A/N: All right, with Ultimate Custom Night more or less out of the way, we can now move on to Special Delivery content! I will warn you ahead of time, that the scale of Special Delivery will not be as massive as it most likely is in the canon universe, as a bunch of corrupted/hacked animatronics killing and terrorizing families en masse is a "worst-case scenario" and a failure in their redemption quest that the Schmidt family is actively trying their hardest to avoid at all costs. I will also warn you that the skins will not be making an appearance, as many of them are too fantastic and unbelievable to ever exist, even in a universe that bends the rules of reality as much as Five Nights at Freddy's does. Even as incompetent as it was, Fazbear Entertainment at least recognized the dangers of the springlock suits and stopped using them immediately; they're not going to allow the existence of a Baby with a flaming furnace in her or a radioactive Foxy, both of which are FAR more dangerous that a springlock suit could ever be.
There were actually a lot of questions and I had some time for once, so I decided to answer a few of them. To everyone else who I don't answer directly to, thank you very much for your comments! I still really appreciate your comments and your continued appreciation of this fic!
Guest: Nah. Nightmare recreated Dark!Mike because he saw how thoroughly Dark!Mike and Demon!Mike slaughtered and tortured the everloving shit out of William Afton and thought, "Hey, you know what would be a good idea? Recreating that and forcing William Afton to go through it all over again!" Of course, this version of Dark!Mike was made with Nightmare's magic so there's some extra cruelty mixed in there…but not much more than what was already present to begin with.
Jack0Lanterns: Mike and Charlie never really talked about Dark!Mike admittedly, but it was never a problem before now and Charlie is tough enough to witness Dark!Mike's cruelty and accept it. If it had been any of the OTHER ghost kids witnessing it, on the other hand…
ThePencilDude: That's an interesting take on Mrs. Afton, and I certainly don't agree with the theory that Ballora was possessed by her. I really do like the idea of her being the "light" to the Afton family that was snuffed out early, but she probably won't appear in the fic as she wouldn't contribute much to the modern era. I will say that she IS dead, though.
I-Vanya-I: Although I won't go into detail in the fic itself, I'd like to think that he noticed certainly "oddities" with Circus Baby after she was possessed by Liz, and eventually came to the realization that she had become possessed. Obviously, being the massive douchebag that he is, he wouldn't have cared even if he DID notice early on, as he was too busy killing kids and doing his own twisted experiments by that point.
Chapter 158 – Unfortunate Revelations
The mood in the Schmidt household was grim following the revelation of William Afton's motivations. The psychopath had slaughtered innocent children and abandoned them in metal bodies, one of which had been his own daughter…for reasons that were both extremely self-centered and extremely flimsy.
If they had learned this several years ago, or even towards the beginning of their new lives as part of Mike's family, such a discovery would have sent the ghost children flying into a fit of apoplectic rage, erasing any thought from their minds that wasn't focused on hunting down their murderer and doing everything they could think of to make him suffer as much as possible. A desire that Nightmare's Ultimate Custom Night would have given them plenty of opportunity to satisfy.
But they had grown. Grown, and learned, and strived to better themselves and avoid the mistakes of the path. So now there was no berserk, uncontrolled frenzy surrounding the revelations of William Afton's depravity. Instead, the fury was controlled and tempered with cold indifference towards the final fate on William Afton. It was focused and redirected not on William Afton himself, who would spend the rest of eternity languishing in the depths of Hell at the whims of the Nightmares, but of the digital incarnation that had somehow clawed its way into existence, and could yet unleash catastrophe upon an unsuspecting world.
With next to no information on Fazbear Entertainment's next actions, there was little the family could do except continue searching on the Internet and think about their possible next movies. And Nightmare's warning about a possible "miscalculation" they had made in their strategy didn't help in the slightest.
"How did we fuck up?" Fritz wondered. "How did we possibly fuck up in dealing with Fazbear Entertainment and Glitchtrap?"
"It couldn't have been anything we did with the video game, right?" Cassidy asked worriedly.
Gabe shook his head. "I don't think so," he replied. "We pretty much destroyed every single copy of Glitchtrap we could except for one, and the one that did escape was one that was gone long before we learned about the game's existence. I don't think we could have handled that any better than how we actually did."
"Could the mistake be letting Fazbear Entertainment exist?" Susie wondered.
"Technically, it could be," Mike admitted, before shaking his head in an action that mirrored his son's. "But I already gave my reasons as to why I allowed Fazbear Entertainment to keep going, as shitty as that option was. My gut instinct keeps telling me that that's not Nightmare was talking about, and I've learned a long time ago to trust my gut."
