A/N: So…I've got a question for you all. Back when I introduced Helpy, it was gonna be something similar to Bonnet's relationship with Melody, or maybe a cute little robot helper buddy. But with so many characters to keep track of, most of whom are much more important than Helpy himself, I just…kinda forgot about Helpy, to be honest. So here's my question: should I retcon Helpy's presence out of the fic? I'm barely doing anything with him at all right now, and you guys know that I have no issues with retconning certain details of the story if new evidence appears in the game universe or if it would improve the story as a whole? Lemme know if I should remove Helpy, since right now his presence in the story is practically nonexistent.
Ginopippofreebooter: Mike's birth father isn't permitted to see him. Since he definitely wasn't a good person back when Mike was a kid, Heaven hasn't allowed him the same exemptions to the normally very strict rules of the afterlife that were given to his mother and Oskar.
Guest: You have a good nose lol.
BarcodeMan47: I don't know what you mean by "moral philosophy and ethics are abandoned in this fic." I feel like this is a thinly veiled insult, but I could be interpreting wrongly. Also, I think it would really depend on William's father, and whether or not he was abusive and to what degree.
Deblod100: Pizza Plex is still a ways off yet, but yeah, Mike's not gonna be happy when he learns that one Glitchtrap escaped.
SusieTheDucky: Thank you! I'm pretty sure Security Breach will be a real life occurrence in the FNaFuniverse, and that's the assumption I'll be operating with for this fic. And while the kids certainly wouldn't mind exploring the Pizza Plex, they'll almost certainly be putting business/redemption ahead of their own entertainment.
Jack0Lanterns: You're not the only one lmao. And yeah, Vanny's that one unsuspecting victim who stumbled upon that one secret that she really shouldn't have, and is paying a heavy price for it.
Awesomesniper86: You're wrong. Mr. Averus is not the person possessed by that one copy of Glitchtrap who escaped.
SuperDescendant101: Your gut instinct is probably right lol.
Properman: There might have been overt divine (and demonic) events happening back in the days of Jesus Christ, but by now it's been centuries since God decreed that supernatural interventions on Earth be reduced to their absolute minimum. Angels and demons rarely have an overt impact on the real world anymore, instead influencing the world indirectly. And keep in mind, most demons ARE trapped in Hell without any chance of escape. Nightmare is one of the very few allowed to roam the Earth every so often, since he's one of the few trusted by Heaven not to go around and fuck everything up for shits and giggles (you'll notice that even if Nightmare blew up all the warehouses holding the VR games with an unholy hellfire ritual, the aftermath still looks like what you'd expect from a typical building explosion, the only noticeable abnormality being that all the buildings blew up at the same time). Also, Old Man Consequences explicitly ordered Nightmare to take care of the problem of Glitchtrap. For this specific situation, Nightmare is either working in alliance with or outright serving Heaven, even if he's doing it mainly for personal and/or selfish reasons. Even in the Bible, Jesus easily commanded demons to leave the bodies of people they were possessing and tormenting, suggesting that even Hell's demons must ultimately submit to the will of the Lord despite being His enemy.
RicAlbuquerque: No, the Marshalls being named after the Lonely Freddy story was a complete coincidence, since I don't think Fazbear Frights was even released at that time. And you're right, the children haven't done all that much yet for their redemption. Their quest has only just gotten started.
MothraRanger: I didn't know the hype or Vanny was THAT bad lol. Then again, I've mostly been keeping off Reddit and stuff for the past few months. And yeah, Nightmare (mostly) came in clutch for destroying all those Glitchtraps. However, this will almost certainly be his most extreme intervention, as a problem as extreme as thousands of Glitchtraps required an equally extreme solution to solve.
AuroraFlare: I don't want to imagine what would happen if Demoman got his hands on Nightmare's ritual.
TU4Q: The ghost kids are off on a good start, but they've still got a long way to go. And yeah, Mike and the family have their work cut off for them. I won't be getting started on Security Breach immediately though, since (a) the game isn't out yet and (b) Pizza Plex doesn't exist yet in-universe.
Sonicflash78: I don't plan on adding any new animatronics to what's already present in Security Breach. And as for how the ghost kids will interact with the Glamrocks, that remains to be seen since we've barely seen the game yet.
KAMIKAZE: I can't answer either way because spoilers.
GameFan335: Your gut instinct is probably correct lol. And that plan, while good in theory, becomes a lot more problematic when you realize that nobody, not even Nightmare, knows who that possessed person is.
Guest: Fortunately, their mental state is already miles better than what it was years before, so it won't take them very long to get over the fact that they didn't completely succeed.
