Starlight Needs a Hug 2: A Web of Lies

Control Room - Mommy Long Legs and her Prisoners

Mommy Long Legs was watching both Starlight and Huggy Wuggy on the wall full of monitors. The two of them working together to beat the games would throw a wrench in her whole plan. Good thing she had something in mind to separate the two of them. Behind her in the room were Trixie and Poppy tied to the wall with Mommy's web. Trixie saw her friends win the last game and cheered for them.

"Hell yeah! Go Starlight! Go Huggy Wuggy!" she cheered while smirking at a scowling Mommy Long Legs. "Looks like you're gonna lose this game at this rate."

The pink toy monster turned and looked at Trixie with huge black eyes that twitched with madness. Trixie immediately shut up at seeing those mad eyes. Mommy spoke was slightly raspy when she spoke to Trixie and Poppy, whose mouth was webbed shut.

"Oh, I haven't lost quite yet, sweetie. There's still the last game to play, and this one promises to be a doozy!" Mommy said with a huge smile. "As for those two, I have an idea to split them up. This spider has multiple flies at her disposal, after all."

Mommy snapped her fingers and the pack of Mini-Huggies came into the room. They looked up at Mommy Long Legs as she spoke to them.

"I need you to make sure Starlight and Huggy are separated. If you do that, you can eat Huggy," Mommy said much to the visible delight of the Mini-Huggies. The pack scurried off to follow Mommy's orders as Trixie and Poppy watched with worry.

Trixie turned back to Starlight and Huggy on the monitors. "Come on, Star and Huggy. You gotta win this! And get us out of this factory!"

• + +

With Starlight and Huggy Wuggy

Starlight and Huggy Wuggy were walking down the hallway that led to the Game Station with Starlight's mind racing. Her mom held something of a high position in the Innovation Department, so she had to have known something about what was happening here. Experiments, crazy games, and living toys. What was Playtime Co aiming for by doing this? Why were they doing this to begin with? Starlight sighed to herself which Huggy responded to by nuzzling her head.

"Thanks, big guy. I really appreciate that," Starlight said. "I just wanna get these games over with and get the answers I need."

Huggy Wuggy tussled her hair, making Starlight chuckle. Before they could walk up the stairs to the Game Station, the door shut right in front of them.

"What the hell?!" Starlight called. She ran up the stairs to try to move the door to no avail. Huggy tried to move the door himself but even he couldn't move the door. They were stuck in that hall with no way back to the Game Station. Starlight slammed her fist on the wall in frustration and shouted towards the ceiling.

"Mommy! What's going on here?!" she shouted. The speakers on the wall flickered to life and Mommy's voice came through with a fake shocked tone.

"Mommy's so sorry about that! This place is quite old, so things are bound to be a bit glitchy," Mommy said. "You can get of there through the vents, though. So I'd suggest you use them."

The speakers flickered off and Starlight looked around to see some of the vents. She and Huggy could fit in the vents and get out of the hallway and back to the Game Station. She opened the vent with her GrabPack and crouched down to get it first.

"Well, Huggy, looks like we're going through the vents again," Starlight said. "I just hope Mommy doesn't throw any more surprises our way in the meantime."

They crawled into the vent with Huggy struggling a bit due to his greater size. He had to hold on to one of Starlight's legs to pull him forward. Starlight made sure to look through the vent grates whenever they passed by them. None of them led back to the Game Station and only led to random rooms in the factory. Storage rooms, assembly lines, and even janitor closets for the first 12 vent grates. The final one that Starlight passed was one that led to a room that held shelves of boxes, crates, and random toys. On the far side of the wall was a sign that said "Rejected Room".

"Maybe this room can lead us back to the Game Station," Starlight said before looking back at the cramped Huggy. "Better than crawling around in the vents like rats."

Starlight opened the hatch and they crawled out into the room. They stretched themselves and looked around the room at all the different toys. Starlight was amazed at seeing them all.

"I don't remember seeing these toys on the market," Starlight said, looking at the sign. "I guess these were proposed toys that the higher-ups rejected."

There were some truly bizarre toys, too. There was a bear on a toilet called "Sir Poops-A-Lot", a toy oven, and even a simple rock with googly eyes glued on it. At the end of one of the shelves was a giant version of one of her favorite childhood toys growing up: Bron the Dinosaur. Starlight would've been happier to see old Bron if he looked like himself. Instead of bright blue eyes there were tiny black sockets and it was covered in dried blood.

"My man Bron's definitely seen better days," Starlight said quietly. She and Huggy walked up a short set of stairs and towards a control panel with a wider vent behind it. Huggy lifted up Starlight and they crawled through another vent. Good thing for them that this vent was pretty short. Starlight knocked off the hatch and they crawled out onto what looked like tracks for mining carts.

One end of the tracks led down to a boarded up elevator shaft and the other led a gate over the tracks. On the other side of the gate was a mining cart with toy parts and the name "Barry" printed on the front. There was a hallway next to the tracks that had a gate closing the duo off from moving forward.

"Hey Huggy, if we could get Barry out of the gate, we could use him to break the boards and move forward to get back to the Game Station," Starlight said. As they were approaching the gate, something happened to stop them both in their tracks.

A door beyond the gate opened and a tall familiar figure stepped out. A tall and pink fuzzy creature that bore a striking resemblance to Huggy Wuggy and approached the two. Starlight's eyes widened at seeing the toy.

"Kissy Missy? It's Kissy Missy!" Starlight said. "I used to have a toy of you when I was a kid!"

