A/N: I just bought and finished playing God of War III Remastered, and I had some very fond memories of writing the third section of "Battle in the Center of the Mind" between Dark!Mike and Nightmare Springtrap's armies. One idea that I wish I had back when I wrote the chapter is a "Shadow Praetorian" or "Shadow Bodyguard", which would draw inspiration from the Magnaguards from Star Wars or the Satyrs from the God of War III. Anybody who's had any experience with either will know full well how deadly, badass, and annoying they are, and it would've been hilarious for the Shadow Praetorians to simultaneously beat up and piss the fuck out of William Afton before Dark!Mike decided to get his hands dirty. Ah well, no point in lamenting missed opportunities.
And let the vacation to New York City begin! Thank you guys very much for the suggestions, I'll be sure to keep them in mind as I go through these chapters. I actually don't have a clue how long this arc will end up being, though you can bet that it's going to be longer than the Chicago and the Las Vegas arcs, and there's a distinct possibility it could end up being even longer than the Korea arc.
Before we continue, I should let you guys know now that I may mention the Schmidt family visiting certain places offscreen without actually committing chapter time to them. This may be because what the ghost kids would experience in these locations would be too similar to other places that I've already written about in detail, the places in question wouldn't give me enough to work with to devote to a full chapter, because I haven't actually experienced the place myself, and a myriad of other possible reasons. So, apologies if a place that you want the kids to go to isn't one that I actually describe in detail, but rest assured that they did indeed visit them. And with that said, let's get into the vacation!
Chapter 152 – Trip to the Big Apple Part 2
"God…" Mike groaned the next morning as he lay in his bed. "This was a fucking mistake…"
He'd spent all of the last evening trying the many different types of foods and desserts that the ghost kids were eager to try out as part of their first meal in an unknown city for a very long time. The experience hadn't been quite as novel or euphoric as the first time they had attempted something like this, but the opportunity to taste high-quality food and dessert far beyond anything their town in Utah could hope to produce was one that would always be highly appreciated and enjoyed by the ghost kids. And since Mike had now been semi-possessed by his children multiple times by now, his body had acclimated to the sensation and he barely noticed whenever one of his kids phased into him to get a taste.
Unfortunately, his body was decidedly NOT adjusted to eating an amount of food far beyond what most humans would consume as part of a normal meal…leaving him with both a headache and a stomachache more painful than anything William Afton had been able to do to him when the asshole had invaded his mind.
"Totally worth it, though!" Fritz grinned, his expression carrying no shame whatsoever.
"For you, maybe…" Mike grumbled as he slowly got out of bed. "I hope you enjoyed it, cause I'm not repeating this for you guys for the next couple of days at the very least."
"That's fair," Gabe conceded as the man put on his clothes and got himself ready for the day.
"So what are we doing today, Dad?" Liz wondered.
"Well, I can tell you what I'm going to do," Mike replied curtly. "And that's walk off all of the goddamn calories that I ate yesterday for you guys. I feel like if I don't then I'm going to have a heart attack by noon."
"Aren't we right next to a park?" Jeremy asked aloud. "The hotel's literally one crossing away from Central Park."
Charlie shrugged. "Then that's probably one of the best places we can start, honestly."
Susie's eyes lit up as she remembered something. "Isn't there a zoo over there?" she asked excitedly. "I bet there's loads of animals we can see!"
"I'm definitely not gonna argue with Central Park as our first big sightseeing location," Mike commented with a smile as he finished putting on his clothes and put on his coat. A quick peek outside the window had quickly told him that it had snowed overnight, and getting himself sick on the first day of their vacation due to a lack of preparedness was a monumentally stupid idea.
After a quick check to make sure everything was in place, Mike left the building with the ghost kids following closely behind. When the elevator reached the first floor, Mike purposefully strode out of it and towards the lobby, pointedly ignoring the fancy restaurant where other clients were getting their breakfast. The ghost kids gave wistful glances at some of the food that was being presented on the tables, but none of them were stupid enough to ask Mike to eat even more food after yesterday.
The moment Mike pushed open the door leading out of the hotel, a blast of cold wind hit them as they were exposed to the full force of the December winter. It had indeed snowed last night, and the entire city was covered with a white blanket of Winter's most iconic weather. The ghost kids certainly weren't unfamiliar with snow, having lived with Mike for a few years, but it was first time they had seen that blanket of frost covering a city.