Guest: Thanks for the encouragement 😊 As for the Nightmares, they don't give a shit. They're demons with redeeming qualities who look like saints compared to William Afton, but they're still demons who torture damned souls for shits and giggles. Add the fact that Glitchtrap is an incarnation of someone who they despise and have a personal vendetta against, and…yeah, I'm probably gonna not be able to go into details unless I want this entire fic bumped up to an M rating.
FrostTheFrozenFox: That's why I'm seriously considering retconning Helpy out of the fic. And fortunately, Nightmare is operating under alliance with or in service to Heaven to deal with Glitchtrap, so in this case specifically they're really all on the same side. As for Security Breach, Pizza Plex isn't out yet, and even if it is, that one is very much the exception rather than the rule, given how little of a shit Fazbear Entertainment cares about…literally everything else they've done.
MegaMaster78: Perhaps, but Special Delivery will be significantly altered in this fic, with only the basic premise and certain lore elements (such as the emails) remaining intact and canon in MNGF.
FireFlamerx9z: You have a good nose lol.
AlchemyWriter: We'll have to wait until Security Breach comes out for more details.
Chapter 132 – An Offer You Can't Refuse
The moment Mike saw the number on his phone, he knew what the call would be about. And he also knew that he had to excuse himself from his friends and former coworkers in Eisensteel as soon as possible. Mike hastily rejected the call, sending a quick text to Gabe telling him to call back in a few minutes, and then returned to his hotel room, where he was certain he would be alone and not accidentally overheard. With impeccable timing, Gabe called again as soon as he had locked the hotel door behind him.
"Hello?"
"Hey Dad," Gabe's voice greeted him on the other end. The tone by itself was enough to immediately put Mike on edge, as it wasn't the jubilant and excited tone he would have expected if Nightmare's plan had been a complete success.
"Gabe?" Mike was fully alert. "What happened?"
"Nightmare did his ritual," Gabe explained. "And he got rid of most of the VR game copies that had Glitchtrap in them. They're completely gone. Wiped off the face of the Earth forever."
"Okay…that sounds like good news!" Now Mike was confused more than anything. "I don't get why you seem so unhappy."
Gabe sighed. "Nightmare did a check after his ritual…and he found out that there was one copy of the game somewhere else that was already empty. Which means there's one Glitchtrap that already escaped."
It took everything Mike had not to swear. Because of course Nightmare didn't get all of them. Of course that would have been too fucking easy. "Did he say who it was?"
"He wasn't able to find out," Gabe answered, and Mike could visualize the former Freddy inhabitant shaking his head.
"Okay…okay. We'll talk about it later," Mike promised. "Is there anything Nightmare else wanted to tell me?"
"Yeah," Gabe replied. "He told me to ask you to call him as soon as possible."
Somehow, Mike doubted that he would be able to do so until he returned home. Opening a fiery portal to Hell in the middle of his hotel room was practically begging for a disaster to happen.
"And Dad…" Mike could hear the worry in his son's voice. "Whatever happened, I have a bad feeling that Fazbear Entertainment is gonna try and blame you for it. Just…be careful when you have to deal with them, all right?"
Mike smirked. "Don't worry, Gabe," he reassured him. "I know how to deal with slimy sleazeballs like Fazbear Entertainment. Why do you think I went on this vacation trip with Eisensteel?"
He could hear Gabe sigh with relief. "I'll take your word for it, Dad. Enjoy your vacation."
The smirk turned into a gentler smile. "Good night, Gabe. We'll talk about our next move once I get back." He shut off the phone and fell back onto his bed. Truth be told, even if Gabe hadn't called him, he was already feeling tired and would've likely gone to sleep soon regardless. Even as his eyes closed, part of him could already tell that tomorrow would change things dramatically, for better or for worse.
The Next Morning…
"What the FUCK did you just say?" Mr. Averus nearly roared into his phone.
"A-all the w-warehouses that held the c-copies of the VR games h-have been d-destroyed," the nervous employee stammered on the other end. "C-check the news, sir."
Averus quickly opened the Internet on his phone and looked up news in Utah. Sure enough, there was a reporter standing in front of the burned and ruined wreckage of what had once been a warehouse that had held the copies of the game that would reignite Fazbear Entertainment.
"I am standing in front of the remains of what was once a warehouse owned by the newly reborn Fazbear Entertainment," the reporter explained. "At an unspecified time last night, the warehouse was consumed in a fiery explosion that wiped out the entirety of the building. This disaster was repeated across multiple warehouses, all owned by Fazbear Entertainment, all of which have been exploded in a serious manner. There have been no definite explanations for this catastrophe, although the police are not ruling out foul play due to the fact that the warehouses were all destroyed at around the same time and were owned by the same business. However, there has been no evidence to support any sabotage or deliberate destruction, or even any evidence that anyone was present in any of the buildings at this time. We can only be thankful that nobody was present in any of the warehouses at the time of their destruction, and that nobody was killed as a result…"
"How the FUCK did this happen?" Averus demanded. "All our warehouses, all our games, at the SAME TIME?"
