A/N: Apparently, the site doesn't want to cooperate with me. So in order to have the title actually centered and not off to the left, I have to post an A/N. Thus, why not give you a little background for this one-off?
The idea was submitted to me by one of my readers during the whole FNAF craze. Thus, I decided to write a story that focuses less on the game itself, but rather the characters' reactions to it. The hardest part of the process was actually coming up with the gameplay portions since I have never played any entries in the FNAF series and never plan to for various reasons, thus limiting all of my information to the wiki and whatever screenshots I could find.
Ok, I think that covers all I want to say. Hopefully the title portion will be centered after this. I swear, Phoenix is my spirit animal when it comes to technology. So if it isn't, I appreciate you being understanding.
Anyways, I hope you enjoy the new chapter!
Five Nights at Phoenix's
(Time: May 17, 2019)
It was two weeks since Phoenix lost his badge and adopted Trucy. It was 10:00 p.m. and after a long day of work at the Borscht Bowl playing countless rounds of poker and enduring numerous complaints about his inability to play the piano, Phoenix crawled into his bed, making sure he was snug and comfortable before slowly drifting off into blissful sleep.
However, before Phoenix could enjoy his much deserved rest, he was jolted awake by his door being thrusted open, slamming against the wall with a loud boom, followed by rapid, forceful stomps could only be described as the sound of a heard of fleeing wilder beasts. But the former attorney immediately knew that wasn't the case. After all, he may have seen many strange things during his time as a lawyer, but Phoenix knew that even in a world where parrots are allowed to testify and coffee can be weaponized, no wilder beast has ever been known to shriek, "Daddy! Daddy!"
Though before the poker shark could even begin to think about why his little girl sounded so spooked, Trucy lunged at him, landing knee-first on his stomach.
"Daddy! Daddy! I'm scared!" The young magician wailed, tears streaming from her big, blue eyes which were mere inches away from her adoptive daddy's anguish-filled ones.
"I can see that… and so can my broken pelvis." Phoenix grunted through clenched teeth.
"Sorry, Daddy…" Trucy replied with a guilty look on her face before getting off of her adoptive father and standing next to the bed. "I didn't mean to hurt you."
"It's alright, Trucy. I'm more shocked than anything. Did you have a nasty nightmare?"
"N-No." Trucy whimpered with a shake of her head. "I-I was playing Five Nights at Freddy's and-and I was watching the monitors and I didn't see Chica enter the office. A-And when I lowered the monitor, she jump scared meeeee!"
Trucy, I told you to go straight to bed. How were you playing video games when I had Maya go… Oh right, this is Maya I'm talking about." Phoenix groaned, his gaze narrowing upon realizing his mistake.
And as if on cue…
"Niiiiiiiiiiick!" Maya screamed at the top of her, charging through the bedroom's open door as fast as greased lightning before jumping on top of her friend like Trucy had just done. "Nick! Nick! Nick! Trucy and I were playing Five Nights at Freddy's and Chica jump scared us!" The burger-loving woman shrieked before breaking into tears. "It was horrible, Nick! That chicken animatronic is sooo scary with its large mouth, glazed look in its eyes, and how it gets into your personal space!"
Gumshoe has all of those qualities, yet you never saw me running for the hills. "Look, why don't you two just think of happy thoughts and get some sleep?" Phoenix asked with a slight hint of hope in his voice.
"No way, Nick!" Maya huffed, puffing her cheeks in anger. "If we don't beat the game, we're letting the Fazbear gang win!"
"I don't care who wins as long as I get some sleep." Phoenix tiredly retorted as he tried, and failed, to turn on his side under the weight of his former assistant.
"Please, Daddy! We need your help!" Trucy begged while pulling at her father's arm.
"Trucy, you know that I'm bad with video games."
"But you're a level 5 daddy! This should be nothing for you!" Trucy stated with a look of fiery determination that the former defense attorney knew meant that he had no say in this matter.
Level 5 daddy? Since when did I become a Pokémon? "Fine, I'll help you guys." Phoenix sighed in resignation.
"Thanks, Nick! You're the best!" Maya squealed as she gave her friend a bear hug.
Suddenly, Pearl rushed into the room, holding a boombox that was playing Barry White's Can't get Enough of Your Love, Babe.
"Now's not a good time to play that song on your boombox, Pearls." Phoenix snapped with reddened cheeks.
