Author's Note:

Hope you enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 141

Reveal

Ruby tilted her head and smirked as she studied the pale faces in front of her, Foxy a steady presence at her back. He still hadn't let go of Calum and she was half convinced that he was trying to find a way to break the man's wrist and claim it was an accident.

"Foxy," Hedy's voice drifted to them, sounding amused with a slight note of scolding to it.

She came into the room with a gleeful Mangle trailing behind. The fox had put herself back together already with the mechanic's help.

Foxy really debated listening for a moment. There was a tense second before he let go, ignoring Calum falling back and hitting the ground in a way that looked like it hurt. "Y'take all the fun out of it, Mechanic."

"That's really starting to look like my actual job," Hedy said dryly while Mangle chuckled. "Official adult and fun destroyer." Her eyes went to Calum, and any sort of pity she might have pretended to have left very quickly. "Hi. You folks enjoy yourselves?"

"I'm still confused," John immediately said, glancing between the robots, while Calum and Shania (and maybe Mason if he could remember to breathe) tried to stammer over everyone else but really it just sounded like a bunch of wordless noises interspaced with the occasional "what" "you" and "hell."

Calum quickly decided that anger was, once again, a better choice than fear or confusion or asking any reasonable question. Like an idiot.

"You! You did this!"

Hedy frowned while he scrambled to his feet.

Mangle snarled, loudly and obviously throwing in a metallic rattle when it looked like the man was stupid enough to take a step toward Hedy right after getting put in his place by Foxy for doing the same to Ruby.

"Flattered," Hedy said as he froze, glancing at Ruby, although her eyes passed over John's team to gauge their reaction. "But most of tonight at least was Ruby's fault."

"You...you…" Eric scratched his head, never taking his eyes off Puppet and stepping back again when the animatronic's eyes flicked to him. "You...HOLY FUCKING SHIT YOU'RE ALIVE!"

Ruby blinked before barking out a laugh.

Even Eric's teammates startled at the very emotional screech from the usually level-headed and quiet camera man.

"Really?" Chi said with a loud and dramatic gasp as she stared directly at Mason.

The man's throat felt very thick, and he didn't know how he was supposed to be reacting.

Miriah sank to sit on the floor, groaning and rubbing her temples. " Oooh, this makes so much more sense….." she moaned with closed eyes.

"It does!?" Avery whispered, dumbstruck.

"No," Shania stammered, holding her crystal out in front of her like it was some sort of shield. "Nonononononono-"

Mangle stared at the crystal with utter hatred.

Shania squeaked at the narrowed eyes. "No! Sta-stay back. Demon fox...thing. These are protective crystals a-and and hereby cleanse this...this area of all negative energy and-"

There was a collective groan from the gathered animatronics interrupted by the pink fox yelling, "THAT'S IT!" and rushing Shania who screamed and flailed as she frantically threw the crystal at "the" Mangle.

It looked like genuinely an accident that Mangle caught the crystal in her mouth, even with a hand outstretched, ready to snatch the stupid thing away from the screaming woman. But she froze, considered it for a minute, and then took advantage of the series of events to freak the idiots out more. Biting down wasn't an accident. The fake glass crystal shattered in her jaws while Hedy vaguely shouted panicked complaints in the background and Shania screamed again and shoved Kevin in front of her.

Dude looked seconds from passing out and just stumbled into place looking spaced out and incredibly pale.

Ruby cackled. "That was brilliant!"

"What was brilliant?"

They all turned to find Mike poking his head out of a vent.

Shania pointed at him mutely.

"Mangle lost her temper and shattered that crystal," Ruby told him.

"About time," Toby muttered. "She kept waving it in our faces."

Mangle couldn't really spit so she hung her head to drop the pieces of glass to the floor and picked bits out of her teeth with her claws. She then stomped on the pink bits, further crushing them, and growled at Shania before anyone could say anything about Mike appearing.

"You stupid freaking fraud and your stupid crystals and stupid camera and freaking annoying voice! No wonder you don't have any views! If I was human I'd channel Van Gogh if I was forced to listen to you and you-!" She pointed at Calum. "Chatter BS fake stupidity about ghosts and ooooh 'psychic freaking energy'! AUGH!"

"You okay Mags?" Hedy asked, amused but not happy about the glass possibly cutting something in Mangle's mouth.

"This is what you get when I can't talk for a week!"

Foxy's intense glare on Calum finally broke so he could look at Mangle in amusement.

"You got to talk the most with that weird story you gave them," he pointed out.

"Horror movie inspiration!" Ruby sang.

