Author's Notes:

Sorry this chapter is a couple days late. It's December rush at work and we're working overtime. Thanks to Corona Pax who is the only reason this was ready so soon.

Chapter 111

FNAF 4 Night 3

Mike got to the pizzeria early.

The day staff had left. He'd watched them leave until his car was the only one in the lot, almost.

Hedy's car was there, along with what he assumed was the manager's. The mechanic was early too, for some reason. Sunset wasn't too long ago, and it was hours before midnight.

He snuck in through the back, wanting to avoid anyone. Luckily no one was in the kitchen at the moment and someone left the delivery door unlocked. He faintly heard the animatronics' voices, but they weren't nearby. He got his answer for why Hedy was there when he had to pass the Manager's office on his way to the guard's office.

There were raised voices he could barely make out, mostly from the manager it seemed, with Hedy cutting in sounding like she was pissed beyond measure.

He was tempted to listen in again but didn't really want to stick around to get caught, not when he was trying to be discreet.

He got to the office and started searching, opening drawers and cardboard boxes shoved in the corners. Something told him that waiting until midnight to listen to the next tapes wasn't an excellent idea and Hedy probably wouldn't let him if she knew he knew about them. But where would they actually be? They always just showed up in the voicemail recording at the start of the night.

It was weird. He'd never actually thought of how odd those messages just showing up every night was.

It was pretty tame compared to most of the weird things that had happened. Still, he wondered if this building would even let him find them. He had a good reason for looking after all. There might not be any time alone to listen to them if he waited in the room until midnight.

Hedy was immediately going to be suspicious about where he was.

"Come on, Mike," he muttered to himself. He tugged on a drawer too fast and the fan wire caught on it. Mike yelped and dove to catch the fan, nearly cutting his fingers on the metal blades.

He took a sharp breath to calm himself, noticing something out of the corner of his eye.

A small cardboard box under the desk shoved to the back.

That was really weird. He already looked there.

Deciding not to question it since not much here made sense, he carefully put the fan down and reached under the table for the box.

He pulled it out and opened it. Four tapes with neatly written numbers on the labels laid at the bottom.

He stared at them for a moment before picking up the one with a "3" on it. He shoved the box back out of sight with his foot while standing up.

He had to remember to grab the others before he left in the morning. Then he could listen to them at home.

He froze. Would they even be here? Should he grab them now and stick them in his bag?

"You shouldn't," he mumbled to himself. "Hedy might see. Or you might crush them or...uh..."

Or the spooky building might take offence. Who knew with this place?

He tightened his grip on the tape. When did his life get so weird?

It took him a few minutes to figure out how the tape went into the phone's voicemail recorder. It had always already been set up for him. Who even used tape players anymore these days? This place, apparently...

The tape started with a whispered argument this time. He could identify Hedy as one of the voices and guessed the other might be Ruby then.

"But if I could just have a chat with that guy, he wouldn't bother you again," Ruby argued.

"No glitter bombs against the customers," Hedy sounded exasperated but fond at the same time.

"How is he a customer if he's coming with his kids just to harass you and all the female employees?" she sounded disgusted and angry.

"Ruby, I'm recording," Hedy pointed out. "Also, it's just been words. He hasn't been a danger."

"I'm just saying if you let me handle it-"

"I'm recording. You want me to waste tape?"

"I couldn't care less about the wasted tape," Ruby hissed, but she obediently fell into a moody silence.

Mike could practically feel the pout.

"Then you're helping me find more if we run out. No one uses tapes these days. None of the stores stock blank ones at least."

"I'm pretty sure the building has stock. How else did we get this supply?" she asked, sounding bored now.

"Whatever," Hedy sighed. She cleared her throat and spoke louder. "The subject of this tape is more survival methods." She chuckled. "Also, an underhanded attempt for me to discover more of Ruby's hiding places."

"We'd be here for hours if I had to list all my hiding places," Ruby sounded smug.

"I'm pretty sure the new guy doesn't have that kind of time," Hedy said with a snort.