"But, Mr. Nick! You and Mystic Maya need it to seal the deal! Now kiss!" The young spirit medium yelled, glowering at card shark as she waited for him to take his relationship with her cousin to the next level.
A few minutes later, after brewing and downing some coffee, as well as bribing Pearl to go to bed by hugging Maya for several seconds, Phoenix headed into the living room- followed closely by Trucy and his former assistant- and sat down on the couch in front of the laptop on the coffee table, which had the Five Nights at Freddy's game over screen displayed on the monitor.
"Well, that's… something." Phoenix hesitantly stated, staring at the picture of a strange-looking bear animatronic sitting on a table before starting a new game, which placed him right in the middle of a cramped, dimly-lit office filled with several posers and drawings as a man via phone told him about the dangers of the animatronics. "That's good to know…" The ex-attorney stated with a look of discontent. "So how do I check the cameras?"
"Click on that big arrow box at the bottom of the screen, Daddy." Trucy said with a smile, to which her father complied, causing a screen showing what was happening in one of the restaurant's room, as well as a map of the building's layout, to appear on the monitor.
"Ok, I-I'm confused. How do I see what's going on in the other rooms?" Phoenix asked, pressing several keys on the keyboard to no avail.
"Click on the boxes, Nick! Geeze!" Maya huffed as she angrily pointed at the screen.
"Well, excuse me if I spend my days working so that I can pay the rent and satisfy your burger addiction instead of playing videogames." Phoenix retorted as he started clicking on another box, causing the screen to show a new room which he thoroughly scanned. "What the heck? Where are the animatronics?"
"Wandering around the restaurant trying to reach you, Daddy!" Trucy shouted.
"Well, I haven't seen any so far."
"Because they don't stick around in one place. You've gotta be quick like lightning!" Trucy responded.
"Nick, put your cameras down! You're wasting power!" Maya snapped, gesturing to the power level number at the bottom left corner of the screen, which was starting to dwindle.
"But I don't know where the animatronics are!" Phoenix responded with a frustrated tone.
"Daddy, for all we know, one of them's already at the door! Quick, check!" Trucy commanded with much fear in her voice.
"Fine, I'll check and- AAAAAAH!" Phoenix screamed; for the second he lowered his monitor, he was greeted to a close-up of a demented-looking robotic purple bunny biting at him, causing the screen to shake as a shrill, high-pitched screech was blasted from the speakers before transitioning to the game over screen. "Wha… What was that thing!?" The ex-attorney shrieked, heavily panting as he tried to catch his breath.
"That was Bonnie! He snuck in while you were busy looking at the cameras! That why I was telling you to check your doors!" Trucy shouted with her hands on her hips and a glare on her face.
"And then what?" Phoenix asked with a confused look on his face.
"You close them by clicking on the red buttons that say 'doors'!" Maya screeched. "You know, Nick, I can normally tolerate your geezer ways, but this is outright pathetic! How do you live with yourself?"
"By getting some sleep, which you and Trucy won't allow me to have because of this game!" Phoenix angrily retorted. "Now if you'll excuse me…" The ex-attorney stated as he got up from the couch, only to be stopped by his daughter pulling at his arm. "Trucy, let go."
"Please, Daddy, you've gotta help us! Me and Mommy Maya are too on-edge to make any progress! You're our last hope! Plus, I-I love you, Daddy, and… and I want to spend time with you because… because you're the only family I have left." Trucy whimpered, her lower lip trembling as she looked up at her father with tear-filled eyes.
"Fine…" Phoenix sighed as he sat back down. "But after tonight, you are never to play this game again. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Daddy…" Trucy groaned.
"I swear, this sort of thing never happens to Edgeworth..." Phoenix grumbled under his breath before trying the game again.
Meanwhile, Edgeworth was reading a case file in his posh penthouse while Franziska, who was staying for the night because her apartment needed to be fumigated, was playing Five Nights at Freddy's on her laptop and is failing miserably, to say the least.
"Curse you, foolish Freddy Fazbear and your foolish five nights!" Franziska roared, pounding her keyboard with her fists.
"Franziska, you've been yelling at that game all night. Do you mind if you calm down so that I can finish reading this case file?" Edgeworth growled as he clenched the manila folder in his hands.
"No, Miles Edgeworth! This game made a fool out of me, Franziska von Karma, and for that, it must pay!" The silver-haired woman snarled before placing the laptop on a nearby ottoman and whipping it.
