Author's Note:
Hope you enjoy! And thanks to the Discord server for all the ideas you've given!

Chapter 135

Night 1: Idiots

"Psst. Hedy," Mike said.

"Hm?" Hedy asked.

"Are you sure it's okay if I used the, you know, Scott's thing?"

Hedy melted. "Mike, I already told you it's alright."

He shifted uncomfortably. "Well, yeah, but are you just saying that?"

"It's fine. Don't worry. I use it out of habit all the time. There's nothing wrong with you using it. He'd be tickled about all this…" she waved around. "Anyway. He was kinda a prankster."

"If you say so." Mike ran to take his place. He stopped short and darted back to kiss her before running off again.

Hedy smiled after him.

Just in time too. Two teams were told to show up at 10pm. Luckily, Calum's group had signed the contract without reading it too closely and although the other team had asked for a couple of corrections, they signed it too.

Hedy was actually fairly surprised she could hook the youtubers on such short notice.

"You sure this is a good idea?" Eric fiddled with his camera without actually looking up at anyone as John hit a pothole.

"No. But the owner, or at least I think she's the owner, actually offered for us to do an investigation," John said, wincing at the bang. He should probably slow down. "We can move the bridge video back a week and fit this one into the schedule."

"I think it's an excellent opportunity," Avery commented, flipping her braids out of her face after the pothole sent them flying. She was used to John's driving. "Didn't we mean to reach out to Freddy's for a while? Why didn't we?"

Miriah lifted her head off the window. "Too close to home. It wasn't respectful."

Avery frowned. "So why are we doing it now?"

John shrugged. "We were asked? If it's sketchy and it looks like the place just wants publicity off the deaths, then we just won't make a video out of it. Won't publish it, I mean."

"Hm. We should probably change the names too," Avery said. "Unless I can get in touch with some of the people involved. I can stop by the police station tomorrow and do a little more research. Maybe find the families? Although I doubt they'd want to really talk to us. But it's respectful to reach out. There's nada about Freddy's on the internet. They don't even have a freaking website."

"Troglodytes," Eric said, still without looking away from cleaning his lens.

The rest of the group rolled their eyes at Eric's comment but ignored it.

"I don't think they'd have any info about the murders on their website if they had one anyway," Miriah pointed out. "They're a children's pizzeria. Why would they advertise that kids got killed there?"
Avery put a hand on Miriah's shoulder. She always got more emotional when it involved kids.

They all hated it when it involved kids.

"Right, is everyone ready for tonight?" Calum asked, breaking a few traffic laws as he drove. He wanted to get there before this 'other team'. They could maybe get a headstart.

Shania shrieked as he made a sharp turn and smeared her lipstick. "Calum!" she shouted.

Mason cursed as he made a grab for the cameras as the lurch of the van made them skid.

Kevin just stared out the window. He'd already been high when he showed up.

It didn't matter if there was going to be another team. They'd get the best footage and win that competition.

No matter what.

Ruby grimaced as the white van came careening into the parking lot. She hated reckless drivers. As the group was getting their equipment out, the second team arrived in a much more sane manner.

"You ready to be the manager?" she asked Hedy.

Hedy grimaced.

All the bots were getting to their places, some more excited about this than others. BB had been practicing his demented giggling all day. Much to the staff's horror.

"Ugh. Just that word might have been ruined for me," Hedy said. "But yeah. Ready." She smirked in a way that would have made Mike mildly concerned.

Ruby grinned. "Let's get the show on the road then." She schooled her expression so she looked less like a demented teen and more like a spoiled one, and shoved the doors open.

"You're late!" she declared to both groups, making them jump.

The team she already knew puffed up in offence while the other team grimaced.

"Yeah, sorry, we had to take a detour. There was road maintenance on the highway we were on." One of the guys said. He had black hair and bluish eyes. He stepped forward as Hedy came into view. "I'm John." he gestured at a woman with red hair and green eyes. "This is Miriah." Next he pointed at the tall, black woman with them. "This is Avery." Admittedly, Ruby thought her hair was cool. Blue was twined into the black braids. Finally he pointed at the Indian guy who hadn't even looked away from his equipment. "And that's Eric."

Ruby huffed. "I'm Ruby. Hedy is my sister and the manager," she gestured over her shoulder at Hedy, inwardly smirking as she knew how much the mechanic hated that title now. "This is the pervert squad," she pointed at the other team, ignoring their protests. If you went and filmed without permission in a children's restaurant then you had to deal with the consequences.

She waited as the other team grudgingly introduced themselves, clearly unhappy with the second group.

"Alright! We're wasting starlight people! You've got to be out before the cleaners arrive in the morning." She spun around and marched inside, grinning when she heard someone mutter about the need for cleaners after a night shift.