The other bots had all either filed into the room with the humans or lingered in the doorways.

Both teams yelped at an unexpected voice behind them.

"I'm surprised Calum is still in one piece, Foxy," Goldy murmured, studying the shocked teams in front of her.

Foxy let out a faint growl. "The mechanic," he grumbled in reply.

Goldy grinned, finally floating away from the shocked guests and over to Hedy, ignoring Mason repeating "what the hell" in a high-pitched voice.

Hedy gave her a look. "I get everyone coming because all you bots are awfully nosy. But really, Goldy?"

Goldy shrugged. "They've already seen me and that one is an actual psychic." She gestured at Mariah. "She can tell when I'm around. Didn't want to freak her out more than she probably is already."

"Thanks?" Miriah said distractedly.

Several of them studied her curiously, Hedy not looking as surprised as she thought she would be.

"I guess that team wasn't so bad," Chi mumbled like they weren't right there. "But I still hate the other one. They're dumb."

Toby awkwardly patted Chi's shoulder, aware that she was still mad over what Mason tried to pull.

She definitely wanted to say a worse word than "dumb."

Foxy bared his teeth in a silent snarl when Calum opened his mouth to no doubt complain.

The man proved he actually had a couple brain cells and slowly closed his mouth again.

Ruby patted Foxy's chest absently but it worked to calm him down a bit and he didn't lunge for the idiot.

"So," Ruby broke the tense silence. "You have been pranked. Rather spectacularly too. I'd say this is one of my better works," she inspected her nails with a smug smirk. "This entire show was prompted because some pushy individuals were being dumb and filming children in a restaurant without permission." She glanced up at Calum's team. "We didn't think you'd leave without a fight so we decided to screw with you in revenge." Her gaze flicked over to John's team. "You just ended up as collateral damage. Since Hedy is a fan of your show and wanted to invite you."

"Ruby…" Hedy said.

The teen shrugged. "What? You're a fangirl."

Hedy just sighed and tried to stifle a wince without looking at John or the rest of his group. Or else she was going to blush...

She met eyes with Mike and his grin widened as he wiggled out of the vent. Great. He was going to tease her about that for ages.

Miriah looked relieved, glancing between the two of them.

Calum seemed to be gathering up the last scraps of his courage.

"Your-your damn little sister, just because you're the manager-" He cut off as Ruby snorted. She'd fully dropped the spoiled teenager act.

"First off, Hedy isn't actually the manager. He's a bastard and ran off on holiday after a near nervous breakdown. Second off, Hedy and I aren't really sisters. Third-" She spun on Mike. "Mike! Give me back my tablet! If I hear one more person call you the night guard I'm going to lose it. My job!"

Mike yelped as Ruby pounced on him, doing the smart thing and hurriedly giving up the tablet to the teen.

Ruby withdrew with it and held to her chest like a teddy bear.

"Ah, order is restored in the universe," she sighed happily.

Hedy rolled her eyes again.

Ruby was being extra dramatic to give their guests a show, it seemed. Or maybe it was because she'd been forced to act somewhat normal all week. She was used to being herself at work.

The teams were really quiet, for a moment, as they tried to absorb all that.

"You're… not the night guard?" Avery asked Mike. That seemed like the simplest thing to tackle first.

He rubbed the back of his neck and sheepishly shook his head while stretching.

"Nope. Ruby's been the night guard for months. I did the job for a week years ago at a different place though."

The woman turned her eyes to Hedy. "And you're not the manager?"

Hedy grimaced. "Hell no. I've almost gagged every time someone called me that. He really is a bastard."

Shania finally seemed to find her voice, much to the room's disappointment.

"It's been an act?!" She shrieked and many winced due to the pitch. "This whole thing?! It was a joke?!"

Bonnie frowned at the woman, somewhat confused. Why is that what this lady is focusing on when we're talking to her? We're definitely kinda weirder than Hedy, Ruby, and Mike playing theater. At least they didn't have to stand perfectly still on stage.

Ruby gave one of her more infuriating smirks.

"Yup," she popped the 'p'.

Shania made an inarticulate sound of rage.

"I knew this place wasn't haunted," Calum tried to take control of something. "I knew it was a scam."

Freddy really tried not to groan. These people had terrible judgment with priorities. That, and the almost ridiculous close-minded-ness was getting intolerable.

Ruby raised her eyebrow and gestured at Goldy. Calum faltered while Goldy snickered.

"Well, technically, we've got ghosts. You just had the bots harassing you most of the time since you were jerks. So, half right?"

"Don't give him any credit," Foxy muttered.

