2045 Continued

Stripey's Circus of Nightmares. This would be the place where Liko could continue her work. She was no longer just murdering, she was now experimenting. She needed more children, and she needed them alive. And knowing that she couldn't show her face on the restaurant floor, she needed a way of remotely capturing her victims and preserving them for her work.

With that goal in mind, she designed a new breed of animatronic with fluid and flexible endoskeletons. She equipped them with sound lures that could mimic voices. They could isolate children, they could incapacitate and contain them with zero input from her.

It was brilliant. She was brilliant.

Far beyond the simple bars and wires of Roy's designs. And the characters Liko chose for this restaurant were uniquely hers. This new roster wasn't going to be tainted with Roy's disgusting barnyard Pokemon theme. It was back to Liko's characters, Liko's creations. Sprigatito, Fuecoco, and Eevee. She also designed two new, special ones: the first was a Gallade, an homage to her husband who left her. Now, he would never leave her again.

The other, the titular Stripey the Gothitelle, was designed with Liko's young daughter in mind: Isabella, the middle child. The one who listened to her, the one who obeyed.

Until the day that she didn't.

The day before Stripey's Circus of Nightmares was set to open, Isabella disobeyed. She didn't listen. Left alone with Stripey, she got too close. The animatronic Gothitelle ripped in half and swallowed her whole. A scared and confused child fading into eternal darkness.

By the time Liko found her, it was too late.

She immediately canceled the launch of the restaurant under the guise of a gas leak.

But as she sat there at the foot of the stage, she noticed something was different. Stripey had been built with purple eyes, but now they were sky blue. The same color as Isabella's eyes.

Was she in there? Could this all be connected to the free-moving that she had seen at Spriggy's? She had to know more. Her mourning turned to excitement. She had to return to where it all started.