Once inside with all the stuff, the idiot group immediately demanded that the two teams work in different parts of the pizzeria so they didn't interfere with each other.

Hedy shrugged. "That's not a problem. You're here a week and the place is decently big."
"No people in Fazbear's Fright tonight," Ruby added. "They're still busy cleaning that...thing. You know," she looked meaningfully at Hedy.

That 'thing' was the absolute devastation that was Ruby's experimental tomato sauce bomb. It looked like a crime scene in there. Especially after Ruby and BB drew a chalk figure on the floor for fun.

But being vague about it was more fun, especially with those expressions from their guests.

Ruby bit back a grin. "Okay, so how about they get assigned rooms for each night?" she suggested. "Like one team gets the Originals room and one gets the Toys. One gets Pirate's Cove. One gets the Prize Corner." She paused, pulling a face. "Maybe we should skip the prize corner. Puppet was… well it was a bit weird today you know?"

Calum didn't even let Hedy respond. "Now hold on a minute. That's not how this works. You don't tell us where to go."

Ruby crossed her arms, looking every inch the petulant and exasperated teen who thought she knew everything. "Then how do you expect to not interfere with each other's recording?" she asked. "If you just stumble around blindly-oh yeah the lights aren't great at night-then you're going to keep getting in each other's way. You can swap rooms every night. But this keeps you out of each other's way. Unless you've got a better idea?"

She was definitely pushing buttons tonight.

"Or you can stand here and argue until six hits. That's when this ends. Oh," she looked at Hedy. "Did you tell them that they can't leave until six?"

"Hm. Forgot that bit," Hedy said like it was a trivial thing. She looked at the groups properly. "Doors lock at midnight and don't unlock until 6. Company policy. Nothing is allowed in or out during that time so make sure you have everything you need, if you please."

"Out?" Mason stuttered in confusion but Hedy ignored him.

As he spoke, the clocks hit midnight and the doors all locked. Loudly.

Ruby smiled sweetly at their uncomfortable expressions.

Hedy frowned. "Damn. I needed to get home and water the plants."
"Hey Hedy?" Ruby perked up. "How about for their first night everyone sticks together? We show them around and all that. Then they're on their own the rest of the nights?"

Hedy rolled her eyes. "Fine. But I can't stay. Still have some paperwork in my office to finish. So I expect not to be disturbed for a few hours." She looked at Ruby pointedly then glanced at the crews.

"Sure thing sis," Ruby chirped. "Like I'd let you down."

Hedy huffed and rolled her eyes. "Where's Schmidt? Don't tell me he's late and got himself locked out again. That's a dock on his employee report."

Ruby shrugged. "Like I keep track of the night guards. We go through so many that I don't even remember their names anymore."

The teams exchanged alarmed looks in their groups.

"Alright!" Ruby clapped her hands together. "Time for the tour! No one knows this place as well as I do."

She waved her hands in the general direction of the entire room. "This is the main room. Tables, chairs, all the things you need to eat pizza. Over there is the main stage. That's where the Original gang performs." she pulled out a flashlight and turned it on, shining in that direction. Most of the guests jumped when they saw the bots that had previously been shrouded in darkness.

Mike may have taken a few lightbulbs out to increase the spooky atmosphere.

"Here we have Freddy, Bonnie and Chica. Foxy is part of this gang but he's in Pirate's Cove with Mangle."
"Mangle?" Eric interrupted. "That's an odd name."
"It is, isn't it?" Ruby agreed with a smile.

An awkward silence stretched for a moment before she continued without answering the obvious question that wasn't asked.

She spouted out some history about the bots, how they were the oldest group here ("well sort of" she tacked on without any elaboration). As she spoke she watched both groups closely. Shania was ignoring her and checking her makeup in a handheld mirror. Kevin was staring into space and smelt like weed. Calum and Mason looked impatient to begin. She didn't know why they didn't have the cameras rolling already. The other group did.

Speaking of, John was writing down notes, bless his soul he was the good kid in class when he was in school wasn't he? Eric was panning a camera around the room slowly and Avery was holding recording equipment. Miriah was a bit odd though. She was looking around and rubbing her arms, like she was cold. She would also occasionally stare at Ruby and Hedy with a slightly confused expression when she thought they couldn't see.

Hmm, strange.

Ruby kept talking as she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. She had to bite back a laugh and keep her face straight as she realised that Bonnie had changed his pose while everyone wasn't looking.

Such a good prankster bunny.

"And off we go to another room!" Ruby declared, turning to leave.

"Hey," Eric's voice made her pause. He was pointing his camera at the stage again. "Did that purple rabbit move?"
"He's not purple," Ruby immediately huffed. "If you can't identify lilac when it's staring at you in the face you should get your eyes checked. And no, the bots can't move at night."