"Oooh…" Cassidy gushed, eyes shining as she took in the snow-covered buildings of New York. "It's so pretty!"
"Looks a lot different than when it snows around our house, that's for sure," Fritz remarked.
"It's not too heavy, either," Liz commented approvingly. The last night had provided a blanket of frost that gently covered the land, but it wasn't thick enough that Mike couldn't easily walk on the roads. Otherwise, walking through Central Park would have been a lot more difficult…if not flat-out impossible.
"Let's go, let's go!" Susie called out eagerly.
"All right, all right, calm down," Mike instructed, but even he couldn't hide an impressed smile at how different New York City in the wintertime compared to the last time he had been here in the summer, several years ago. He crossed the street with the ghosts following close behind, and stopped once he had arrived at one of the many entrances to the park. A pocket of nature located deep within the bustling and metal world of New York.
The moment Mike started walking on the path into Central Park, it was as though they had entered an entirely different world. Gone was the city, its many metal and stone buildings and the streets filled with cars, people, and traffic lights. New York City had been completely swallowed up by the trees that towered over them and the path leading ahead. The ghost kids could only imagine what the park would have looked like in the summer, when the trees would have been teeming with life and covered with vibrant green leaves, a sheltered pocket of nature that was a complete antithesis to the rest of the city. A few trees certainly had green leaves still on them, but they were a minority compared to the many dead, snow-covered trees that surrounded them on all sides. However, even without their leaves, the trees were more than enough to create the impression of walking into a dense forest, with only the distant shapes of the skyscrapers and the faint roars of cars in the distance providing the only reminders that the Schmidt family was ultimately still in a city.
Still, the lack of leaves on the trees didn't detract from the scenery. Far from it. Especially since whoever was in charge of Central Park had decided to add their own decorations. Several of the trees were wrapped up in streams of Christmas lights that illuminated the path with their merry glow. Some of the trees emitted golden light from their bulbs, while others were far more decorative with numerous different colors ranging from the traditional red and green of Christmas to more unconventional colors like blue and purple. Combined with the white blanket of snow covering most of the trees and ground, it really made the ghost kids feel like they had travelled to the North Pole.
"These lights!" Susie exclaimed. "They're so pretty!"
"Whoever arranged all the lights on these trees did a hell of a job!" Gabe commented approvingly.
"Did they do this all over the park?" Cassidy wondered. "That must have taken ages!"
"Well, whoever's job it was to make all this happen, I applaud their efforts, but I'm glad it's not me!" Mike dryly replied.
The ghost kids snickered as they continued to travel throughout the park. As it so happened, the first part of Mike's plan for Central Park was not a plan at all, merely walking around the park to admire the city's natural pocket and how it had been transformed by the winter season. Every so often, they could see other families and couples walking on the path or playing in the snow just off of it, laughing and grinning together. A few of them had even brought sleds to play on, although this was relatively rare and was entirely dependent on the incline of the terrain.
Liz let out a sigh of resignation as she watched two children slide down a hill close to the path. "I miss doing this back at home," she lamented. "Remember the first time we saw snow and slid down the hill right outside Dad's house?"
"Yeah, I do," Jeremy agreed, feeling a tinge of nostalgia. "I wish we could do that here too, but we can't. Not without starting wild rumors about how Central Park is haunted by ghosts."
"Don't think too much about it," Charlie offered comfortingly. "Yeah, it sucks that we can't go sledding. But that's something you can do at home. Just enjoy yourselves, cause there's plenty of things that we can do here that we can't do anything else…and possibly things that you can do here that other people can't."
Liz gave her a grateful look. "Thanks, Charlie," she thanked her older sister.
Mike smiled at the exchange but said nothing as he continued on in his walk through the park. As their journey continued, it soon became clear to everyone that the park, despite or because of its sheer size, was much larger and much more detailed than what they had previously assumed. It wasn't simply a world of trees with fields scattered sporadically here and there, but also filled with multiple trails for the entrepreneuring hiker to dedicate a day's worth of exercise to traversing the park in the direction he or she saw fit, as well as multiple roads that cars could travel through to cross from one edge of the park to another. It was difficult to gauge just how large Central Park truly was, but Mike had spent several minutes walking now with no end in sight to the vast spread of trees.