"I-I don't know, sir," the employee helplessly replied. "Th-there's no evidence to s-suggest anything. A-all the security footage we could have gotten w-was destroyed by the blasts."
"And the games?" Averus asked, desperation creeping into his anger.
"D-destroyed," the employee answered, fearing the worst. "C-completely destroyed. N-not a single one is left…"
With an almost inhuman snarl of rage Averus disconnected the call and threw his cell phone on the desk, growling as he watched it bounce off and hit the floor in front of him. This was a disaster leagues worse than anything they had experienced so far, worse even than the PR mess when they had tried and failed to pass off the past tragedy of Fazbear Entertainment as nothing but a meaningless ghost story. Fazbear Entertainment had banked entirely on the VR game to resurrect the franchise, putting all of its eggs in one basket. If those VR games were all gone, then every single thing that they had done for the past several months had been for nothing, and the only thing they would have accomplished was making a complete embarrassment of themselves yet again.
"There's no way this is an accident," Averus growled. "I could buy one building getting blown up by accident, but three at the same time? Someone's behind this." His eyes narrowed as the realization on a possible suspect hit him. "Schmidt," he hissed the name.
"Schmidt?" Stacey asked, the secretary having walked into the room at around the same time he had spoken the name.
"I bet Schmidt has something to do with this," he spat. "He made it very clear that he hates Fazbear Entertainment, and he was a night guard years ago. And this disaster happens after all the other beta testers leave and he joins? No way that's a coincidence."
"But, sir…that doesn't make sense. If Schmidt wanted to destroy the VR games, he wouldn't have bothered to beta test them to begin with," Stacey pointed out. "Not to mention, he shouldn't have any idea where the warehouses that store the video games are. We only directed him to one of them. There's no way he could possibly know the locations of every single one of them, much less rig them to explode without the guards and workers knowing about it."
Averus gritted his teeth. His secretary had a point. But personal feelings aside, Schmidt was still the most likely suspect, and his opinion on that wouldn't change until he heard Schmidt's alibi. "Get me Schmidt's phone number," he ordered. "I want him here to explain himself immediately."
Stacey gave him the number, and Averus practically jabbed it into his phone. "Schmidt!" he barked the moment it picked up.
"Hello?" the other man's voice was calm. "Who is this?"
"It's Mr. Averus! I want you here in my office right now!" the executive demanded.
"Why?" Mike asked. "What's going on?"
"You mean you haven't heard?" Mr. Averus scoffed. "Look up the fucking news! All our warehouses holding the copies of the VR games we were going to sell in a month have been destroyed?"
"Hold on, let me look it up…" Mike minimized the call screen and looked up the news. The moment he saw the wreckage of the warehouses, his jaw dropped in astonishment. "What the fuck…" his jaw dropped open, vocalizing surprise that he didn't even have to fake. He'd known that Nightmare was going to do something destructive with a ritual of some kind, possibly destroying the VR game copies along with the Glitchtraps hiding in them. He genuinely hadn't expected the demon lord to blow up the fucking buildings.
Mr. Averus heard the shock in the new beta tester's voice. If Schmidt was faking his surprise, then he was being a really good actor. Still, that didn't mean his suspicions were fading just yet. "I want you here to explain yourself and make damn sure that you're not involved in this mess. Don't try and pretend that you don't have a motive, I know that you worked with Fazbear Entertainment in the past and have a grudge against us!"
"I mean…that's going to be hard to do," Mike replied, his mouth stretching into a smirk.
"Oh?" Averus mockingly asked, an ugly tone in his voice. "And why's that?"
"Because I'm not even in Utah right now."
The answer cut through Mr. Averus like a knife, and now it was his turn to be shocked. "What?" he spluttered.
"I'm assuming you're asking me for an alibi, so let me just give it to you right now," Mike explained. "For the past 3 days, I joined a former company I worked with, Eisensteel, on a vacation trip to Nevada. I'm currently in a hotel in Las Vegas as we speak."
"And can anyone corroborate this?" Mr. Averus sneered.
"Absolutely," Mike confirmed. "I can give you multiple numbers. Mr. Santor, my former boss, and Melody Park, the new chief engineer after I retired. Both of them were on this trip along with me, and both of them can confirm my story."
Mr. Averus' confidence in Schmidt's guilt began to fall apart. Schmidt's story would fall apart with the slightest investigation if he was lying, so there was an increasingly likely chance that he was indeed telling the truth. "All right, Schmidt, you don't have to come in for now. If I find out you're lying, you can consider yourself the primary suspect of this despicable act of vandalism!"