Hedy seemed more used to her sister's odd stances. "He didn't move. He shouldn't. They're all off for the night. We occasionally put them on free roam so motors don't get stuck. But not tonight."

"Not yet," Ruby murmured just loudly enough that they could catch it before she started walking to the door, forcing them to follow her or get left behind.

Once the group was gone and Hedy had headed off to her secret room, the three Originals relaxed.

"I am going to be so stiff by the end of this week," Chica sighed, stretching.

"This is going to be fun," Bonnie snickered.

"This is the Toys' room!" Ruby waved her arm at the room. "They're a different set so we gave them their own room. Up on stage we have Toy Freddy, Toy Chica and Toy Bonnie. But Hedy just nicknamed them Teddy, Chi and Toby. The names were too long. Let's just say the owner was bad at naming...pretty much everything."
Avery frowned. "Isn't your sister the owner?"
"No, she's the manager. No one's seen or heard from the owner in years. It's like he just vanished." She shrugged carelessly. "Anyway, Mangle is part of this group, she's Toy Foxy, but like I said, she's in Pirate's Cove."
She was midway through their history when Kevin let out a shriek.

"What was that for?" Ruby demanded.

The guy had wandered a short distance away and seemed to have stumbled on BB who had snuck in while she'd been talking.

"It wasn't here earlier!"

"Um, yeah he was. I just forgot to introduce him. That's BB. Balloon Boy. We never turn him on at night since he's a walking tank of helium and we don't want that getting used up before opening time. He makes balloons automatically."
She gave him a look like she clearly thought he was insane. He folded under it in seconds.

"Guess I didn't see it…"
"Obviously." she sniffed. "Now, as I was saying."
She didn't miss how Eric and Avery were staring at the bot in shock as well. But they didn't seem sure over whether they just hadn't noticed BB either.

Teddy shot BB a look when they left. He didn't need to be coming on too strong in the beginning.

Toby of course just stifled a laugh and shot BB a thumbs up while Chi rolled her eyes.

BB smirked before climbing into another vent.

Next she took them to the guard's office.

"Geez, did what's-his-name really get locked outside again?" She grumbled. "Let me know if you see an idiot walking into walls. That's our night guard. Anyway, don't touch the stuff in here."
"Why?" Mason asked.
"Cause I say so. And I can get you in a hell of a lot of trouble with my sister so don't touch the stuff in here. That's your warning."
She kind of hoped they touched something. She'd boobytrapped the entire room. Mike refused to go in.

"Hey I'll play the part," Mike had said. "But I'm not stepping one foot in there. Ruby's already being snippy with me for wearing a name tag with 'night guard' on it."

"Come along now little ducklings!" Ruby started walking off.

She wasn't surprised when there was an explosion behind her. "Told you not to touch anything."

She smirked when she looked over her shoulder to see a very sparkly Calum glaring at her.

A flash of light startled them and they looked around frantically.

"What was that?" Shania asked, holding her crystal in front of her.

"What was what?" Ruby asked in faux confusion. That had definitely been Goldy taking her first photo of the night.

"That flash!" Shania glared at her. They all saw that!

Ruby raised an eyebrow. "We've been to three rooms and you're already seeing stuff. Boy you're not going to last the night then."
She sauntered off to the next room.

"Wait, where did the manager… uh Ms. Fitzgerald? Where'd she go?" John murmured.

Calum glared at him while trying to wipe the glitter off. "Why you asking me?" But he glanced down the hall too.

"...I wasn't," John said.

Goldy snickered to herself as they left. That was a good photo. The guy got a faceful of a glitter bomb because he took one step into the office.

Next they stopped at Pirate's Cove.

"This is the best room in my opinion," she told them. "This is where the foxes work. Foxy and Mangle. The Pirate and the Storyteller."

She ran her flashlight over Foxy on the stage.

"Hmm, wonder where Mangle got to?" she murmured to herself.

"Wait here."

She wandered off a distance, taking the flashlight with her. She smirked when she found Mangle waiting near the vent.

"Time to ramp it up a little," she grinned, handing the flashlight to the smirking fox. She also left the beanie she'd been wearing for this moment with Mangle before climbing into the vents.

She didn't have the patience to play tour guide all night. So it was time to duck out.

Predictably the others started getting nervous in the dark with just their phone lights.

"Ruby?" John called, feeling like an idiot for not grabbing his flashlight. They had kinda rushed into the tour.

When they got no answer they started to hesitantly explore the room.

It was Mason who found the flashlight and beanie. His squeak alerted the others and they all came over, staring at the flashlight held loosely in Mangle's grip.