"Whatever happens, I don't think we're going to like it…" Liz mumbled.
Jeremy snorted. "That goes without saying," he retorted.
Charlie was about to add a comment of her own, when suddenly Mike's phone rang. "Hold on a sec," he interrupted, as he brought his phone up to his ear. "Hello?"
"Mr. Schmidt!" a jovial voice greeted him. A voice that he was very familiar with, and one that had been a pain in his side for the longest time. Mike immediately grimaced, and forced himself to calm down as he adopted as polite of a tone as possible.
"Mr. Averus," Mike returned the greeting politely but neutrally. At the mention of the Fazbear Entertainment executive's name, the ghosts stopped what they were doing and paid close attention to the conversation. "I wasn't expecting you to call me."
"I apologize for the sudden call, but I was wondering if I could arrange a meeting to speak with you in person," Mr. Averus requested. "Our company has come across quite the incredible opportunity, and since you've been so helpful to us in the past, it's only proper that we share this with you."
Mike honestly couldn't tell if Mr. Averus was being sarcastic or entirely truthful. Both of them were fully aware of Mike's contempt and cynicism towards Fazbear Entertainment. But even if Mike's intentions were less than forthright, his actions and the help itself had been entirely genuine…albeit certainly not done with the well-being of Fazbear Entertainment in mind.
Still, he would pretend that he was taking Mr. Averus' offer at face value. This was the first time he had heard anything directly from Fazbear Entertainment, and it was the perfect opportunity for him and his kids to learn more about what the corrupt company was planning. He certainly wasn't going to let this go to waste. "What time would be good for you?" he asked.
"I happen to have some time available tomorrow," Mr. Averus replied.
"Excellent, I have some spare time tomorrow," Mike agreed smoothly. Of course, pretty much every day was practically a "free day" ever since he'd retired and started taking care of his kids, although Mr. Averus obviously didn't need to know that. "I'm looking forward to hearing about this opportunity that you're suggesting."
"It's quite exciting, I can assure you," Mr. Averus promised. And with that, he hung up. Mike stared at his cell phone for a few seconds, before slowly putting it back in his pocket.
"Well?" Fritz asked impatiently. "What did he say?"
"He mentioned something about some kind of opportunity," Mike reported, putting the last word in air-quotes. "Something that's supposed to be really exciting for Fazbear Entertainment, and he wanted to talk to me about it."
The kids grimaced. By now they were all very aware that if something was "exciting" for Fazbear Entertainment, chances are it would be very bad for everyone else. "Should one of us come with you?" Gabe asked.
"I'll take Charlie with me," Mike decided after a few seconds of thought. "If only because she's the person most likely to successfully stop me from losing my shit if Fazbear Entertainment pisses me off too much."
The kids giggled, but their humor was diminished by the fact that such a situation could easily become all too real. "In all seriousness, we really need to know what the hell they're doing," Jeremy pointed out. "I feel like we've been really behind on that, and the sooner we figure things out the sooner we can get to work."
"That's the plan," Mike agreed. "Once I figure out all the details, the first thing I'll be doing is telling you what's up."
The Next Day…
The drive to the Fazbear Entertainment office near Hurricane was one that Mike was intimately familiar with by now, but it didn't make the trip any less annoying. "Let's make a bet," Mike deadpanned as he drove into the parking lot. "How long it takes for Fazbear Entertainment to piss me off in some way, shape, or form."
"…ten seconds," Charlie wagered, her expression as equally as dry as her father's.
Mike smirked. "Nah, that's annoyance. It wouldn't be fair to make a bet with you on that, since I'm always annoyed at Fazbear Entertainment. Big difference from them actually sending me into a frothing rage over their latest stupidity."
"Oh," Charlie replied, before shrugging. "Ten minutes, then."
"…that's probably being overly optimistic, if I'm being honest," Mike mumbled as he got out of the car and walked into the building, Charlie following close behind. Once they entered the offices, the secretary was the first to welcome them and invite them in, the first time that she had ever made the move directly instead of waiting for Mike to make the first move.
"Morale seems to be a bit higher than before," Mike observed, though the words were spoken mentally so that only Charlie could hear them through their telepathy.
"That's probably because of that new opportunity that executive was talking about," the former Marionette telepathically replied.
The two made their way into Mr. Averus' office, where the man waited for them with a smile on his face for the first time they could remember. "Ah, Mr. Schmidt!" he greeted them cheerfully. "I'm glad you could make time for our appointment so soon!"