"My job!" Ruby hissed.

The unexpected sound made Mike jump.

"Just do this for me okay?" Hedy groaned. "I just..." There was an awkward silence as they exchanged an unspoken conversation.

"Fine," Ruby was definitely pouting now.

Hedy sighed and Mike was a bit confused by the relief in her voice. It sounded like she had pressured the rest of them into doing this.

""I think this one is mostly you," Hedy admitted. "Your specific instructions for how they can survive, 'You' style."

Ruby sighed in annoyance before she started talking.

"Number one rule, don't sit in the damn office like an idiot," Ruby immediately started with. "They know you're there, they know how the game works, and they're good at that version. So you've got to throw them off. Don't be predictable. If you're predictable, then you're going to die. Keep moving and use the vents. Only BB and Puppet can fit in the normal building's vents. BB won't actually hurt you, he only steals batteries so carry some spares to bribe him with. If you don't want to keep the music box wound up to keep Puppet in his box, then just tape it shut. The others rarely bother to help him because he's a jerk."

"You and I kind of mentioned most of that in the previous tapes," Hedy said. "But to drive it home, she's right. Keep moving."

"There's a supply of glitter bombs and mines under a loose tile in the office. They're good for temporarily blocking the bots' view and distracting them. Watch out if you end up in Fazbear's Fright for some reason. Bastard can make hallucinations appear, but they can't actually hurt you. They're just loud."

"Still haven't figured out how Michael does that," Hedy muttered.

Mike filed that part away for later instead of freaking out about it. He did shudder a bit though. Hallucinating didn't sound fun.

"Let's think," Ruby hummed. "There's a taser in the draw that's safe to use on the bots but briefly. Don't hold it on them. Foxes are the fastest of both groups. Puppet's pretty fast, too. If you're backed into a corner, don't forget you can just hit them with a chair or something. They're tough so as long as you don't hit too hard they'll be fine but dazed."

"Still can't think of any reason why the Toys would turn on you, though I guess it might upset them if something happened to me," Hedy said. "They're lighter and generally more agile than their Original counterparts. But that means they're lighter and a little more fragile."

"I did say sorry about that crack on Toby," Ruby grumbled. "Didn't expect them to break so easily."

Mike heard Hedy mutter something about polymer fillers through the static of the tape. He jumped as the chimes went off. Had he already been here that long? He did spend a long time looking for the tapes.

"Did I miss anything?" Ruby asked. "Most of my hiding spots require being pretty agile, and the average person can't reach them or fit in them. Also, the building moves them sometimes."

"I don't think it would hurt to mention a few," Hedy said.

Mike faintly heard the actual Hedy call his name with a sharp tone. The night had started, and she probably figured out he was already in the building. She had a tablet that she could rewind after all.

Ruby rattled off a few locations (false tiles and lesser known vent entrances mostly). The hole in the wall behind the fridge was weird though and Hedy on the tapes didn't seem to know about it either since she sounded exasperated). The tape ended with Ruby explaining why the hole was a perfectly reasonable idea.

Mike heard Hedy coming down the hall.

"Mike!" she hissed.

He scrambled to rip the tape out of the phone player and tossed it in the box, kicking it further under the desk.

Hedy looked at him suspiciously as she found him looking a little wild-eyed and sitting in the chair.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded.

"...Habit?" he said, unsure. It was believable enough, right?

Hedy frowned but didn't question him. "Come on. We can't stay here," she said, quieter.

Mike nodded sharply and followed her out into the hall. He jumped and nearly swung at the man he ran into, not noticing him in the blind spot beside Hedy just outside the door.

The man seemed completely unimpressed with his jumpy behaviour. He barely flinched at nearly being punched.

It was weird to see Hedy so tense, though. She'd sounded almost relaxed on the tape, despite what they were talking about.

Mike got his breathing under control, glancing behind the man for any bots, Toys, or otherwise. All he saw was Puppet standing further down the hall, probably keeping an eye out.

Mike laughed nervously and looked at the man who was a fair amount taller than him. "Heh, you're...uh...Hedy's brother, right?"