"What exactly are you having issues with? Perhaps I can be of assistance."
"Don't waste your time, Miles Edgeworth. This foolish game is so foolish that no one who was raised in the von Karma household- even a foolishly foolish fool like yourself- can beat it without having a mental breakdown because of its sheer foolishness!" Franziska pouted with crossed arms as she squeezed her sleeve.
"If that game is so foolish, then why are you still playing it?" The maroon-cladded prosecutor smirked, tapping his finger to his forehead.
"Because your foolish assistant assumed that I couldn't complete it after I told her how foolish it was when she wouldn't stop talking about it; and you know very well, Miles Edgeworth, that I will not allow any foolishly foolish fool to foolishly believe that I am incapable of anything!" Franziska hissed as she pulled at her whip.
"Well, it just so happens that we were introduced to this game by the same source." Edgeworth stated with a smug grin and a shrug of his shoulders. "For just the other day, Kay wouldn't allow me to get any work done because she wouldn't cease begging me to install Five Nights at Freddy's on my computer and complete it with her." Though at the cost of my dignity thanks to that blasted chicken animatronic that looked strangely familiar. "That's why I've been reading this case file instead of enjoying other forms of literature."
"You mean like one of those foolish Steel Samurai comic books?" Franziska sneered, gesturing to a nearby bookshelf filled with several Steel Samurai mangas.
"T-Those are left over from the State vs. Powers case that I prosecuted back in 2016 and were research tools, nothing more, nothing less!" Edgeworth objected, his cheeks tuning as red as a ripe tomato, before quickly regaining his composure. "But returning to the topic at hand… Once again, what's giving you trouble? Conserving power? Finding a good compromise between checking the monitor and checking the doors?"
"It's that foolish fool Foxy! Every time I think that I've established the perfect defense, that foolish fox foolishly sprints into the office out of nowhere. With how he suddenly ruins my perfect plans, he's like the Phoenix Wright of video games!" Franziska snapped, pounding her fist against the maroon leather couch she was sitting on.
"Don't worry, Franziska. Kay and I had our fair share of deaths at the hands of that wily fox. But before I help you, just let me call Gumshoe. I need to look over some pictures for a trail I'm prosecuting tomorrow."
"Fine. But don't keep me waiting, Miles Edgeworth." The silver-haired prosecutor threateningly stated as she prepped her whip.
"I wouldn't dream of it."
At the Prosecutor's Office, one of the only people remaining was Gumshoe, who was busy dusting Edgeworth's office. Sure, it was hard work, but it allowed the scruffy detective to help out his beloved superior and earn a few cents worth of overtime and even a pity meal if he was lucky. But Gumshoe's cleaning was interrupted when his cellphone rang, which he wasted no time in answering when he saw that Edgeworth was the one calling.
"Gumshoe, are you still at the Prosecutor's Office?" Edgeworth calmly asked.
"Sure am, Mr. Edgeworth. I'm just about done tidying up the place and am about to call it a night. Why do you ask?"
"Good to hear. Could you please log onto my work computer and email me the pictures for the Leslie Tautdoute case?"
"Sure thing, Mr. Edgeworth. You can always count on me!" Gumshoe stated with a confident grin.
Unless, of course, I want you to give decent testimony in court. "Thank you, Gumshoe." Edgeworth politely replied before ending the call.
After turning on and logging into the nearby laptop on the desk and using the password given to him for just such a scenario, the scruffy detective did just as he was told and emailed several pictures depicting a gruesome crime scene to his superior's other laptop. However, right as Gumshoe was about to turn of the computer, he noticed a strange shortcut in the form of some creepy-looking bear.
"Five Nights at Freddy's?" Gumshoe asked, cocking his head in confusion as he hovered his cursor over the shortcut. "I've never heard of it, but I don't think that Mr. Edgeworth would mind if I played it for a bit…"
After starting up the game and listening to the introductory phone conversation, Gumshoe proceeded to keep both electric doors shut and the hallway lights on for as long as possible.
"I don't care what that phone guy says. If I'm a security guard at a restaurant, then I'm keeping all of the doors closed and turning on all of the lights." Gumshoe proudly stated.
Though unfortunately for the scruffy detective, after a few seconds of that strategy, he ran out of power, causing the room to become dark, followed by a music box remix of Toreador March to start playing.