"Well, I had the spare time," Mike answered, once more slipping on the mask of polite and mild interest, concealing the ill feelings he had towards Fazbear Entertainment underneath. "So what's this opportunity you mentioned over the phone?"
"I was just about to tell you. Please, have a seat," Mr. Averus gestured towards a chair, and Mike sat down. "Ever since the successful release of our VR game, we have been hard at work rebuilding our image and rising above the…unfortunate past…that Fazbear Entertainment once suffered. A work that is still in progress, but one that we are striving to succeed in every day."
Mike resisted the urge to simultaneously smirk and roll his eyes. He already knew all of this, and he knew that what Mr. Averus was saying was a half-truth at best. Fazbear Entertainment's reputation was still precarious, as the many online arguments between the company's supporters and critics continued to demonstrate every day. "And this…opportunity…you mentioned, is what will raise Fazbear Entertainment back to greatness?" he asked, his attempt to redirect the conversation back to the company's plans as politely as possible.
"Yes, yes!" Mr. Averus agreed. "Normally, we wouldn't be sharing this information to anyone not closely within Fazbear Entertainment's inner workings, but we owe you quite the debt for the assistance that you and Mr. Nacht provided in salvaging our VR game after the tragic accident that saw almost all of the original copies destroyed." He chuckled. "I will admit, I was opposed to the idea of Mr. Nacht gaining complete autonomy over the creation of the game, even if it came with the extremely generous offer of free labor. But Mr. Nacht has gone above and beyond to improve the game. The Halloween-themed additions he made in particular were very impressive!"
"Absolutely," Mike nodded in assent, this time without any hint of irony or sarcasm. Nightmare had gone above and beyond with his improvements to the VR game, especially with how expertly he had hidden the clue to the identity of Glitchtrap's possession victim underneath the façade of several additional Halloween-themed levels. "Come to think of it," he added mentally, "I don't actually know how if Fazbear Entertainment or the public at large realize the existence of the clue yet." Of course, he wasn't going to reveal that to Mr. Averus. Knowing Fazbear Entertainment, they would do everything they could to either delete or discredit the valuable hint as soon as they became aware of it.
"Anyways, on to business," Mr. Averus moved on, taking out a folder and laying it on the table. "Our next big project is a unique delivery service, one that I can confidently say has never been attempted in the history of this company, either in the past or present."
"A delivery service?" Mike repeated, puzzled. Next to him, he could sense that Charlie was equally confused. "You mean, like giving away some of the prizes that used to exist in the prize corner of Fazbear Entertainment? Like plushies, action figures, things like what we saw in the VR game?"
"Exactly!" Mr. Averus confirmed with a grin. "But what we plan on delivering to the public is far more unique and far more special than just some old memorabilia from the establishments of our past."
He took the folder and opened it, revealing the contents to Schmidt. Mike and Charlie cautiously looked down on the folder, dreading what he was going to see.
And in just the first few words, the two of them realized that their fears were fully justified.
"Fazbear Funtime Service!" the paper advertisement proudly displayed. "Bringing the fantasy and fun of Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria directly to your doorstep!"
The image that accompanied the advertisement displayed a Freddy Fazbear animatronic waving to him, standing in front of the front door of a house. There was a page behind it with additional details on how the delivery service would work. Mike didn't read the whole thing after the first few sentences, and he didn't need to.
He finally understood, with all too horrifying clarity, the nature of the "big opportunity" Fazbear Entertainment had been working on. And judging by the horrified expression on Charlie's face, she understood it too.
Mike stayed deathly still, spending a few precious seconds to recalibrate his mind and redirect the pathway of his mind away from "seething rage." Once he had successfully calmed himself, he forced himself to adopt a mask of mild interest mixed with concern. "I see," he muttered the words. "You're planning on delivering animatronics to families and households?"
Mr. Averus nodded. "Indeed. We actually have the original blueprints and schematics for some of the older animatronics. Our plan is to mass-produce them and deliver them to families interested in purchasing their own animatronic performer!"
"…but you're going to be upgrading them to be safer, correct?" Mike asked.
Mr. Averus raised his eyebrow. "Pardon?"
"These animatronics have caused a lot of tragic accidents in the past," Mike explained, resisting the urge to speak like a condescending adult to a child. "The Bite of 1983, the Bite of 1987, all the night guards killed in old establishments. If you don't want to get bogged down by a massive scandal, you're going to have to spend a LOT of time making sure that each animatronic is upgraded and modernized to make it as safe as possible."