The man crossed his arms, eying Mike. "Yeah. I'm Jeremy. You're the night guard that won't leave?"

"...uh. Yes?" Mike answered.

"Is that a question?"

"N-no. Yeah. I'm Mike."

"Hmm," Jeremy sounded very judgy and Mike squirmed under his gaze. "Why won't you leave?"

Mike was getting a little tired of having to explain himself. He didn't exactly squash his irritated groan, even if it earned him a squint from the older guy. "I just want to help. And I know what to expect." He, once again, recited his reasoning. "If the manager hired some random kid or something, I figured Hedy would be wasting time just getting them to believe her long enough to try leaving."

Hedy huffed. "Ease up, Jeremy."

Mike found that hypocritical with how she had drilled him that morning.

Jeremy just grunted, still looking suspicious.

Hedy rolled her eyes and shoved a bag at her brother and the second tablet at Mike.

Mike almost dropped it and gave them both a nervous smile as he caught it again.

Hedy made a noise sounding like a cross between a sigh and a strained laugh while Jeremy frowned more.

"You sure you know what you're doing?" Jeremy asked.

Mike shrugged. "Better than any other random kid the manager would pull off the street." He looked at Hedy. "Do you have a plan?"

"Sort of. Basic plan is to cause as much chaos as possible so everyone's too distracted to really go after us."

"...I'm going to get covered in paint again, aren't I?" Jeremy whispered.

Hedy shrugged. "Or cake batter."

Mike stared at them. Just how different was tonight going to be from yesterday? "Uh. Can I recant my statement that I know what I'm doing? The heck are you talking about? Aren't we using the paintball guns and stuff?"

"Paintball guns won't help much since they're expecting it now," Jeremy told him.

Mike stared at him, noting the older man's certainty. "Okay..."

"Stay unpredictable, it helps," he added. That sounded like what Ruby had said on the tape.

"Right..." Mike nodded. "Are we splitting up?"

"Harder to hide as a crowd," Hedy said, frowning at him and almost looking worried.

Puppet spoke up sharply from down the hall. "Hedy's not allowed to be alone."

Hedy shot him a glare but didn't argue.

Jeremy nodded, looking like he'd sucked on a lemon to be agreeing with Puppet.

"Then the four of us pair off," Hedy huffed quietly, checking the cameras to make sure no one was coming their way. "Puppet, I think you should..."

"I'm staying with you," Puppet said while Jeremy squinted at him.

Mike shifted awkwardly as it looked like Jeremy was debating strangling the creepy bot.

Eventually he sighed, though. "You keep my sister safe, Puppet."

Puppet shifted a little uncomfortably. He sneered at the man. "Don't get emotional or I just might kill you."

"Behave," Hedy said.

"Hedy would dismantle you first," Jeremy muttered.

"I'd still figure out how to strangle you."

"Boys, let's address Puppet's homicidal coping mechanism another time," Hedy said. "And just focus on no one getting killed tonight."

Jeremy grumbled under his breath but nodded at her, still eyeing Puppet suspiciously.

Puppet returned the stare, which only annoyed Hedy more.

"Ignore them," she hissed at Mike. "You stay with Jeremy. Got it? I told him all the stuff you're going to be doing tonight."

"Besides not dying? Cool, got it," Mike said with a thumbs up and a goofy smile at her.

She snorted a little and tried to smile at his enthusiasm, but it was strained.

"Be careful," Jeremy mumbled.

Hedy cracked him a slightly wider smile in assurance. "I will."

Mike followed Jeremy when the man started walking. He glanced back at Hedy and Puppet a few times before they turned the corner.

"You uh...you seem familiar with this," Mike whispered, watching how Jeremy moved.

"...Except the running around part," the older man said as he checked that the hallway was clear. He gestured at the tablet and set down the bag Hedy gave him. "You keep an eye on that."

Mike eyed him for a moment. "You, um, ever did the night guard thing then?" Jeremy seemed too alert to have not. Mike picked up the tablet automatically to flip through cameras.