"Hey, Dad?" a worrying thought suddenly occurred to Fritz. "How are you going to get back to the hotel if you end up walking all the way to the other side of the park?"
It was an unusually insightful question for the former Foxy inhabitant, but fortunately for everyone it was one with a relatively simple solution. "I'm just going to get a cab or another Lyft car to drive back to the hotel, no matter where we end up," Mike replied nonchalantly. "Not a bad question, though."
"I still can't believe how big this park is," Susie muttered. "It feels like you've been walking forever."
"Well, I needed it after eating God knows how much food last night," Mike deadpanned. "And if what I remember is correct, there's a giant lake…that's located right in the middle of the park."
"In the MIDDLE of the park?" Cassidy repeated incredulously. "Walking to the other side and back is going to take forever, Dad!"
"We're not gonna go THAT far," Mike quickly assured her. "Walking to the lake is nice and all, but there are specific locations that I plan to visit. If only I knew where they were."
"Don't you have a map that you can look at?" Gabe asked.
There was a moment of silence for several seconds, and then Mike promptly smacked his face with the palm of his hand. "Oh my God…" he muttered, "I completely forgot to look at the fucking map."
"Wait, really?" Fritz snickered, and the other ghosts couldn't resist their own giggles at their father's rare moment of shortsightedness.
They watched as Mike opened the map…and immediately facepalmed. "You've gotta be fucking kidding me," he muttered. "I've been going in the complete wrong direction, taking what's probably the least efficient path possible. Fuck me…"
At this point, all the kids had burst out into laughter, a sound that was fortunately silenced by Charlie's magic. "Wow, Dad…I thought you were usually smarter than this," Liz commented at her father's expense.
"So did I, but clearly we were both wrong," Mike grumbled. "All right, well, we have to kinda walk back the way we came but not really. At least I'm gonna get all the exercise I need to walk off those extra calories from yesterday."
"Geez…" Susie mumbled under her breath.
Mike gave her an annoyed look. "What the heck are you complaining about?" he questioned. "You just float and fly around. I'm the one that has to do the actual walking!"
"That's true," the former Chica inhabitant conceded as Mike began walking in a different direction, going on a trail that would lead them back in the direction they had come overall while heading deeper into the park overall.
After a few more minutes, the family arrived on a new path, one that they could immediately tell was unique compared to the other trails. It was much bigger and wider, with a long line of metal fencing markings its borders. There were also several benches scattered sporadically throughout the path, and more notably, several tall metal lampposts with bulbs that glowed a comforting white light that perfectly complemented the blanket of snow that had fallen onto the trees of the park. Even the trees themselves were unique, the arboreal structures bending over the path and covering the sky as though they were makeshift arches. The kids didn't know where exactly they had ended up, but they could tell that it was somewhere important in the park itself.
"Where is this place?" Jeremy wondered. "It looks a lot different than any other place we've seen in the park so far!"
"This? According to the map, we are in the Central Park Mall!" Mike answered. "It's a special walkway that's supposed to lead to one of the most important places in the entire park."
"Wait," Liz shook her head in confusion, "Isn't a mall supposed to be a shopping center? I don't see anything like that around here!"
"It must be a different definition of mall," Charlie mused. "To be honest, I don't get it either. I certainly haven't heard of any mall besides a shopping one."
"Eh, who cares what it's called?" Fritz impatient interrupted. "Let's see where it goes!"
"Apparently there's something really cool further up," Mike commented, arousing his children's interest. They began to advance down the Mall, with the ghosts occasionally flying off to inspect either the lampposts or the trees that towered over the walkway. As they moved down the walkway, Charlie stayed by her father's side.
"Dad…can I talk to you about something?" she asked hesitantly.
Mike nodded imperceptibly. "Go right ahead, Charlie," he invited.
"I know we're here for a vacation," the former Marionette began, looking uncertainly at him, "…but I have to admit…I'm still not sure we're doing the right thing," she confessed. "About Fazbear Entertainment and Glitchtrap's possession victim. I feel like eventually, Fazbear Entertainment will try and do something, screw it up, and give Glitchtrap an opportunity to kill more innocent people like he did in the past. And I feel like we're almost inviting something like that to happen by letting Fazbear Entertainment continue to exist."