"…of course, of course!" Mr. Averus quickly assured him.
"Bullshit," Charlie muttered under her breath, making sure that the executive couldn't hear her.
"Unfortunately, we can't create the animatronics purely as they were made originally," Mr. Averus sighed. "One of the substances used to create the old animatronics, Remnant, is gone forever and nobody uses it anymore. We'll have to find some other substance or just make the animatronics without it, I suppose."
THAT brought some instant relief to both Mike and Charlie. Without Remnant, there was no way for innocent souls to be enslaved within animatronics if they were killed. Nobody would be trapped into the same kind of Hell that their family had been enslaved in.
"I'm REALLY glad we blew up CBEAR and all the Remnant in it back when we had the chance," Charlie thought, a sentiment that Mike 100% agreed with.
But just because the worst-case scenario was no longer possible, didn't meant that the other possibilities were much better. Especially if Fazbear Entertainment demonstrated the same kind of apathy and lack of regard for safety precautions that they had brought to all of their other projects.
"We had actually reached out to Eisensteel originally," Mr. Averus continued, completely oblivious to Mike's seemingly blank expression and troubled thoughts. "After all, they were a robotics and engineering company with a very good reputation despite the recent accident they suffered a while back. If Eisensteel had accepted our proposal, we would have been able to make hundreds of different animatronics, all ready to be distributed in just a few weeks." The man's expression darkened. "But they turned us down."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Mike outwardly replied with sympathy and regret, but inwardly felt nothing but vindictive satisfaction. There was no way he was going to let Fazbear Entertainment drag HIS old company down into the mud.
"Yes, their refusal set our schedule back by quite a bit," Mr. Averus commented. His lips then curled into a smile. "Fortunately, we were able to find another robotics company. One who were much more agreeable and accommodating to our needs and our tight schedule."
Charlie's eyes suddenly widened in horror as a dire realization suddenly hit her mind. "Oh, fuck…" she breathed.
It took every ounce of self-control for Mike to not look at his daughter in concern in front of Mr. Averus. "Congratulations," he replied with what he hoped was a cordial and congratulatory tone. He didn't know what Charlie was so horrified about, but he trusted her judgment to know that it was probably a very bad sign.
"Unfortunately, this new company we've signed our agreements with is smaller in scale and resources than Eisensteel, so we won't be able to make as many animatronics as we would've been able to had we partnered with Eisensteel instead," Averus continued. "But I'm sure that once we've finalized all of the agreements, we'll be able to create plenty of different animatronics and begin selling them to the public in a few months!"
"I see," Mike answered slowly after a few seconds of thought. "While I appreciate all of this information," and he really did, given how informative the past few minutes had actually been, "I can't help but wonder why you brought me into this office to tell me about this personally. Especially since I feel like a lot of this information is probably classified."
Mr. Averus nodded. "You do have a point," he conceded, "but there were a few reasons. The first being the amount of help that you've provided to us with the VR game. If it hadn't been for you and Mr. Nacht, it's quite possible that our entire company would have completely collapsed. The success of the VR game helped us weather the storm, and the least we could do is let you know of our next project in advance as a token of our gratitude."
Knowing Fazbear Entertainment, it was probably just grandstanding so they could feel good about themselves without actually doing anything for him, but Mike would accept this at face value for now. "You're welcome," he replied with faux warmth. "I can't imagine that would be the only reason, though."
Mr. Averus shook his head. "There's more," he admitted. "As abrasive as your opinions on our company and its actions have been in the past, they have proved genuinely helpful. I was asked by the board to reach out to you and ask for your opinion on how to improve the delivery service."
"You mean apart from cancelling it and getting rid of this stupid idea entirely?" Charlie asked sarcastically.
Mike resisted the urge to chuckle. Still, he was genuinely surprised by the fact that Fazbear Entertainment was actually bothering to reach out to him and ask for his opinion. He'd expected the company to just decide for itself what it wanted to do, without giving a damn about the consequences. Granted, it was more than likely that the company was just interested in covering its own ass instead of actually doing the right thing and improving itself, but given the magnitude of Fazbear Entertainment's usual incompetence, Mike would rather the company do the right thing for the wrong reasons instead of not bothering to do the right thing at all for any reason.
And it gave him an opportunity to introduce a suggestion or two to help keep things moving along the right track, one that he certainly wasn't going to waste.