"One week. A long time ago. Not here though," Jeremy said, as he pulled out some things.

"Not here?" Mike frowned at that. "Another location?"

"Yeah, this place keeps closing down and popping back up every so often. Even this building got remodeled recently," Jeremy said. He frowned a little without looking up. "They always float around here or the neighboring cities. I worked at another location about fifteen-ish years ago."

"Oh," Mike seemed genuinely surprised. "I always thought if the place ever closed down it would be permanent."

"It got close to that a little while ago," Jeremy said, trailing off as he handed Mike a spool of thin clear wire.

"What would have happened to the animatronics if the place closed for good?" Mike asked, sounding concerned.

Jeremy took a minute to answer. "Nothing good. Take the other end of this string and thread it under the corner of that tile over there."

"Uh, okay?" Mike looked very confused but did as told.

Jeremy held the string taut before using a straightened out coat hanger with the hook still at the end to snag the wire on a contraption hidden in the ceiling's darkness.

"What is..."

"Paint cannon," Jeremy said simply.

Mike stared at him. "Paint...cannon?"

"Paint cannon," Jeremy repeated calmly.

"...why?" Mike asked as he stared up at the ceiling.

Jeremy gave him a somewhat strange smile. "It'll piss them off."

"No...well, I mean yes, but...I meant why does that...exist?" Mike asked, stumbling over his words a bit. Jeremy was a bit scary. In a different way to Puppet.

Jeremy looked at him.

"Because...it'll piss them off. That's why it exists." Jeremy's voice seemed tight, like he didn't want to talk about it much anymore.

"I meant...," Mike said. "...Nevermind."

They worked quickly for a minute and Mike marveled in mild horror how invisible some traps they set could be. Not all though.

There were a few times where Jeremy muttered to himself, "How the fuck does she do this?!"

He wished he knew who Jeremy meant. Was it Ruby? He still didn't know much about her and he hadn't built up the courage to ask.

There were some moments where the man paused, staring at the traps like he was trying to figure out how they worked. And they were both very elaborate traps, and yet surprisingly simple in setting up.

Mike also came dangerously close to triggering their own traps sometimes. Keeping track of them was hard.

Eventually, they seemed to be done. Or were they?

After setting up the last of a couple of cannons that shot beanbag glitter bombs with a disturbing force that probably wasn't safe for human targets, Jeremy seemed content to stop.

"Uh..." Mike said, stepping over a thin trigger wire, then following Jeremy as they jumped over a few tiles that were actually cube paint-filled vats with false tile covers. "So, how long has Hedy been working here?"

"A few months," Jeremy answered after a moment.

"That's...kind of impressive," Mike said.

Jeremy suddenly grabbed him and stepped to the side as a paint balloon sailed through the air and nearly struck Mike in the face.

"Fuck," Mike breathed, staring at the splattering of neon green across a wall. "Was that one we set?!"

"I'm... not sure," Jeremy admitted. "I think so. Maybe we went a bit overboard. Or maybe you should watch where you step."

"How many have we set? Where? I can't even remember," Mike asked in a mild panic.

"That could be a problem."

"What?"

"I can't remember, either..."

The guys stared down a seemingly empty hallway in concern. How could these traps be so hidden?

Mike hadn't been paying too much attention to where he set the stuff since he was trying not to accidentally mess up.

"Maybe if we go slow..." Jeremy eyed the hallway.

"Think that will work?"

"No."

"Oh well, that's helpful then." Mike chuckled nervously. "I guess we're in for a lot of pain-t, huh?" He forced a grin.

Jeremy stared at him in confusion before disgust set in. "Was that a fucking pun?"

Mike smiled and held up his flashlight. "Just trying to lighten the mood."

"Awful. Terrible," Jeremy said. He then paused with a groan. "Tell Hedy, she loves that stupidity."

"Really? Didn't take her as a girl with taste in humour."

Jeremy raised his eyebrow.

Mike winced. "Wait, that came out wrong. I-I'm sure she has amazing tastes and a-a great sense of humour..."