"I encourage you to contact them if you want to confirm the truth," Schmidt coolly replied.
"Give me those two numbers," Mr. Averus commanded, and Schmidt gave him the two numbers before hanging up. The executive quickly contacted both numbers, and to his dismay both of them confirmed Schmidt's story. With a defeated sigh, Mr. Averus let his cell phone fall out of his hand and onto his desk.
"Dammit," he growled. "Schmidt really isn't the bastard behind this, is he?" He'd been so convinced that Schmidt had been the one responsible for the destruction of the warehouses, but reality had taken his assumption and laughed in his face.
For starters, Stacey's point was still valid. Schmidt had no way of knowing where any more than maybe one of the warehouses had been located. It was kind of hard to destroy a building when you didn't even know where it existed, and this was information that Averus sure as hell hadn't exposed to anyone outside of the workers who were stationed there.
More damningly, Schmidt's alibi was airtight and completely excluded the possibility of him being directly involved in the explosions of the warehouses. The man had been out of the whole fucking state of Utah for an extended period of time, and it would have been physically impossible for him to set the building on fire or rig it with explosives while he was enjoying a vacation in Las Vegas at the same time. And none of the workers had reported any suspicious occurrences or unauthorized individuals in or around the warehouses either, so the chance of Schmidt preparing all this before leaving the state were abysmally low. With these indisputable facts, any involvement by Schmidt in the sabotage would have been tangential at best, and he had absolutely no evidence whatsoever to support such a connection. If he tried to get Schmidt arrested, he'd be laughed out of the police office, let alone the courts, and it would accomplish absolutely nothing but make a fool of himself.
And finally, there was the fact attacking Schmidt was simply too risky even if he was involved with the destruction of the warehouses in some way. The man might have been willing to hold off from spreading slander about Fazbear Entertainment that would bring the business crashing down, but it was no secret to either of them that he utterly despised the company. If he continued to go after Schmidt, there was a decent chance that Schmidt might decide to either go to the press or go online and spread slander purely out of spite. Even if they could sue him in retaliation, Schmidt might have the money to pay that off, and the public outcry against them would almost certainly ruin them anyway. Trying to go after Schmidt was basically the company committing suicide when he held all the cards, especially when all the evidence was overwhelmingly supporting the man's innocence.
Besides, he had bigger problems to deal with. Namely, how the fuck they were going to possibly get the game out in time when all the copies had been destroyed. They would have to declare a delay again, this one possibly lasting several months, and it would be yet another PR disaster for different reasons.
"What the hell am I going to do?" Averus groaned as he slumped onto his desk. They had only barely managed to get the last video game company to work on the game. He couldn't see a way for them to get the VR game out in time, not with a disaster this huge so close to the deadline. Though if there were any intact copies, at least they wouldn't have to start completely from scratch…
He picked up his phone, taking a deep breath to calm himself down, and put in Schmidt's number again. When all he got was an answering machine, he spoke into his phone in what he hoped was a calmer and friendlier tone. "Hello, Mr. Schmidt? My apologies for my unpleasant tone earlier, I'm in the middle of dealing with a major crisis at the moment. I was wondering if you could come in and return the copy of the VR game you borrowed for your beta testing? We will need it to recreate and mass-produce our VR games as quickly as possible. Thank you."
One Day Later…
"Okay," Mike sat down at his seat at his dining room table, the ghost kids each (figuratively) sitting on a chair facing him. Once he had heard from Fazbear Entertainment and his kids, he had decided to cut his vacation with Eisensteel and return home early after giving his apologies to Melody and Mr. Santor. Business came before pleasure, after all, and the entire purpose of going on the vacation in the first place was so that Fazbear Entertainment couldn't pin the blame on the warehouse explosions on him.
"Should we get Nightmare in on the meeting?" Charlie asked.
Mike stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Actually, that's probably for the best," he acknowledged. He took out his phone and typed the number that he would need to contact Nightmare. A few seconds later, the demon lord had joined them through the now-familiar fiery portal.
"I'VE BEEN EXPECTING YOUR CALL," was the first thing Nightmare said once the portal had manifested. "LET US ATTEND TO BUSINESS."
Mike nodded, turning to face his children. "Right. First things first, I don't want you guys thinking that the fact that one Glitchtrap slipped under the radar was your fault," he admonished sternly, knowing full well the tendencies his kids had towards self-guilt. "There was no way for us to possibly know that a beta tester before us actually played through the game and got possessed by Glitchtrap. Hell, this could have happened months before, as far as we know. So once again." He punctuated each word. "This. Is. Not. Your. Fault."