"Ok, things are starting to get a little creepy…" Gumshoe nervously said with a tone of unease. "But as long as I stay calm, things will be- OH MY GOD!" The underpaid detective screamed in terror, reeling back in his chair as a brown animatronic bear with wide, unblinking eyes lunged at the screen while opening and closing its gapping maw. "Did that giant bear just eat me!?"Gumshoe shrieked, taking a few deep breaths to help him regain his composure. "Ok, I'm fine… I'm fine… I won't lose this next time. I just have to keep the doors closed and the lights on even longer."
After almost half an hour of playing the game using this strategy, and failing each and every time, Gumshoe was left trembling in his chair as he gazed at the game over screen with saucer-sized eyes.
"I-I need to stop playing this game..." Gumshoe muttered to himself before turning of the computer and locking up Edgeworth's office.
But even though the scruffy detective was no longer playing the game, the terrifying images and horrifying sounds that he saw and heard were still haunting his mind; and it didn't help that the hallway on the 12th floor was dimly lit.
"It sure is dark..." Gumshoe nervously noted, his posture slightly hunched over. "Good thing that it was only a video game."
Though suddenly, as if on cue, Gumshoe heard Toreador March playing in a darker portion of the hallway.
"W-Who's there!?" The scruffy detective shouted as he raised his clenched fists.
However, there was no reply as the music grew slightly louder and the silhouette of a bear approached Gumshoe, causing him to wince.
"N-Not this time, pal!" The scruffy detective roared, charging straight at the perceived threat like a raging bull, tackling the entity to the ground before repeatedly punching it in the face, which made it start crying and screaming in a surprisingly effeminate fashion.
After thoroughly trouncing his foe, Gumshoe dragged the entity into a brighter section of the hallway, where, much to his horror, he discovered that this supposed assailant was not a deranged animatronic, but Sebastian Debeste, who was wearing a bear costume and carrying a boombox playing Toreador March.
"Oh my gosh!" Gumshoe gasped as he helped the rookie prosecutor back on his feet. "Are you alright, pal?"
"N-Normally people beat me up after I talk- or in Pops case, he'd hire guys to do it a week later so he wouldn't have to deal with Social Services." Sebastian whimpered as tears streamed down his bruised and battered face.
"I'm so sorry, Sebastian! The hall was dark, I got freaked out after playing this really scary video game, and…! Now that I think about it, Why are you walking around the Prosecutor's Office in a bear costume while playing that song?"
"I'll have you know that I was doing my Yogi Bear calisthenics because Yogi's debeste bear. But that's not important! I'm gonna tell Mr. Edgeworth about how you insulted me!" Sebastian cried as he tried to run out of the building, only to be stopped by Gumshoe getting down on the ground and grabbing onto his leg.
"Don't tell Mr. Edgeworth, please! I can't afford another pay cut, pal! I've only just started not feeling lightheaded in the middle of the day thanks to that raise Mr. Edgeworth gave me last month! I can't go back to that, pal! I just can't!"
"Have some malignity, Flatfoot, and get off my leg!" Sebastian complained.
"Nooo!" Gumshoe wailed as he kept a steadfast grip on the rookie prosecutor's leg, making it where the adolescent boy struggled to take even a single step forward.
After several agonizing, terrifying hours of gameplay, Phoenix found himself staring at the Five Nights at Freddy's title screen and the two white stars on it indicating that all seven nights were completed.
"Done." Phoenix sighed in relief as he slumped back on the couch.
"Yay! We won! We defeated Freddy!" Maya squealed, her excited, jovial disposition a stark contrast to the morose face and tired eyes of her friend.
"Excuse me? 'We?' There was no 'we!' It was me while you hid and whimpered in the corner and Trucy zonked out in the armchair!" Phoenix snapped, gestured to his daughter who was curled up and sleeping peacefully in the nearby armchair.
However, before the card shark could continue his rant, he heard his cellphone ring, which he answered upon seeing who was calling him.
"What do you want, Kristoph?" Phoenix snarled.
"Well, excuse me for calling my dear friend at seven in the morning." The periwinkle-cladded attorney stated with mock shock in his voice. "I only wanted to know if we were still on for a few rounds of poker at my place tonight."
"Yeah, I'll be there…" Phoenix replied with a tired voice. "After I do just that for ten hours with practically no breaks."