"I understand, Charlie," Mike replied solemnly. "I understand, and I even agree with you. There IS the risk of that happening, and it's not a small risk given what we know about Fazbear Entertainment. What you say is entirely possible, and I can't guarantee that it won't happen."
"Then why…?"
"Charlie…" Mike gently interrupted her as he kept walking, his oldest daughter floating right beside him, "you're right to be concerned. I'd be worried if you weren't. I've said this before: the brutal and simple truth is that there is no good option. All of our choices are imperfect, have risks, and have the potential to go horribly wrong. In such a situation, the wisest and most disciplined course of action you can do is to carefully assess the advantages and disadvantages of each option, and choose the one that has either the highest payoff or the lowest risk, depending on what you're trying to accomplish. Look around you, Charlie."
The ghost did so, taking in the world around her. "The world is impossibly large, Charlie. You've seen many different places in the world, far outside of the tiny town of Hurricane that you were trapped in for years. The existence of Fazbear Entertainment is the one thing that's keeping Glitchtrap's possession victim drawn to a place where we can control her location and actions to even a slight degree. If Fazbear Entertainment falls, Charlie, then she can slip away to any city like this, or any town that we've never heard of. Another place where they can create another tragedy on the level of what you and your brothers and sisters suffered, with zero possibility of us stopping her. And then she can move on to another place, and then another, and the another, creating a string of tragedies with a body count far greater than William Afton ever accomplished with just you guys. This is the absolute worst-case scenario, the one thing we CANNOT allow to happen no matter what."
"I see what you're saying," Charlie admitted. "And…you're right, as much as I hate to say it. I just…don't like how there isn't a simple answer that can solve all of our problems, when there's so much at stake."
"That's life, Charlie," Mike's voice was firm, and she knew that he wasn't being sarcastic in this particular instance. "There aren't always easy solutions, and right answer isn't always obvious, if there even is a right answer to begin with. But we've made our choice. And the best thing that we can do is follow it through with conviction and without hesitation to the end. Because if we start hesitating, if we start second-guessing ourselves or wondering if we're doing the right thing, that's how we start making unnecessary mistakes. And as you said yourself, the stakes are too high to let that happen."
Charlie smiled at her father and nodded. "I see," she murmured, before her gaze hardened with resolve. "And you're right, Dad. Whatever happens, we'll stop Glitchtrap and his possession victim. No matter what it takes."
Mike couldn't stop himself from grinning. "That's the spirit, Charlie," he replied approvingly. "This is the biggest challenge that we're going to face, but we can and we will do it." A smirk appeared on his face. "But don't think about that right now. We're on vacation, after all! The only thing that thinking about Fazbear Entertainment and Glitchtrap will do right now is stress you out for no reason. Just enjoy yourself the next few days."
"I will, Dad," she promised.
"Hey, guys!" a voice interrupted them. They turned to see Liz gesturing towards them and beckoning excitedly. "There's something really cool up ahead! You've got to see this!"
Father and daughter looked at each other, and then rushed towards the last part of the Mall to meet up with the rest of the ghost kids who were already ahead of them. As they got closer, they could make out the shape of a grand architectural structure flanked by two large stone staircases and the trees just beyond. There were two levels to the structure, one on top that served as a crossing between the left and right sections of the structure, and one on bottom with stairs leading leading underneath the structure and served as an alternate path to those who didn't want to climb up the stairs or wanted some protection from the elements. The structure provided a stark contrast to both the themes of nature provided by the park itself and the industrialization of the city beyond, and wouldn't have looked out of place among the many architectural marvels of Europe.
"This thing looks so cool!" Fritz exclaimed. "What's it called?"
"I was looking this up the other day, it's called the Bethesda Terrace," Jeremy explained. "I think it's one of the coolest things we could possibly see in this park. There's apparently this really cool fountain on the other side, and apparently the underside of this Terrace is one of the coolest things we could see in the entire park!"
"Well then, let's go check it out!" Gabe declared.