And at the beanie between her teeth.

Rather sharp teeth too for an animatronic.

"What the hell?" Eric whispered, zooming in.

Calum straightened up. "Probably her playing some trick or something." He leaned down to take the flashlight when Mangle suddenly tightened her grip and her head lifted.

"Do you want to hear a story?" she asked, bright orange eyelights on and staring right at him. She threw in a little extra static for the truly robotic tone.

He shrieked and fell backwards in his rush to get away.

"Aww geez, did someone forget to turn Mangle off tonight?"

They all spun around to see a guy in a security uniform. "Sorry if I scared you," he apologised sheepishly. "I got locked in the bathroom again. Just got out. You guys are here for the spooky ghost shows right?"
He walked past them and pretended to turn Mangle off (really he just poked her in the back), grabbing the beanie and shoving it in his pocket quickly like he didn't want them to see it. He snatched up the flashlight.

"Sorry guys, sometimes they forget to turn Mangle off. She's a little damaged so we're never sure when she's on or off."
He turned away from the slumped animatronic, 'accidentally' blinding them with the flashlight.

"So were you doing your filming thing already?"
"We were getting a tour from Ruby…" John trailed off, noting the way the night guard glanced at Mangle as he said that.

"O-oh...I'll take over then," He gave them a nervous smile. "I'm Mike by the way. Night guard. Been here two whole months," he puffed up like that was an achievement. "Almost anyway. Two months next week!"

He grinned at their expressions. "Come on, I'll show you the rest of the place."
He led them out of the room, noticing how they kept glancing at the room like they expected Ruby to pop out of nowhere.
She was probably waiting for them to leave so she could hang out with Foxy for the rest of the night.

"We clear?" Ruby whispered.

"Yup, they're gone," Mangle told her, stretching from her slumped position. "That was fun. The face he made was hilarious!"

"You take way too much joy in this," Foxy chuckled as he moved to swing his legs over the edge of the stage.

Both Ruby and Mangle just smiled.

Mike pointed out the bathrooms and the smaller party rooms before they reached the Prize Corner.

"So this is the Prize Corner. The Puppet works here." he gave the door a nervous look. "Um, I think we should skip it for the tour. "The Puppet is a little...weird at night. We usually keep the door closed. You shouldn't go in there this week if you don't have to. If you do, just make sure the music keeps playing okay?"

More alarmed looks were exchanged.
"Right down this hall is Fazbear's Fright but it's out of bounds at the moment. It's uh, kinda a mess. No one's allowed in there." He gave them a strained smile.

He'd almost got caught in that tomato bomb blast. Accidentally but still.

Ruby had been aiming to catch Michael with it.

She did, and it left an interesting outline on the wall that went very well with the chalk drawing on the floor.

But that would send these guys running so best they don't see it. Yet.

He led them back to the main room, pointing out parts and services on the way.

"Maybe avoid that room too. It's kinda…" he waved his hand vaguely and kept moving.

Once they were in the main room he left them to absorb everything, saying he had to go "check something."

"They're really playing up the spooky angle huh," Calum joked.

"Hey, I think the rabbit moved," Mason whispered and they all turned to look at the animatronics on stage.

Bonnie had changed poses again and they were all a little freaked out.

"Maybe he got left on like the fox?" Eric suggested.

"Maybe…" John frowned and looked at Miriah.

She was awfully pale.

She glanced back at him. "Something really bad happened here, John," she whispered while Shania waved her shiny rock around like an idiot, declaring the room free of spirits.

Miriah just stared at her a moment before turning back to John as Avery looked concerned by her whisper. Eric stopped fiddling with his camera to glance at them.

John thought for a moment. "We're okay for now?"

Hesitantly, Miriah nodded.

John nodded back. He then steeled himself before addressing Calum. "So uh… who gets what room first?"

Calum eyed the heavy boxes of equipment John's team had dragged in. So what if his team had more stuff? "We're staying here. You posers take your stuff to the room with the creepy balloon thing."

John frowned. "No need to be rude." It still wasn't worth it to argue so they carried their stuff and set up in the Toys room.

"So should we review some of the recordings now?" Avery asked, setting up her computer and ignoring the robots on the stage. "Or wait till morning?"

"Let's do it now, there's interviews in the morning," John decided. "That way we might find some things to ask about."
They were all quiet for a moment.

"Do you think Ruby's okay?" Avery asked eventually.

No one could really answer that.

Eric also had an itchy feeling that something was missing from the room. But he wasn't sure what.

Meanwhile in Pirate's Cove.

"Uno!" Ruby crowed.

"And this is why Hedy said this game ruins friendships," Mangle muttered while Foxy sighed and BB snickered at her.