In comparison to his rinka-dink pizzeria, the interior of the Bearista Cafe looked sleek, modern, and encaptured the hipster aesthetic that Michael heard so much about online; as the internet was previously his only gateway into staying connected to the world outside of the shadows he hid within. Stepping into a cozy dining area, with polished and laminated floorboards that reflected the gentle glow of the modern light fixtures above; the entire architecture and furnishings within the busy cafe was based off of the rustic style, with folded sheets of metal hung on the walls, and the farmhouse-like tables and booths that were full of happy-looking patrons.
In short, it was a stark contrast to what Michael's pizzeria was at the moment, and seeing how an actual and moderately successful business looked made the entrepreneur feel self-conscious of his own "Dumpster Diver Weekly" decorum. "Don't worry Helpy; give it a few months, and we'll have our place looking even better than this wannabe-Starbucks does… Although, I might have to ask for the phone number of who did the… Oh, wait… I don't have a phone here," Michael muttered to himself, before quickly patting his pockets down with one hand, as he and Helpy made their way past the crowded lobby to begin searching for anything that remotely resembled an animatronic, within the packed dining hall.
Contrary to what Scruffy the soon-to-be ex-janitor had told him, there were hardly any bears of any kind for as far as Michael could he; with the exception of the three cartoon bears that were wearing green aprons, but they were employees so the young man didn't think that counted. As a matter of fact, most of the patrons were young preteens and adults who looked as though they were into anime-culture; or at least that's what Michael figured, as he himself wasn't someone who cared much for anime-culture to begin with.
Beginning to lose hope in finding what he was searching for, Michael was about to call it quits and head back to the pizzeria when all of a sudden he caught sight of a hand beckoning him over, from a nearby booth full of four teenage girls; none of which looked older than seventeen at most, and that was being generous. ' Oh God… ' Michael muttered underneath his breath, as part of him could already tell from the way they were gossiping amongst themselves and giggling that what was about to transpire wouldn't go in his favor. "Yes, can I help you?" Michael asked in a curt voice, as he came to a stop once he was at the edge of their booth; the pale-skinned teenager with gray eyes and charcoal black hair smiling widely at him, as she lowered her fingerless-gloved hand down to her side.
"Hey there, bruh; what's up?! I haven't seen you here before; you must be pretty new around these parts!" The young teenager with black hair said with excitement in her voice, while trying her best to stiffen in a laugh as she resisted the urge to exchange glances with the rest of her three friends; each of them trying to keep an inconspicuous expression on their faces.
"Yeah, I am. Uh… Hey, have any of you kids seen an animatronic bear of some sort? Not trying to be rude here; it's just that I've got somewhere to be, and don't really have time to socialize," Michael explained; doing his best to remain polite and courteous, while being sure to make it clear that he didn't have time for whatever scheme or prank the four teenagers had planned for him.
The blond girl with pale skin and violet eyes adjusted the orange cloth she had wrapped around the base of her neck, before smirking as she pointed a finger at Helpy. "Found him, hehe! " The blond girl announced jokingly, before exchanging playful looks with the black-haired girl with fox ears growing out the top of her head, who was sitting straight across from her.
Closing his eyelids shut to hide the way he rolled his eyes at the blond girl's attempt at humor, Michael grumbled silently under his breath before forcibly smiling back at the group of teens. "Splendid job girls. Now if you'd excuse me, I think I'll be taking my-"
"-WAIT, HOLD ON!" The charcoal-haired teenager with a black-corset and red cloak shouted louder than she needed to; prompting most of the patrons surrounding them to look over at their booth. Standing up from her seat with a wide-eyed and serious expression on her youthful face, the loud teenager didn't bother apologizing for her about shouting, but instead reached down into the leather pound on the left side of her utility belt to pull out a wallet that looked to Michael like she had gotten it from the discount aisle at Hot Topic. "I-I actually know who you are; I didn't call you over to mess with ya man, I wanted you to come by my booth so you and I can talk business."
"… Business?" Michael asked with one eyelid half-raised; noticing that the slightly pompous teenager with white hair who had spoken yet visible expressed the same level of skepticism that he had on her face.
"Oh, Ruby… This isn't what I meant when I said you should consider investing," the white haired teenager sighed with an exasperated look in her icey-blue eyes; not even bothering to look at Michael's direction, as she stared at the charcoal-haired girl, until she finally noticed her looking at her. "When I talked earlier to you about your finances, I pictured you wanting to place your savings into something slightly more sound than a trap-house turned pizza-parlor; like I was thinking of you getting into coin, or maybe even the stock market."