Huggy Wuggy on the other hand walked forward and put a hand on the bars of the gate. Kissy Missy walked forward and put a hand over his. The two toys stared into each others eyes making soft growling and purring sounds. Starlight smirked in realization.

"I think these two are very friendly with each other," Starlight said. "These two are just precious."

Kissy Missy stepped back and looked at the lever for the gate. She looked back to Starlight and Huggy and flipped the lever to open the gate. Kissy then turned around and walked away from them. Starlight and Huggy ran after her as soon as the gate hit the ceiling.

"Kissy, wait! We need your help! We need to get our friends back from Mommy Long... Legs?" Starlight said. Just as they rounded the corner of the hallway, Kissy was gone. It was like she disappeared into thin air. "Okay... that's a little creepy."

Huggy Wuggy whimpered and held his head down in sadness. Starlight jumped up and pulled his head to her chest to hug him close to her.

"It's okay, Huggy. We'll find Kissy Missy again. I promise," Starlight said soothingly. "Come on, buddy. Let's keep going, okay?"

Huggy wiped some tears from his eyes and followed Starlight down the hallway. There was a green power panel for Starlight's green hand to use to open the gate for Barry. Starlight collected the green power in her green hand and quickly opened the gate for Barry. But before they could get help from Barry, Starlight found a VHS tap on top of a player and a TV.

"Hmph. Might as well," Starlight said. Starlight put in the tape and the screen showed a young man wearing a yellow Playtime employee uniform sitting down in a chair. "Huh. This guy looks cool."

Starlight stared in disbelief as the tape ended and put a finger to her chin in thought. Cleary the lower-level employees didn't know anything about whatever was happening here in the factory. Only the higher-ups must have known about what was going on. And the must have been hellbent on keeping their secrets, too. The voice talking to Marcus sounded familiar, too.

"That had to be Leith Pierre, the guy mom used to talk about," Starlight said looking to Huggy. "He was the Head of Innovation and de facto CEO of Playtime Co. after Elliot Ludwig's passing. And mom told me that she got a promotion at work one time, so did she know about this?"

Huggy just shrugged. Not the talkative type. Starlight looked back to the VHS player and saw that there was a note under where the VHS tape used to be. She picked it and read with widening eyes as she read it. The note was written in her mom's handwriting.

+

Dear Leith Pierre,

I understand your frustration with our past roadblocks regarding the BBI, but keep in mind that this field of research is in its infancy and we've only scratched the surface. But you'll be happy to know that we've been making strides thanks to Dr. Sawyer's work with Experiment 1006. All future experiments are intended to be better then the last. Me and my team guarantee that you and your money men will see your investments returned and then some. All we ask is that you simply let us do our work peacefully if you want the BBI to succeed.

Dr. Starshine Gleam

+

"So mom was involved. What did these experiments entail?" Starlight asked. "What is this 'BBI' she mentioned? And who's this 'Dr. Sawyer'?"

A menacing growl escaped Huggy's lips as he heard the name "Dr. Sawyer". Clearly Huggy didn't like whoever that was. Starlight put the note in her pocket and grabbed Barry with the GrabPack and moved him down the track towards the elevator shaft. Starlight pushed Barry down the tracks and watched Barry break the boards and fall down the empty shaft. Now they can climb up the shaft to get back to the Game Station. Starlight cheered.

"Alright! Come on, Huggy! Let's get back to--!" Starlight said before getting interrupted.

The pack of Mini-Huggies they beat in Whack-A-Wuggy burst out of one the vents and rushed towards the duo. Starlight and Huggy instantly turned and ran towards the shaft. Starlight used her both GrabPack hands to grab on to one of the handholds above to propel herself upwards. Huggy Wuggy joined her and began to quickly catch up to her.

"Keep going, Huggy! We gotta lose them!" Starlight screamed.

Unfortunately, the Mini-Huggies started to crawl up the shaft after them and were quickly catching up to them. Some of them started to latch onto Huggy to dislodge his grip. Huggy did his best to defend himself and even managed to knock off some of them. But it was clear that they would overwhelm him soon if Starlight didn't help him.

"Huggy! No!!" Starlight said before she stopped her ascent to help Huggy. Instead, Huggy knocked off a green Mini and joined Starlight.

The poor guy was in a bad state. He had chunks of fur missing and bleeding wounds from the Mini's teeth. He looked down at the rest of the crawling Minis and then back to Starlight. Tears formed in his eyes as he gave Starlight a sad smile. Starlight could see what he was thinking. She clasped his shoulder as she spoke frantically.

"No! Don't even think about it!" Starlight demanded. "We can fight them off! We just have to--!"

Huggy shushed her by putting a hand over her mouth and pulled her in for a one-armed hug. Starlight started to cry into his shoulder for a few seconds before she felt his hand move to the one grasping her GrabPack cannon. He made her press the trigger to propel her up the shaft. Starlight looked down at Huggy and reached out for him.

"No!" she shouted down to him. "Don't do this, Huggy!"

Starlight watched Huggy stay to fight the Minis as she was launched upwards. He kicked, punched, and bit at the Minis for as long as he could. But the Minis were soon too much for him. Huggy soon lost his grip and... plummeted down the shaft taking all the Minis with him. He was soon lost to the darkness below. Tears freely flowed from Starlight's eyes as her new friend was lost.

The GrabPack hand brought her to an open elevator door that led right back to the Game Station. She crawled onto the solid ledge and looked back down the shaft. Clenching her fists and gritting her teeth, Starlight walked back towards the control panel.

"Huggy, I promise I'll end this," Starlight vowed quietly. "For you and our friends, I'll end whatever nightmares happened here."