"We know," Jeremy acknowledged, though he still looked downtrodden. "It's just rough, knowing that there's one Glitchtrap out there, possessing someone."
Susie scowled. "And we have absolutely no clue who it is."
Charlie sighed. "Unfortunately, we can't do anything about it right now other than be watchful and look out for anything suspicious," she admitted. "Hell, Dad technically can't even ask about that other copy of the VR game that's already been emptied because there's no way he should realistically know about it."
"Oof, you're right," Cassidy mumbled.
"The moment we have a solid lead on this unknown beta tester, we can get to work trying to stop Glitchtrap and maybe free whoever got possessed by him," Mike suggested.
"ON THAT TOPIC, THERE IS SOMETHING I SHOULD INFORM YOU ABOUT," Nightmare interrupted, drawing everyone's attention to him. "THE ANATHEMA CURSE WAS DESIGNED TO WORK SPECIFICALLY AGAINST WILLIAM AFTON, AND ONLY AGAINST WILLIAM AFTON," he warned. "GLITCHTRAP MAY HAVE BEEN SIMILAR ENOUGH TO TRIGGER MY DARK BLESSING, BUT ANYBODY POSSESSED BY HIM WILL NOT. IF YOU ATTEMPT TO FIGHT AGAINST GLITCHTRAP'S VICTIM, IT WILL ONLY BE AS A REGULAR MORTAL."
"Shit," Fritz cursed, and similar thoughts were running through everyone's heads. Mike might be an unstoppable force of nature in the mental world, but if Glitchtrap turned whoever they were possessing into a psychotic killer, there was a very real chance Mike could die in such a confrontation.
"That's something I'd like to avoid if at all possible," Mike deadpanned. Secretly, though, a part of him was relieved. He didn't want to accidentally unleash dark power in the real world, nor did he want to lose himself to his own hatred, vengeance, and cruelty like he had already done twice now. The lessons that his children had learned were ones that he needed to internalize just as much.
"I'm not really happy about that," Jeremy murmured. "Hopefully that won't ever be an issue, because we have other problems we have to deal with too. Did Fazbear Entertainment try to put the blame on the warehouse explosions on you, Dad?" he asked worriedly. "We were afraid something like that was gonna happen."
"Of course they did," Mike drawled. "But luckily, that vacation trip I took with Eisensteel pretty much ensured that they couldn't pin the blame on me without looking like a bunch of idiots." He looked over at Nightmare. "Thanks for giving me that heads-up, by the way. I genuinely didn't think that you'd blow up the buildings those fucking video games were stored in."
Nightmare grinned. "I ONLY WISH I COULD HAVE SEEN THE LOOKS ON THOSE IMBECILES' FACES."
"You and me both," Mike replied, causing everyone at the table to laugh for a few seconds. "Anyways, Fazbear Entertainment asked me to come in and return the game so that they can try to recreate all their copies. You did make sure my copy of the game was intact, right?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
In response, Nightmare lifted his hand so that everyone could see the video game in it. "THE RITUAL WAS DESIGNED SO THAT THE ACTUAL MEDIUM UTILIZED IN IT WOULD NOT BE DESTROYED. AND THE VAST MAJORITY OF THE UNHOLY ENERGIES WERE FOCUSED ON GLITCHTRAP SPECIFICALLY, AS OPPOSED TO THE GAME ITSELF."
"Great," Mike sighed in relief. "I can hand the game back in, knowing that it and any future copies made from it won't have that fucker lurking around anymore."
"ACTUALLY…" Nightmare interrupted. "IF AT ALL POSSIBLE, I WOULD LIKE TO ACQUIRE THE OTHER SURVIVING COPY OF THE VR GAME FOR MYSELF. WHILE I KNOW FOR A FACT THAT THE GAME COPY THAT WE HAVE IS NOW FREE OF GLITCHTRAP'S INFLUENCE, I WOULD LIKE TO MAKE ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN THAT THE OTHER COPY IS EMPTY OF IT AS WELL. I SHOULD ALSO ADD THAT WHILE OUR COPY COULD NOT BE DESTROYED, I CANNOT GUARANTEE WITH ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY THAT IT WAS NOT UNDAMAGED IN SOME WAY."
"I don't know how I'm going to ask about that, since I shouldn't even know about that other copy's existence in the first place," Mike deadpanned. "Still, I'll see what I can do to get it. What do you have planned?"