"Keep going. I hear a funeral procession."

"And I bet she's uh great..with...puns?"

Jeremy scoffed. "Wrong direction. She doesn't make puns, but she finds them..." He huffed and rolled his eyes. "Intelligent..."

"Ha," Mike said "Oh you're serious. Why?"

"I dunno. She said something about vocabulary or something," Jeremy groaned. "Completely ignoring the fact that they're annoying." He eyed Mike.

Mike smiled and gave him a thumbs up.

Jeremy looked around. "I don't like how quiet it's been."

"Quiet's usually a good th—" Mike was interrupted by Mangle racing by, dodging a water balloon with a squeak. She glanced back at them wide eyed. "Go!"

Mike barely heard the sounds of Foxy's fast footsteps before he ducked on instinct, narrowly avoiding a hook to the face.

Jeremy yanked at Mike and they took off just as Felix got a glitter bomb to the chest and snarled as he stumbled back.

That sounded like a solid hit. Just how strong were these cannons?

Even in the minefield of traps, the Toy and the guys had the advantage of agility compared to the Originals.

He wondered fleetingly if that was on purpose or an accident.

Mike yelped as he almost set off another trap. This seemed like a really really bad idea in hindsight.

Felix didn't seem to know what to do except push through. He seemed hesitant about where to step a few times but was pissed enough to go for it anyway.

"Ahhhg!" He shouted as he got a water balloon full of warm caramel right in the face.

"I think it's 'arg', kid," Mike informed him, out of breath as he and Jeremy turned another corner.

"Schmidt!" Jeremy snapped. "Not the time!"

He caught sight of a vent as Mangle pointed at it frantically before taking off to put a little distance between them so she could lure Felix away.

"It's always the time. Especially when you're panicking," Mike wheezed as Jeremy shoved him towards the vent.

Mike startled as he heard a bang and Jeremy suddenly went limp against him.

"What are you—" Mike twisted around to see Jeremy unconscious, a thick cloud of glitter choking the air and layering Jeremy's hair.

Mike panicked. "Fuck."

He frantically glanced toward the vent. Jeremy was too heavy to carry while running from the fox.

Mangle ran up next to them.

"Get him in the vent!" she snapped in panic as another trap in the other hall went off.

"That's what I'm doing!"

Mike chanted swearwords to himself as he dragged Jeremy into the vent as quickly as he could with Mangle's help. Jeremy was bigger than him and Mike wasn't exactly the gym type. He could run but strength stuff? Not so much.

Mangle panicked as she helped push Jeremy in.

"Is that far enough?!" Mike freaked as he crawled back out.

"Yes!" Mangle squeaked, "What about you?!"

"I-I," Mike stammered as he tried to think. "I'll loop back around to get him to the office," he whispered as Felix turned the corner.

"HEY!" Mike shouted despite Mangle's alarmed expression and waved his arms. "Hey, brat!" He stuck his tongue out before turning and taking off, not checking if Felix immediately followed.

Mangle eeped and ran in the other direction, ducking a pie to the face.

At this point it was pure adrenaline and instinct that kept him running and dodging the traps. By the time he lost Felix thanks to a vat of paint tripping the kid up, Mike was gasping for breath and almost dying from the stitch in his side.

He looked around. He could hear voices, but they were very faint and far away.

He got turned around. Shit. Which hallway was he in? How did he get back to Jeremy?

Shit shit shit. Calm down Mike. Think. You can't leave him alone in that vent.

There weren't cameras in the vents in this part of the building as far as he could tell and at some point, all the hallways looked the same if he wasn't paying attention, which he hadn't been.

Mike flicked through the cameras quickly, trying to find his bearings.

"Okay, okay," he muttered to himself. He was pretty sure he was at least a few hallways down from the office.

He took a deep breath and started looking for another vent opening. If he didn't get turned around, he could find Jeremy from inside the vent system before the guy woke up. Health-wise, he hoped the other guy woke up soon, but not so soon he was going to crawl out of the vent dazed and right into a ghost.