"You sound upset, Wright. Is something bothering you...? Well, except the whole 'having your career and dreams suddenly and brutally destroyed' thing." Kristoph stated with the slightest hint of sadistic glee in his voice. "Not that I blame you, of course. If I lost my badge because of Klavier's foul play, I'd be absolutely livid."
"It's not that. Trucy and my ex-assistant wouldn't let me get any sleep last night because they wanted me to help them beat this video game."
"You spent all night playing some silly video game?" Kristoph asked in a condescending tone.
"That's what I thought at first, but then I realized how intense it can get once I started playing it. Have you ever played it, Kristoph? It's called Five Nights at Freddy's."
"I don't play video games, Wright. And even if I did, I could probably beat it while blindfolded."
"Well, why don't we make a little wager out of it? I'll send you a copy of the game, and if you can beat it before seven tonight, I'll buy the snacks for poker night."
"Challenge accepted." Kristoph stated with the utmost confidence in his voice.
Apollo never liked visiting Kristoph's apartment; not because he hated the man- on the contrary, the loud-voiced adolescent greatly admired his superior for giving him the opportunity to assist him in his cases- but because the place was flat-out creepy. It was bad enough that the décor of the place resembled the home of an anal-retentive old lady- miscellaneous plastic flowers scattered about, doilies on every table, an absurd number of pictures of various family members, etc.- but what took the cake was that the Coolest Defense in the West had a room filled to the brim with Shirley Temple merchandise. Apollo could still remember his first visit when he accidentally stumbled upon that room when searching for the bathroom and nightmares that plagued him for the next week.
However, on this day, Apollo had to put those negative feelings aside on account of his boss not showing up at the law firm all day or even calling him, for that matter. Sure, Kristoph could have suddenly came down with a case of indigestion or something along those lines that left him unable to lift a finger, let alone pick up a phone; though Apollo knew that a girl even so much as acknowledging his assistance would be more likely than that happening. After all, the horn-haired adolescent saw his boss, the Coolest Defense in the West, nonchalantly acquit a client with very little effort despite battling a high fever and a sore throat.
So when Apollo used the spare key that Kristoph had so cleverly hidden in the hallway outside the apartment, he knew that whatever the issue was, it was big, which is why the aspiring defense attorney slowly opened the door with a shaky hand.
"Mr. Gavin…?" Apollo hesitantly called out as he stepped into the immaculate apartment. "Are… Are you alright…?"
"NAAAGH!" Kristoph screamed at the top of his lungs from behind the closed door of the Shirley Temple shrine room.
"Oh my god, it finally happened- those Shirley Temple dolls came to life and killed Mr. Gavin!" Apollo shrieked, his eyes widening to the size of saucers as he took a step back. "D-Don't worry, Mr. Gavin! I'll save you!" The loud-voiced adolescent proclaimed as he rushed over to the closed door and thrust it open. However, what the aspiring defense attorney saw was not a room filled with demonic killer dolls like something out of a horror film… It was much, much worse.
For on the other side of the door, surrounded by his Shirley Temple merchandise, was Kristoph sitting in a purple armchair, his arms lying limply over the side like two noodles and his fingers lightly twitching, with a laptop on his lap, the light of which eerily illuminated his face- his wide, unblinking eyes which were staring off into nothing and his unbraided, unkempt hair.
"Mr. Gavin, are you alright?" Apollo reluctantly asked from just outside the room, too terrified to get any closer to his boss while the man was in this state.
"The animatronics... they mock me with their screeches and soulless eyes. For hours, they have taunted me without end- especially that golden bear! I monitor the screens, just minding my own business, when all of a sudden… he appears. And once he appears, there's nothing I can do. I can close the doors, I can turn on the lights, I can remain absolutely still, but no matter what I try, that golden abject bear's horrific visage flashes on my screen and crashes the game, dashing my hopes within mere seconds! In a way, that… thing is quite reminiscent of…" Kristoph snarled, his left eye twitching as he slammed his fist on his keyboard before suddenly beginning to chuckle. "Was this your plan...? To make me suffer, Wright…? Wright... WRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHTTTTT!" The periwinkle-cladded attorney roared at the top of his lungs, his hair flowing up like a roaring fire.
Understandably disturbed at seeing his normally calm and collected boss behaving in such an unusual manner, to say the least, prompted Apollo to waste no time in slamming the door to the Shirley Temple room shut and running out of the apartment as fast as humanly possible, screaming in terror while questioning his life's choices.