Nightmare's mouth stretched into a fanged grin. "IT'S QUITE SIMPLE…" he hissed. "THOSE FOOLS IN FAZBEAR ENTERTAINMENT ARE CAUGHT IN A DESPERATE SITUATION TO AVOID A COMPLETE COLLAPSE. I BELIEVE WE CAN…TAKE ADVANTAGE…OF THEIR SITUATION…"
The Next Day…
As it turned out, when Mike went to Mr. Averus' office to return his VR game and carry out his and Nightmare's plan, the primary problem of the other VR game copy was solved in a way that was weirdly both incredibly convenient and incredibly annoying.
"Mr. Schmidt, thank you for bringing the game here with you, but we've decided to use a different copy of the VR game as a foundation for mass-producing them again," Mr. Averus smiled, though it did little to make his face more pleasant. "We found another copy of the VR game that one of our managers had left in their house, one that is conveniently free of a rather irritating glitch that was hindering our project earlier on."
"Understatement of the fucking century," Mike thought scathingly. Outwardly, he smiled. "How'd they manage to accomplish that?"
"One of our older beta testers happened to solve the problem," Mr. Averus explained. "They then left the copy of the VR game with one of our other managers before reassigning them to do something else."
Mike raised an eyebrow and decided to take a bit of a gamble. "I don't suppose you know who they are?" he asked.
Mr. Averus scoffed. "That was a while back, and I wasn't the one who interacted with them anyway. I don't even know who they are. Besides, even if I did, I can't just go around revealing our employees' information. That would be a breach of privacy!"
Mike fought the urge to grit his teeth in fury. NOW they chose to give a shit about their employees? And he wasn't any closer to finding out who the "mystery victim" of the one successful Glitchtrap was. This was rapidly turning into a complete failure, at least on this front.
Still, Averus did have a point, as much as he hated to admit it. "I was just curious," Mike shrugged, dropping the subject. "How's the search for a new video game developer going?" he asked, trying to sound as innocent as possible.
Averus scowled. "Why the hell do you want to know?" he snarled. That statement by itself was plenty enough evidence for Mike that Fazbear Entertainment's situation was dire.
"I have a friend who might be willing to lend a hand," Mike explained, trying his hardest not to smirk. "He's a private video game developer who doesn't have any major projects going on right now. He's visiting me for a few days, but if you'd like I could invite him in to help out with your problem. He's actually in my car right now."
If Mr. Averus had been more intelligent or less desperate, he might have treated Mike's words with more suspicion, at the very least asked more questions about Mike's friend. Given the dire circumstances Fazbear Entertainment was in, however, he leapt greedily at a possible solution to the company's problem. "Bring him in!" he eagerly demanded.
Mike took out his cell phone and dialed. "Hey, Matt?" he called. "Would you mind coming in the building to Mr. Averus' office? I've got something really interesting to show you." He waited a few seconds for him to reply, and then hung up the phone. "He'll be in soon."
"Excellent!" Averus declared, already in a better mood than he had been minutes earlier. "Stacey? We'll be having a visitor soon. Please direct him to my office, he's a friend of Mr. Schmidt." The two of them waited for a few minutes, until they could hear a set of footsteps walking down the hallway towards the office.
The door swung open, revealing an imposing man who Mr. Averus could immediately tell was someone who was not to be trifled with. The man was dressed in a sharp black dress shirt with a dark grey vest over it and similarly colored pants, sharply contrasted with a yellow bowtie on his neck. The contrast was equally displayed in his hat, a fancy yellow hat with a black band around its base. Even more striking than his clothes was the man himself, with his pale skin, bushy black hair, and prominent beard that covered the entirety of his chin. His eyes were a light brownish color that looked almost red, and he had sharp fingernails on his hands that looked almost like claws. But the one feature that caught Mr. Averus' attention above all was his smile. A smile with teeth sharp enough to look like fangs, giving the man an almost predatory appearance. The executive's own smile faded and he couldn't hide his unease. The man didn't seem like a video game designer. His appearance better fit the appearance of a battle-hardened war veteran…or a murderer.
The man grinned at Averus. "My name is Mr. Nacht," he introduced himself with a deep voice that emanated authority, self-confidence, and power. "Matt R. Nacht. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
"N-nice to meet you too," Averus replied, trying to keep his voice steady. He extended a hand, trying to keep it steady, which Mr. Nacht easily accepted. On the side, Mike was struggling not to laugh, taking satisfaction in watching Averus try not to piss himself in front of Nightmare's human form. He'd honestly been surprised that Nightmare could assume one, even though it shouldn't have been that much of a shock since Nightmare Fredbear could and had done the same in his family's trip to Las Vegas.
"I heard you have a problem regarding a video game?" Mr. Nacht raised an eyebrow. "Please, tell me all about your problem. I can get a better idea of how to help you if you give me the full picture."