Nobody had any objections, and together they climbed down the stairs and descended into the lower level of the Terrace. Once they were inside, they quickly realized that the outside of the Bethesda Terrace paled compared to the inside. The interior of the Terrace had clearly been created with masterful hands, thousands of tiles neatly and colored in floral patterns and that wouldn't have looked out of place in a fancy European castle. The walls were just as decorative as the ceiling, divided into sections by columns and delineated by arches that brushed the ceiling. Within each arch was a colorful pattern of more geometric shapes that would have made excellent inspirations for carpets and tapestries. Looking at the majestic artwork of the Bethesda Terrace Arcade, cast in a golden glow thanks to the way the light reflected off the tiles, the Schmidt family could almost forget that they were in a city, or in a park within said city.
"Whoa…." Susie gaped at the artistry surrounding her. "I didn't think we'd find THIS underneath that bridge!"
"It's like we're in a fancy European castle or something," Gabe agreed, taking in the sights around him. "So cool!"
"Imagine if somebody actually owned this," Liz commented. "They'd make Dad look poor in comparison!"
"Pffftt…" Mike snorted. "I don't have nearly enough money to put into things like this. There's some things that money can never buy, and other things that most people will never have enough money TO buy. Besides," he added, "not exactly practical to buy this thing when I literally live on the other side of the fucking country."
The ghosts giggled at their father's comment. "I feel like it wouldn't be a bad idea to spend a night here underneath this arcade," Charlie commented as she cast another admiring look around her. "Imagine falling asleep underneath the golden glow while looking up at the artwork."
"It's a neat idea," Mike acknowledged, "even though I doubt it would work in practice."
"There was something really cool on the other side too!" Cassidy pointed towards the other end of the terrace tunnel. "I didn't get a good look at it, though."
"Then let's go see!" her father suggested. The kids eagerly agreed, taking a few more seconds to take a closer look at the artwork around them before reluctantly moving to the end of the tunnel. On the other side of the Bethesda Terrace was another large clearing, but unlike the other fields that they had passed through, the ground was covered with a layer of reddish-brown bricks that separated it from the standard trails, divided into sections with lines of white marble. But this new change barely registered in the family's minds, for right in the center of the clearing was a giant fountain, not nearly as grandiose as the fountain they had seen in Chicago but still magnificent in its own right. The statue of a winged female angel stood on the very top of the fountain, looking down towards the people and extending a hand as though inviting them to come and marvel on the structure that it was a part of. The angel was standing on a basin that also made up the first layer of the fountain, and on the pillar underneath that basin stood four baby-like angels, each with different postures and hand gestures. The cherubs themselves were standing on a much larger which was being held up by several bronze pillars, all on a golden base that sat in the middle of a much larger pool. The angels that decorated the fountain gave the impression that they were blessing the waters of the fountain with holy power, even if the fountain itself was shut off due to the cold winter. Beyond the fountain was a large, frozen lake, beyond which other snow-covered trees and areas of the park could be seen.
After recovering from their awe, the ghosts flew forward to take a closer look at the fountain. "Kind of reminds me of that other fountain we saw," Jeremy remarked. "The one back in Chicago. Anyone remember that one?"
"That other fountain was a lot bigger and a lot more decorative than this one," Gabe observed, "but it still looks pretty cool with all the angels and stuff!"
"I kind of wish we could see it in action," Susie said a bit sadly, "but the water must be frozen."
"Speaking of frozen," Fritz jerked his head over to the lake with a grin. "Anybody wanna go racing around this lake?"
"I'm down!" Liz happily accepted her brother's suggestion.
"Just around THIS lake, though," Charlie warned. "We don't want to fly too far away from Dad. And no teleporting," she added, to Cassidy's annoyance. Still, she gave her assent along with everyone else…and then they got ready to fly. "Let's go clockwise…" the former Puppet inhabitant lifted 3 fingers. "3…2…1…GO!"
The rest of the ghost children took off, flying in the air around the border of the frozen lake and trying to outrace each other, trying to take a look around the Central Park at the same time. A lot of what they saw was more snow-covered trees (the novelty of which had begun to wear off by now), but there were a few interesting sights to see. Early on in the race, the ghost kids passed by a bridge across which seemed to be an even larger lake, while midway in they came across a remarkedly open patch of peninsula-like land that would likely have made a good spot to enjoy the view of the lake and the courtyard of the fountain if it had been any season other than the frosty winter. One of the most interesting sights that they witnessed a little further beyond the point was a wide, open building that seemed to serve as a weird combination of restaurant and boathouse, although the boathouse half seemed to be closed. The ghosts zoomed past it and back towards the Bethesda Terrace, with Fritz flying just a bit faster than everyone else.
