how the hell you're Michael's father?" Golden replied with a bored tone as he rolled his eyes, and SpringTrap let out an annoyed huff.