"It's a trick," Calum insisted, but he couldn't tear his eyes away from an unimpressed Goldy.

She had a funny look as she stared at him. "You're really desperate not to have something mess up your understanding of how the world works, aren't you?"

"It's….it's a hologram of some sort."

"Should I poke you and test that theory?" Goldy asked serenely.

Calum yelped and tripped over a chair as Goldy floated slightly closer.

"Uh…" Avery raised her hand while John was rubbing his eyes and looked like he wanted to sit down next to Miriah. "Yeah...sorry. I got a question. Are you…" she gestured vaguely at the bots, but they were in all the doorways and edges of the room, so really she just gestured at Toby and Chi who were closest. "I don't understand. Are you, like, spirits? Inside robots?"

Miriah shook her head frantically while the Originals suddenly looked uncomfortable. Actually all the bots looked uncomfortable, except the Toys looked more ashamed and Puppet was grateful his face wasn't very expressive, anyway.

"Wait, you think we're ghosts?" Toby murmured, a little slow on the uptake.

"They're not more ghosts," Miriah said quickly, snagging Avery's sleeve.

Avery looked down at Miriah in confusion. "Then what…"

"Freaky Terminator shit, that's what…" Kevin stammered frantically.

"No one asked you," Puppet said dryly, making the poor man practically whimper. "It's definitely more of a Frankenstein situation, anyway."

Avery froze as she realized something. She turned to Puppet. "Wait. That freaky 'how many tickets do you have' shit was you fucking with us!"

"We gave you our trash," John added, a whine in his voice.

Puppet's eyes flicked to them and a very bizarre noise cracked out of his voice box before he stiffened.

"...I think you just made Puppet laugh," Hedy commented, horrified and awed.

Goldy squealed a little.

"What weird twilight zone is this?" Ruby asked, giving Puppet a strange look.

He just glared.

"You don't have to freak out the other team. They were nice," a soft voice interrupted them all and Ruby looked down to find Timmy peering around her leg.

"Hey Timmy, surprised to see you out," she said.

Timmy shrugged. "That other team met me and all the other kids while you were watching the dummies get chased around by Michael."
Ruby blinked. "Wait what? The brats actually showed themselves?"
"Not willingly. I think the building was doing something," Timmy admitted.

Ruby peered suspiciously at the ceiling before looking back at their guests. John and his team waved awkwardly at Timmy while the other team gaped at the clearly transparent boy.

"Hmm," she mused, glancing at Hedy who didn't look too happy to hear that the kids had been involved. Ruby was actually getting a little concerned with how stubbornly Hedy was clinging to her grudge over the coma week.

Absently, the teen reached down and picked Timmy up, resting him on her hip.

Mariah gasped at the action, eyes locked on Ruby.

"That's not possible," she whispered.

"'Impossible' is something that doesn't exist here," Ruby told her with a razor sharp smile. It looked a little funny since Ruby wasn't very big herself and Timmy wasn't so young that it should have been as easy as it was for her to lift him.

"The living can't touch the dead," John whispered, also staring at her in shock.
"We've...tried."

"Often," Avery mumbled sadly.

Ruby shrugged, moving her hand in a so-so motion while Hedy looked curious. "Eh, my status is a little fuzzy inside the building."

They clearly didn't understand what she meant and Timmy reached up to flick her ear. "Don't confuse the nice team Ruby," he scolded softly.

"Ruby confuses everyone, Timmy," Goldy reminded him in amusement. "Doesn't matter if they're nice or not. She still confuses us a lot."

"Did you just flick me?" Ruby pouted. "I haven't been flicked since I bit the postman."
"Stop biting people then," Hedy suggested dryly.

"I bit him because he flicked me. He was a jerk and I was fourteen," Ruby huffed.

"Most people stop biting after they pass the toddler years," Puppet pointed out.

Ruby gave him the middle finger.

"You really should stop cementing your lack of maturity," Puppet said.

''...Should…" Eric interrupted awkwardly. "Should I stop filming?" He looked to John for an answer.

John was busy staring at Ruby and Timmy. He wasn't really sure what to do either. He shrugged distractedly and Eric lowered his camera, setting it on the ground.

"You got film!" Mason stammered, half excited, half angry. "You.. y-you got all this on camera?!" All of their cameras were lost by now. Thousands of dollars. Shit, were they going to have to ask these freaks for their equipment back?

Calum was going to yell at him when his brain started working again.

Eric immediately picked up his camera and held it close, glaring at the other man.