'… A trap-house?! Man, that's the second time today that someone talked mad SHITabout my restaurant… Maybe I shouldn't have gotten my furniture from the back of some jank-ass Harbor Freight, " Michael thought to himself, as he stood there hiding his hurt ego.
Coming to Michael's defense, the girl who he presumed to be named "Ruby" crossed her arms over her small breasts, before letting out a sarcastic chuckle. "Oh, please! I've already done my own research on both of those shady money-laundering schemes, Weiss! And let me tell you something that you won't learn from those fancy classes you took, Princess: pizza NOR arcade games are a helluva lot more exciting than the boring crap you talked about! Besides, my gut is telling me that there's lien to be made in " Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria"!" Ruby proclaimed confidently, with a naive-look of superiority in her playfully smug face.
After having to endure some back-and-forth bickering between Ruby and Weiss, Michael was handed over a stack of bank notes that supposedly equates to around one-thousand and five-hundred dollars. While very small fortune wasn't exactly the end-all be-all answer to transforming his pizzeria into a massively successful business, Michael figured that the new funds would allow him to at least invest in the dining area; although he wasn't quite sure how far he could stretch his amassed funds.
Being sure to thank Ruby Rose for being his first and only investor thus far, Michael gave her and her friends a friendly wave as he began walking back through the crowded dining area. Allowing Helpy to put their "lien" into his Faz-Wallet, Michael was about to brave his way through the busy lobby when he suddenly saw something large and colorful that caught his eye almost immediately. Michael's perception of time seemed to flow in slow motion, as he felt a surreal sensation developing within him the moment he saw the same glamrock animatronic that he recognized from the neon sign that was built in the corner of his pizzeria's parking lot.
While seeing the sleek and beautifully crafted rendition of Freddy Fazbear was quite the sight to behold for Michael— as it differed vastly from the usual rouge-gallery of uncanny animatronics that he was more familiar with— what truly shook him to his core was the young preteen who was walking alongside the six-foot tall robotic bear. Everything from the way his dark-brown hair looked, to the similarities of fashion that brown-eyed boy had on reminded Michael of one very specific and very, very special child who had haunted him with guilt, since all the way from his days of adolescence.
"E… E-E… E-EVAN?!" Michael shouted with a heart wrenching tone of bewilderment mixed in with sadness in his voice; his knees beginning to buckle, as he noticed the boy in question turning to look at him with a confused expression on his face. Standing there with vivid flashbacks playing in his head, Michael couldn't care less about the strange looks he was receiving from everyone within the waiting room; as the only thing in that moment that mattered to him was the boy who he thought to be his deceased younger brother.
The boy in question arched a wary eyebrow at the blubbering man who was smiling back at him with tears trailing down his pale cheeks; taking a moment to look over both of his shoulders, before slowly and uncomfortably pointing a finger at himself. "… Bruh, my name's Gregory, not Evan; I don't know who you're talking about, but it sure isn't me," Gregory clarified with a throaty chuckle; breaking eye-contact from the distraught young man, as he turned his head up and over towards his animatronic companion. " Heh, get a load of this guy, Freddy…! This guy's been smoking that PACK…!"
Disapproving of the way Gregory had spoken about Michael, Glamrock Freddy followed what he figured to be his programming as he got down on one knee to be on the child's eye level. "Now Gregory, we don't know what this man's going through right now, and thus we shouldn't be so quick to cast any needless judgment down upon him. For all we know, he could be suffering from some sort of psychiatric condition, or perhaps he is on the spectrum," Glamrock Freddy lectured; meeting Gregory's exasperated stare with nothing but patience and support, before finally breaking through with the seemingly rude and abrasive child.
"Tch…Y-Yeah, okay; I guess maybe you've got a point, Freddy… Maybe I ought to- OH, CRAP! FREDDY! THAT'S AN ANIMATRONIC!" Gregory shouted with a wide-eyed look of distress and desperation on the young boy's face; breaking Michael out of his own lingering heartache, by using his Faz-Watch to open up Glamrock Freddy's chest hatch.
Appearing to Michael as though he was an expert at climbing and fitting himself into small spaces, Gregory didn't even need to look where he was going as he leapt high into the air before using his outstretched arms and the back of his heels to pull himself into Glamrock Freddy's chest cavity; only a second later did the boy remotely close the hatch up when he was seated as comfortably as he could get inside. "Okay Freddy, you don't know these guys are, so there's no excuses this time for you to NOT kick their asses! Just give em' a " Fazbear Uppercut"; that'll buy us time to get the hell out of here!"