Mr. Averus sat silently in his chair, not sure how to respond. Part of him felt as though Mr. Nacht was mocking him, but bizarrely he also felt that the man's words were entirely sincere. In the end, his desperation over the recent calamity overcame his caution, and he provided a succinct history of Fazbear Entertainment's VR game and the recent calamity that had struck the company. Of course, he left out some more…unsavory…details that could potentially turn Mr. Nacht away from offering help.
Not that it would do him any good, considering that Nightmare already knew all about Glitchtrap. Inwardly, Nightmare made a mental note to ask his master if he could claim the souls of the corrupt Fazbear Entertainment executives some point in the future. Given their rampant greed, corruption, and avarice, even a fool could tell where they'd end up after their deaths. Outwardly, he nodded, his movements carefully calculated to give off sympathy and understanding. "Do you have a copy of the game that I can see?"
"I do," Mr. Averus confirmed. "And that's the base that we're going to be using to mass-produce our product." He reached into his desk and took out a copy of the VR game. It looked identical to the one Mike had, though both Mike and Nightmare knew that both of them were devoid of Glitchtrap for very different reasons. "With this game, we intend to push the horror genre to new limits, as well as commemorate the terrible tragedy that took place in Fazbear Entertainment's past."
"I see…" Mr. Nacht pretended to muse, though inwardly he imagined himself torturing this corrupt executive over a blazing fire. It was the only way he'd be able to stop himself from tearing the man to shreds in real life. A grin broke out onto his face. "Mr. Averus, I'd be willing to take part in this project. However, there are certain…conditions…I would like to establish before I choose to accept."
The unease that Averus had been feeling earlier returned. "What…kind of conditions?" he asked warily.
"First, allow me to explain what I am willing to offer you," Mr. Nacht now spoke, ironically to Mike, in the manner of a salesman. "I will devote my full time and effort to finishing the VR game before the end of October, without working on any other projects to distract me from getting the job done. I will also be willing to work on this project free of charge, at no cost to you." Mike had to fight the urge to roll his eyes as Averus' own eyes lit up at the word "free." If he was a cartoon character, his pupils would have turned into green dollar signs.
"This sounds like a great deal!" Mr. Averus declared, and then his eyes immediately narrowed. "Too great. What do you want in exchange?"
The grin on Mr. Nacht's face turned sinister. "I want absolute and unconditional autonomy over the VR game," he demanded. "I can make any decisions that I deem necessary for the game and implement them immediately, without the need to justify myself to you or anyone else from Fazbear Entertainment."
"What!" Averus spluttered, his face turning bright red as he heard Mr. Nacht's demand. "That basically means we're giving you complete control over the VR game! Who the hell do you think you are?"
Mr. Nacht's eyes flashed venomously even as he retained his sinister grin. "I am offering you an entire month of dedication to this VR game, and more than that, I am offering the solution that your company desperately needs entirely for free. I will not devote this level of service only to deal with the idiocies of bureaucracy on a regular basis. My terms are non-negotiable. Take them or leave them."
If Fazbear Entertainment's situation was less desperate, Mr. Averus would have shown him the door right there and then. Unfortunately, he simply didn't have the freedom to simply reject any outrageous offer that was being given to him. If he rejected Mr. Nacht's offer immediately, he would lose a significant amount of time trying to find another video game company, convince them to accept the VR game project, and get them working on fixing any last-minute issues and mass-producing the game. Time that he simply didn't have. Not to mention the fact that, given the desperate situation Fazbear Entertainment was currently in, any shrewd company would force them into an agreement that would be drastically unfavorable to them…assuming any of them agreed in the first place.
And what Mr. Nacht was offering in return wasn't insubstantial either. A whole months' worth of work, all of it completely free, with the chance to potentially get the VR game out on time after all…it was an enticing offer, and one with a tremendous payoff…assuming that it wasn't all just a giant trick. Averus' eyes narrowed at Mr. Nacht. "How do I know this isn't some kind of trick?" he challenged. "How do I know that this isn't some secret attempt to sabotage us?"
Mr. Nacht snorted. "Mr. Averus, if I wanted to watch Fazbear Entertainment crumble to pieces, I wouldn't waste a month of my life on no pay to do it. I would've just watched from the sidelines and laughed as your company collapsed from the weight of scandal after scandal. I can assure you, I only intend to get your game remade as soon as possible and make it better than before." Once again, the tone was mocking, and yet the words themselves seemed to be entirely sincere. His lips stretched into a grin again. "If you really do want this VR game released in a timely manner, you won't get an offer any better than mine."
Mr. Averus sat silently at his desk for a few seconds, mulling over whether or not he should accept the deal. He eventually took out his phone and dialed a number, before getting into an argument with someone who Mike and Mr. Nacht could only presume to be a fellow executive. Then, with a sigh, Mr. Averus hung up the phone and turned back to face the two men.