Ruby snorted while Chi glared at Mason. "After that stunt you tried to pull with Toby I asked the building to mess with all your cameras. I don't know if it messed with the other team's."

Mason blanched.

"Yeah," Hedy said, her tone dropping to a dangerous level. "We know all about that."

"I...I didn't…" Mason tried.

"We were standing right there watching you," Teddy interrupted, glaring at him. He put on a brighter voice for a moment. "'Hey kids, don't try to hug us while we're performing. It's a little distracting."

"I should have just punched you," Chi snarled regretfully.

Toby had his eyes pinned back and shuddered.

Ruby had also switched to glaring at Mason. "You were literally on camera the entire time. Hedy watched all of you."

"And I made sure everything was recorded in case I missed any incidents," Hedy added.

"Mason!" Calum yelled at the camera man. "What the fuck did you…!?"

"Oh shut up," Foxy snapped, in a mood where anything Calum said was going to annoy him.

Calum shook his head. "No. No. No no no. This is all fake-"

It was getting really annoying hearing him repeat that. Wasn't the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and expecting a different result?

"Fake! Where's the-there's got to be microphones in these goddamn furry suits! A-and mirrors…"

Ruby rolled her eyes and Timmy sighed, just watching the man panic babble.

"And that!" Calum pointed in the direction he and his "friends" had just run from. "That was all a trick! Probably one of your other guards o-or...and…and you drugged us. You fucking drugged us."

Even some of his team were looking at him oddly, especially his cousin.

"What the fuck, Calum," Kevin said, looking freaked and irritated.

"Yeah, Calum, what the fuck?" another voice cracked up laughing.

Kevin screamed and Shania ran behind him to use him as a shield again.

Michael laughed harder from the doorway as Toby 'meeped' and moved to get away from him, Chi glaring at the ghost as she moved too.

Calum's panicked stupidity didn't seem to have a limit as he marched up to Michael and tried to punch him in the head. Of course his hand went right through and Michael laughed harder as the hand solidly hit the doorframe.

It would have been an impressive punch otherwise.

The blood that Calum had worked up to his face with all the anger, drained again, which probably wasn't very helpful for whatever brains the man had left. Although that may have been the pain and he may have just broken his hand.

"Boo."

They screamed. It turned into a bit of chaos, Calum's team screaming their heads off, Ruby yelling at Michael for stealing her fun and the mad scramble for escape that ended with team moron practically falling out of the pizzeria as the building decided to make their lives harder by rocking the floor and flashing the lights. The door slammed closed on it's own behind them with quite a bit of force.

Hedy got the sense the building was more than happy to be done with those people. It didn't like how they made her and Ruby feel. She personally didn't think a little of Michael showing up was enough to break them, but perhaps it was more of a build up and his stupid little "boo" was the straw that broke the camel's back/their minds.

Whatever, they were Jeremy's problem now.

Ruby was clearly miffed that she didn't get to scare them off though. She'd already put Timmy down and was chasing Michael around the room.

"All right! All right! Come on, can't a ghost appreciate the handiwork?" Micheal cried, frantically ducking out the door. He poked his head back in. "Quality entertainment here. We all played a part, you know."

Ruby swung at his fingers on the doorframe with Betty.

"AH! Crap!" Michael shouted, yanking his fingers away. "It was your idea!"

"I wanted to scare them off, you shit ghost."

"...snooze you lose? OW!"

Jeremy calmly sat in the car, just as he had when Hedy texted him to drive up and do so several hours ago. He'd done stakeouts before. This was child's play. He took a sip of his coffee and watched the apparently peaceful building.

After a moment the front doors slowly creaked open. He paused and put his coffee down.

Suddenly, the pizzeria burst into activity. Lights flashed and the ground rumbled. Four people exploded out of the entrance, tripping over each other and collapsing into a heap on the asphalt.

The doors slammed shut behind them, giving the impression that they'd just been kicked out.

Silence fell for a moment as the lights and rumbling cut out as abruptly as they started.

After a few seconds, the group seemed to get over their shock as they scrambled to their feet, shoving at each other in their haste.

The woman ran ahead of them towards a van while two got into a fight in their rush to stand. The last man crawled a distance away before scrambling up to follow the woman.

He was soon followed by the taller of the two fighting since the other had been pushed to the ground again.

He snapped out of it and also scrambled up when he heard the engine roar to life, sprinting after them and yelling in a panic.

Jeremy sighed as the driver swerved to avoid hitting the guy and immediately crashed into a light post. Thankfully he wasn't going very fast.

"Hedy really did call me here to babysit a few idiots," Jeremy groaned and flipped the police car's siren lights on.