"I WIN!" the former Foxy inhabitant declared victoriously as he flew back to the center of the fountain. "I'm the fastest there is!"
"Dammit!" Cassidy groaned. "If only I could teleport!"
"All right, all right, good job, Fritz," Gabe sighed. "Don't let it get to your head."
"Me? Let my win get to my head? No way," Fritz innocently replied, in a tone that fooled absolutely no one.
"If we can do things like this all the time as ghosts, then I don't mind missing out on some other things as a trade-off," Jeremy commented.
The ghosts made their way back to their father, who had spent the time during their race climbing up the stairs leading to the higher level of the Terrace and was enjoying the view of the park from the top of the architectural masterpiece. "So who won?" he asked with a smirk once they had arrived.
"I did!" Fritz declared proudly.
"Somehow that doesn't surprise me," Mike dryly remarked.
"What are we going to do now, Dad?" Charlie asked. "Are we going to keep going, or head back?"
"Head back," Mike answered. "I'm starting to get tired of this cold, and I think the more interesting things are on the South side of the park anyway. Plus I don't want to be stuck out here and away from the hotel if it starts snowing again. There's still something else here that I think you guys will like on the way back."
Their interest piqued, the kids followed Mike down the stairs of the Terrace and back down the Mall in the direction they had come. This time, the man knew where he was going, and it didn't take them nearly as long to reach the end of the walkway. At the end of the Mall was a large, old-fashioned building that looked like a weird combination of a Victorian Gothic building and a barn. With a sigh of relief, Mike quickly entered the building, letting himself relax as the heat inside the building blasted away the frigid outside air.
"Is this what you wanted to show us, Dad?" Jeremy asked.
"Nah," Mike replied. "I figured that this was as good a place as any for us to take a break from the cold. Although this is a bit of an interesting place, if I remember correctly."
"Oh?" Cassidy raised an eyebrow. "What is this place?"
"It's called the Dairy," Mike explained. "Apparently, decades ago, this was a place where parents could get fresh milk for their kids. Back then, milk was really hard to come by, so this was one of the best places to get it."
Susie looked around the place. "Doesn't look like there's anything like that going on here," the former Chica inhabitant commented.
"That's cause it's not used for that anymore," Mike commented. "Now it's just a visitor center and a gift shop for the park."
"Is there anything we can get here?" Gabe asked, interested at "gift shop."
Mike frowned. "I'm not necessarily gonna say no, but keep in mind that there's only so many souvenirs I can really realistically bring home. Money doesn't mean anything, but carrying space and how much I can carry at home does."
The enthusiasm deflated slightly. "I never really thought about that," Fritz mumbled.
Liz rolled her eyes. "Why does that not surprise me?" she asked rhetorically.
Fritz shot her a dirty look, but didn't say anything as the family looked through the souvenirs for any one that caught their attention. Ultimately, nothing particularly caught their attention, and they opted not to buy anything, preferring to wait for another location to buy any souvenirs.
"If this wasn't the place you wanted to show us, then what is?" Gabe wondered.
Mike smiled. "It's just a little bit beyond the Dairy. You'll like it, I'm sure," he replied with a wink. Not wanting to say any more, he opened the door leading outside, wincing as a blast of cold air hit his body even through the protective winter clothing he had brought. He shrugged off the chill and stepped out into the snowy landscape of Central Park, the ghosts surrounding him as they always did. As it turned out, Mike was right when he had claimed that they wouldn't have very long to go, for they arrived at his intended location after only a few short minutes of walking.
Susie and Cassidy gasped in excitement as they saw the finely crafted brick entrance in front of them, complete with a clock tower and a bell at the top with several stone animals positioned above a series of arches. "You're taking us to the ZOO?" Susie asked giddily.
Mike grinned. "Yep!" he confirmed. "Saving the best for last, right?"
Jeremy frowned. "But…wouldn't the zoo be closed in the Winter?" he questioned. "It's way too cold, right?"