"We accept," the executive sighed. "We don't have any better options. But we're going to have to spend some time to write up a contract unique to you, Mr. Nacht."
Mr. Nacht grinned. "By all means," he gestured towards the computer on his desk. "I have all the time in the world."
An Hour Later…
Nightmare left the building feeling incredibly pleased with himself, Mike following closely behind. The demon lord was just as shrewd and cunning in the art of contracts as one would expect from a being of his nature, and he had gone over his agreement with Fazbear Entertainment with a fine-toothed comb to make sure that the company didn't try to pull any tricks on him. Surprisingly, Mr. Averus had been completely honest and not attempted to hide any clauses in fine print, although both of them suspected that this had been out of fear of alienating their potential savior as opposed to any moral grounding.
"I'm actually quite glad that we claimed this copy of the VR game," Nightmare commented with a chuckle as the two of them got into Mike's car and the latter started driving. "This will be a better foundation for the next stage of my plan."
"Why'd you want that copy of the game as opposed to mine?" Mike wondered.
"I only have the results of my scouting ritual to indicate that Glitchtrap's presence in that game has indeed disappeared," Nightmare explained. "Something that I would be a fool not to investigate personally."
"Fair enough," Mike conceded. "What else do you have planned?"
"After I confirm that Glitchtrap has indeed departed from the game, I will be incorporating certain…failsafes…to hunt down and destroy even the faintest traces of Glitchtrap that I may somehow still miss," Nightmare continued. "While I take pride in being quite thorough in my work, one can never be too careful. A lesson that you either learn in Hell very quickly or die."
Mike nodded. There were plenty of things that he and Nightmare might disagree about, given their opposing moral alignments, but taking extra precautions and a complete anti-Glitchtrap stance weren't one of them.
"And finally, it's entirely possible that the former beta tester who has been possessed by Glitchtrap may have left some clues of their presence in this copy of the VR game," Nightmare finished. It wasn't a thought that had occurred to Mike, but the more he thought about it the more it made sense. The Tape Girl had been a former beta tester who had left behind secrets through the Tapes. It was entirely possible that the Glitchtrap victim might have done the same. "This will be an excellent opportunity to dig deeper and seek out any hint as to the individual's identity."
"Well, good luck with that," Mike offered. "I hope you find something."
"It won't be just me," Nightmare retorted, and now the mocking grin on his face was back in full force. "The rest of my clan will be carrying out that task."
"The rest of your clan…" the realization suddenly hit Mike, and he groaned. "You're going to be putting the Nightmare animatronics into the VR game, aren't you?" he questioned.
He was rewarded with roaring laughter for his question. "A perfect feature to add for a Halloween release, wouldn't you agree?"
Mike could only palm his face in exasperation. "The sad thing is…this is still a major improvement over whatever the fuck Fazbear Entertainment's been doing."
/
A/N: You guys thought I was done with Help Wanted, didn't you? You guys thought I wouldn't be introducing the Nightmares, and that the version of the game in this fic would be an incomplete version with some of the levels missing. Well, you were WRONG! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!
All jokes aside, Nightmare does have a story-significant purpose for "programming" the Nightmares into the VR game, and this is actually something that is alluded to in the canon universe as well. It's heavily implied in the Curse of Dreadbear DLC that the entire Halloween package was actually implemented into the game by Fazbear Entertainment in an attempt to purge out Glitchtrap, something which they were obviously unsuccessful in doing. Nightmare is doing something very similar, except that he's doing it to absolutely ensure that any traces of Glitchtrap left behind are completely destroyed (and also to destroy any new glitches that Fazbear Entertainment are stupid enough to program into the game in the future). It says a lot about how the Fazbear Entertainment management is so corrupt and incompetent that a literal demon lord of Hell taking over their video game project can unironically be considered a major improvement.
And no, Nightmare isn't going to do anything evil like program deadly traps to kill or mentally torture whoever plays the VR game. That would be an express one-way ticket to pissing off a lot of insanely overpowered entities who could curbstomp the everloving shit out of someone even as powerful as him without even trying. Something that would be both incredibly stupid and out of character for someone as pragmatic and intelligent as Nightmare.
Yes, this does mean that the missing levels from Help Wanted WILL be made into chapters in the future, although probably not immediately. And while there aren't any more Tapes to be found and Glitchtrap is already gone, there is still some plot significance to be found.
Lastly, if you're wondering where the design for Nightmare's human form is from, check out the "Human Nightmare" artwork by LadyFiszi on DeviantArt. That's basically what my human Nightmare is, and I hope I described him to the best of my ability.
That's all for now. Hope you guys enjoyed!