Mike found an opening after a few minutes and climbed inside to start the search. He'd only been going for ten minutes when a glitter bomb went off in his face. What the- Why was that here? They didn't put any traps in the vents since the bots couldn't fit in there except for Puppet and BB who were technically on their side.

He had a coughing fit for several minutes along with tears since pieces of glitter got caught in his eyes.

This night wasn't going very well.

Finally, after a lot of backtracking, he found Jeremy, still knocked out. That was...worrying.

More than a couple minutes of unconsciousness wasn't good at all.

Then again his medical knowledge came from television so he hoped he was wrong. He really hoped he was wrong.

He sat for a little, uncomfortably close to Jeremy as he checked if the path to the office was clear.

As he flicked through the cameras, he was greeted by just how much they screwed up the night.

In the kitchen, he saw Teddy frantically trying to help a blinded Toby get enough paint out of his eyes that he could see where he was going, but they were interrupted by a coral pink Freddy who took a swing.

Mike swallowed as he watched the Toys barely get away, Toby still not seeing great. He flipped through and saw a glimpse of Puppet trying to help Hedy, who was on the floor for a moment as they both tried to quickly untangle her chair's wheels from a net that seemed to have hit her.

This was a disaster. Sure the kids and Michael were getting hit just as much, but the traps were hindering everyone.

It was getting a little hard to breathe in the vent. They were safe in the vent from traumatic injury, but if he passed out from a lack of oxygen (why the fuck wasn't the air flowing?) then it would be practically impossible for the others to get him and Jeremy out. He didn't know how strong Puppet or BB were.

"Come on, dude," he huffed as he started pushing Jeremy to the vent exit.

They were clear for the moment.

He really hoped the ghosts would be distracted long enough for him to get Jeremy to the office. They only had three hours left. He could handle the office setup for three hours.

Given how the doors and door lights hadn't been used at all, if he calculated right, that meant he might even be able to get away with having the doors down for the rest of the night. Maybe he shouldn't risk it though.

He'd see how aggressive they were when they realised where he was.

By the time he dragged Jeremy into the office, his arms were screaming at him. Jeremy looked skinny, but that was mostly muscle, wasn't it? Now with better light, he took a quick look at the man's head and winced at the blood he found. That wasn't good.

He propped Jeremy up against the back wall as carefully as he could and quietly scrambled around the office looking for a first aid kit while listening intently for any footsteps.

He twitched every time an explosion went off in the distance, wondering if it hit an enemy or ally.

There had to be a first aid kit somewhere. Maybe there wasn't one in the office, but he was going to look anyway.

"Come on..." He murmured. He froze at a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye.

Slowly, he backed up to the middle of the room, shuddering at the darkness outside the doors as he looked left and right, ready to dive for either button.

He promptly screamed when something touched his leg and very nearly punted the small cat into a wall as he tripped backward on the chair and fell in Jeremy's lap.

The cat stared at him with a very unimpressed look. Then again, cats always looked unimpressed.

Question was, what was a cat doing here?

"Hi?" Mike said lamely.

The small cat licked itself, ignoring him. It looked really young.

Mike was suddenly aware of his position and scrambled off Jeremy, grateful that only a cat had seen that.

"Where'd you come from?" he asked, half expecting it to speak with all the craziness that was actually happening.

It didn't answer.

He tensed as the cat suddenly perked up, its tail poofing up and back arching.

It hissed at the door closest to him, and Mike immediately slammed his hand on the button.

There was the familiar sound of metal hitting metal that had haunted his nightmares for a long time.

The kitten relaxed a bit a couple of seconds later. It still stared at the door, a little distressed.

It walked up to Mike and mewled quietly as it rubbed up against him, purring.

"Thanks. We partners now?" Mike asked with a chuckle. He sent a concerned glance at Jeremy. "I kind of need a replacement for a couple of hours. Could be a catastrophe otherwise."

He was almost certain that earned him a super unimpressed look, but he didn't know cats well enough to be sure...