"Normally, that would be the case," Mike acknowledged, the grin not shrinking even a tiny bit. "But the Central Park zoo has its own special exhibits…ones that they show off specifically during the winter time. Ever wanted to see what a penguin looks like up close and personal?"
He didn't even have time to finish his sentence before the ghost kids excitedly zoomed off towards the zoo flying over the gate and completely ignoring the lines in the process. Charlie gave him an apologetic glance, but he merely smirked in response. "In some ways they're so predictable, aren't they?" he asked.
"You're not wrong," Charlie admitted with a smile of her own. The two proceeded towards the zoo in the more mundane way as the rest of the ghost kids flew towards the zoo's exhibits.
There were absolutely penguins in one of the exhibits, as Mike had promised, but there was much more than that. There were seals, sea lions, red pandas, and far more species of ducks than they had ever known even existed. There were even snow variants of animals that they would have expected to see more of in the summer, such as snow monkeys and snow leopards. The zoo didn't have as many animals as it likely would have during the summer, but the animals that they did present complimented the winter weather and the snow-covered trees of Central Park perfectly.
And unlike the living mortals who had to watch them from a distance and behind fencing, the ghosts were able to fly up and see the animals up-close and personal.
"I've always wanted to pet a seal!" Susie gushed as she looked one of the seals lounging on the icy land straight in the eyes. The former Chica inhabitant reached out and started rubbing the fur on the seal with her hands. She obviously couldn't truly feel the seal any more than the seal could truly feel her hands, but being able to pet the animal was something that she hadn't been able to enjoy ever since her dog had died long before the Fazbear tragedy had truly begun.
"If only we could pet one of these seals for real," Cassidy sighed wistfully as she stroked the side of another seal with her ghostly hand. "Imagine using one of these guys as a pillow!"
"Too bad we can't keep these guys as pets," Susie murmured as she watched the seal come to life and waddle towards the pool before diving in.
Elsewhere, Gabe and Jeremy were looking at different winter animals and trying to find out what made them so special compared to their "normal" variants. "All right, so I can obviously tell that the snow leopard has white fur compared to most leopards," Gabe was saying, "but I really can't tell what makes this red panda thing a winter animal. Hell, it doesn't even look like a panda!"
"Doesn't that red panda kinda look like Master Shifu?" Jeremy pointed out. "You know, that kung-fu master who taught Po in Kung-Fu Panda?"
"Oh yeah, you're right!" Gabe realized as he took a closer look at the red panda. "Dang, that was a great movie, wasn't it? The sequel was even better, and hell, even the third movie wasn't that bad!"
"So true," Jeremy readily agreed as the two ghost boys moved on to another exhibit. Unlike the other exhibits, the water in this one seemed to be heated in a similar manner to the hot tubs that the Schmidt family had seen in that one hotel in Korea, the hot temperature providing a stark contrast to the surrounding chill of winter. Inside were several white monkeys with red faces, some of whom were chittering and moving about excitedly while others were lounging about in the hot tub. "That is such a mood," the former Bonnie inhabitant commented with an envious sigh as he watched the monkeys enjoy themselves in the hot tub.
"I've seen those monkeys before," Gabe looked at one of them a little more closely. "I think I've seen them on a picture before. There were three of them. One of them was covering its ears, another its eyes, a third its mouth." He snapped his fingers. "Now I know where I saw them! See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. I'm pretty sure that saying's based on those monkeys."
Jeremy sighed. "It's a lot easier said than done, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Gabe solemnly agreed. "Just because we can't see or hear evil, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. At least we can try our best not to speak or do evil, though."
Jeremy nodded. "Yeah. Took us a long time to learn that lesson…but better late than never, right?"
His brother grinned at him. "I couldn't have said it better myself, Jeremy," He gestured towards the penguins. "Come on, let's take a look at those penguins. I don't think we'll ever see anything like them again in a long time."
As the two ghost boys flew off towards the penguins, Fritz and Liz were flying up to take a closer look at the polar bears. "Man, I love being a ghost now!" the former Fritz inhabitant was laughing. "We get to fly up these polar bears and stare them in the face, and they can't hurt us back so we're all good!"
Liz rolled her eyes at her brother's antics. Personally, she would argue (very justifiably, she might add) that the decades of soul enslavement, torment, and in her case, corruption, weren't worth the perks. Still, she couldn't deny that being a ghost could be quite fun and exciting now that the horrible circumstances that had led to them becoming ghosts in the first place were far behind them and never to return.