"Gregory, language!" Glamrock Freddy scolded in a parental voice, all while sounding very caring and protective over the child who was nestled safely inside his armored chest-cavity. And for a moment afterward, both Michael and Helpy sincerely thought that the six foot-tall animatronic looming over them was about to deliver a head-severing uppercut to either one of them. But upon seeing the slightly exasperated expression on Glamrock Freddy's face, the two of them were letting out reluctant sighs of relief; as the threat of possibly being attacked was still lingering in the air at that moment.
"… It's alright, Superstar; I know who this animatronic is, and suffice to say that he's far from malicious," Glamrock Freddy said reassuringly, all while giving the confused small-robotic bear a look of familiarity. "Good evening, Helpy; it's spectacular to see that Fazbear Entertainment has finally gotten around to developing an endoskeleton, and an accurate shell for you to exist outside of the "V.A.N.N.I. network"! It must be an eye-opening experience for you, huh friend?"
Caught in an awkward moment of not reckoning someone who apparently knew so much about him, Helpy smiled uneasily at Glamrock Freddy as he nodded his head slowly.
Being able to use his Faz-Watch to see through Glamrock Freddy's optic cameras, Gregory found himself feeling mildly disappointed that he wouldn't get to see his animatronic father-figure put the beat-down on someone; an irresponsible wish to have, he knew that much, but that still didn't stop Gregory's more destructive side from wanting to one day see that happen in person. "Oh, uh… Yeah, okay; I guess Helpy's cool then… But hey, what about the guy holding him? He was acting kind of weird, and he looks like a security guard… I'm not so sure if we can trust him, Freddy," Gregory said with an insinuating tone in his voice.
Furrowing his plastic brows slightly, Glamrock Freddy glossed Michael over with his eyes; his sensors almost immediately identified the young man by the golden badge that he had on his purple uniform shirt. "Terrific observation, Superstar: at first glance, one would assume that he's a security guard from the uniform itself; presumably one that was employed through Fazbear Entertainment; judging alone by the bear emblem in the center of the badge… However, not only is the badge he's wearing sans an office label, the encrypted codes within its embedded token suggests that the badge is an insidious decoy," Glamrock Freddy theorized with a growing suspicion of Michael, as even as someone who was as passive as himself couldn't help but to begin seeing the young man as a real potential-threat to Gregory's safety.
"… And furthermore, sir, I'd like to point out to you that my database holds zero records of there ever being a Fazbear Entertainment operated location, under the name of "Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental"," Glamrock Freddy added on, as he took a step back from the thoroughly grimacing young man, who couldn't help but to feel genuinely ill at just the mention of the place where his insides had been scooped.
" Uh…! I… I-I… W-Wait, hold on a s-second, " Michael murmured with his knees buckled and his skin building up a sweat; his trembling eyes watching as Glamrock Freddy slowly walked around him, in order to get closer toward the front exit of the cafe. "Oi! Oi, hold up! Hold up, Fre- FREDDYYYY!!" Michael called out frantically; finding it strange how enthralled he was in trying to ensure that the duo didn't walk out on him, as not even he knew exactly why he was putting so much effort into going out of his way to retain their company.
Perhaps it was the fact that Gregory looked so much like his little brother, or maybe it was the comfort and reassurance that Michael wasn't completely alone with only Helpy there to keep him company; there was hundreds of probable reasons behind why Michael was so adamant about pursuing Glamrock Freddy out through the crowded lobby, and through the crowds of patrons outside, who were all waiting to get inside. However, all that Michael knew in that moment was that all he needed was just one good reason for Glamrock Freddy and Gregory to give him the time of night to hear him out.
Unfortunately that night, fate seemed to have been frowning down on Michael, as no matter how hard he searched through the crowded sidewalks and nearby streets, he couldn't find either Gregory or Glamrock Freddy; the duo seemingly having vanished like a phantom in the dark. Michael was a lot of things— he was cynical, sarcastic, a bit of an asshole at times, brave, caring, and sad; yet he never showed it— but in that moment as he fell to his knees in despair underneath the gentle and solem glow of the full moon above, Michael had become the very thing he had once relentlessly bullied his little brother over: a cry baby.
It was only then when Michael had succumbed to his bottled up despair did he realize why his heart felt as though there was a dagger twisting inside of it; why it hurt so goddamn much on the inside: not only did it feel like he had lost his little brother all over again, it also felt as though he had let slip through his fingers the remnants of the childhood love that Evan once had for Fredbear; the last animatronic that William Afton had worked on, back when when he was a loving father who had a vision to bring joy to children all around him. Before he became the man behind the slaughter.