"Boo!" Fritz leapt at the polar bear, making a scary face at it (though thankfully he didn't actually turn his eyes into black voids with tar streaming down his face). To her surprise, however, the polar bear seemed to react to Fritz's action, swiping at him with his paw and staring at where he was standing in apparent confusion, before going back to minding its own business.
"Missed me!" the former Foxy inhabitant taunted, causing Liz to suspect that he had deliberately made himself visible for a split second to tease the poor animal. Her suspicion was further confirmed when a young voice from a still living child rang out in the air.
"Mommy! Mommy! I just saw a boy with the polar bears!" the girl cried out.
Her mother, thankfully, hadn't been as observant. "Don't be silly, Miranda, there's nobody there. Besides, the zookeepers would never let a boy near the polar bears. It's too dangerous!"
"But I SAW him!" Miranda insisted. "He had red hair and everything!"
"You're just seeing things, Miranda," her mother gently scolded, causing the girl's face to scrunch up in confusion. "Let's go inside and get you a nice snack."
"Okay…" the girl reluctantly conceded defeat as her mother led her away. Liz went back to where Fritz was still making faces with the polar bears…and whacked him on the back of his head with a slap.
"Owww!" Fritz whined. "What was that for?"
"You idiot!" Liz hissed. "Someone actually saw you! What if more people saw you than just that little girl, or if somebody started screaming about ghosts haunting Central Park?"
The former Foxy inhabitant had the grace to look sheepish. "I just wanted to have a little fun with the polar bears," he offered weakly.
Liz smacked her face with the palm of her hand. "Just…be more careful. And don't think anything stupid like that. You don't want to be the one who ruins the vacation for everyone else, right?"
Fritz's eyes widened in horror. "Oh, God no!" he exclaimed. Liz knew that for all of his mischievous nature, he wouldn't ever do anything to genuinely jeopardize the happiness of his family. "Yeah, you're right, I should've been more careful."
"You're fine. Just don't do it again," Liz instructed. Once Fritz nodded, she pointed to another pair of bears in a different exhibit. Unlike the polar bears, these bears had distinctly brownish fur, which stood out in an environment that was positively covered in snow and winter's grasp. "Wanna check those bears out too?"
"Hell yeah!" Fritz cheered. "Bet they're even cooler than the polar bears!"
"In the wintertime?" Liz smirked. "Yeah, right!"
The two ghosts laughed as they flew off to take a look at the other type of bear that the Central Park Zoo held. Mike watched the pair go with a smile, happy to see them and his other sons and daughters enjoying themselves at the zoo. In the back of his mind, he idly wondered how many other animals that his kids had ever been exposed to, animals that weren't the cold metal shells they had been trapped in for decades. He highly doubted that they had ever seen an actual bear before…and now, they finally had that chance.
"This vacation's off to a great start," Mike thought contentedly. "And it's not even noon."
/
A/N: And that's the first chapter of the New York City vacation done! I figured that Central Park would be a good place to start first, since it's literally right next to the Plaza Hotel and it's as good a place to start as any.
Obviously, I didn't cover EVERY noteworthy feature of Central Park. In fact, there's a LOT more things in that place than what I wrote about here. But if I actually took the time to cover every single area in the park, this would end up being more than 20 chapters long and that is NOT worth spending a single vacation chapter on. The Bethesda Terrace and Central Park Zoo are easily two of the most important areas in all of Central Park, and were plenty enough as far as this chapter was concerned. I'm still taking ideas for where the Schmidt family should go to, but the next chapter will actually be one of my pre-determined locations.
There's one last thing I want to mention. I am working on copying every chapter of Mike's New Ghostly Family into a backup on my computer. That way, if the worst happens and this fic ever gets deleted for whatever reason, there WILL be a backup available that will go up on instead (although I won't upload this fic to AO3 UNLESS the one on gets deleted. I learned my lesson from The Phantom Hero's Realm, and I will NOT let this fic go extinct in the same way my other fic has. The only downside is that the music chapters remain permanently lost, but fortunately they didn't contribute significantly to the fic as a whole.
And with that, I hope you guys enjoyed!