"Well, given that I was a victim of Freddy Fazbear animatronics in the past, the biggest and most important recommendation I'd make is to make sure that safety precautions and preventing violent accidents between customers and the animatronics is the highest priority," Mike began. He could already see the boredom and irritation creep into the executive's eyes at those words, something that he had unfortunately expected. Time for a change in gears. "However, I do have another recommendation."
"Oh?" Mr. Averus refocused. "And what would that be?"
"I wouldn't simply release the animatronics to the public en masse," Mike explained. "Instead, I would only release a few of them to begin with and frame it as a special offer. You would be able to charge extra for the few customers who buy the first animatronics, maybe throw in some Freddy Fazbear-related memorabilia to sweeten the deal if you're still making stuff like that. And boom! You now have a premier early-bird deal for people who really want a Fazbear animatronic as soon as possible."
To Mike's satisfaction, Mr. Averus seemed to be genuinely taking his idea into consideration instead of dismissing it out of hand. "It would also be a good last-minute opportunity to test the animatronics' performance issues," he added helpfully. "If there's any problems that come up, it'd be a lot better if they only came up for a few people instead of a ton of people at once."
"Hmmm…" Mr. Averus stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Not a bad idea, Schmidt. I think it would certainly be worth presenting to my fellow board members, at the very least."
Mike nodded agreeably. He had done what he could for the time being, and now only time would tell whether his suggestions would actually be implemented or not. "Was there a third reason for you calling me here?" he asked.
"Why yes," the Fazbear executive affirmed. "Yes, there was. And it might actually tie in quite nicely with the suggestion that you presented to us just now. We were wondering if you would be willing to accept an animatronic from us. It would serve as both a thank-you for your help in helping us with the VR game, and would also give you an opportunity to evaluate the performance of the animatronic and provide us with feedback."
"I see," Mike replied noncommittally. He had already determined in his mind that he was going to accept; there was no way he would allow Fazbear Entertainment to sell their animatronics to the public without checking for fuck-ups, which were pretty much a guarantee at this point where that particular company was concerned. But he couldn't appear too eager either; otherwise, Fazbear Entertainment would get a lot more suspicious of him than they were already were, given how he had already openly displayed his contempt for the company as a whole despite his willingness to help them otherwise. "I'll need a few days to think about it," the man decided. "Need to check to see if my house can accommodate an animatronic, things like that."
Mr. Averus nodded. "That's fine, but I'll need an answer by the end of the week. We're going to be starting production very soon, and the sooner we can get things going the better."
"Fair enough," Mike conceded. He got up and offered a polite smile. "This is certainly a very interesting plan you've come up with. But I hope you understand that my concerns about the quality of the animatronics you'll be creating. It isn't the first time things have gone wrong."
"I understand your concerns," Mr. Averus answered in what he presumed was a reassuring tone. "And I'll relay them to my fellow board members."
Mike nodded and, after a brief handshake, turned and left the office, Charlie following close behind. He didn't say anything until he and Charlie were in the car and driving out of the parking lot. Only when they were safely out of sight did he finally relax. "Urrrrrrrggghhhhhhhhh…." he let out a huge groan. "You have no idea how annoying it is to pretend to be nice to someone who pisses you off just by talking to you, Charlie."
"I can tell," Charlie replied with a giggle. "I'm kinda impressed you were able to keep your cool for so long."
"Heh, thanks," Mike replied with a chuckle. Then, a memory from their conversation popped up in his mind. "Back in the office, there was a moment where you suddenly went oh shit. I couldn't really talk about it back then since I was talking with Averus, but what made you so worried?"
"Oh, right…" the worried look returned on his oldest daughter's face. "Dad, I think I found out what the miscalculation was that Nightmare was talking about earlier."
"Oh?" Mike was now giving his daughter as much attention as he possibly could without being a danger on the road. "How did we screw up, Charlie?"
"We shouldn't have gotten Eisensteel to reject Fazbear Entertainment's offer of a partnership," Charlie explained. She could feel the surprise emanating from Mike at this statement, so she explained further. "If Eisensteel had accepted Fazbear Entertainment's offer, then you could have used your influence with Eisensteel to try and force conditions on Fazbear Entertainment. Conditions like safety as the highest priority and thorough testing and quality control to make sure the animatronics functioned normally and without problems. But since Eisensteel rejected Fazbear Entertainment, they've turned to another company that probably won't care about quality control and safety as much as Eisensteel, a company that you don't have any influence over."
"….."
"….."
"….oh," was the only thing that Mike could think to say in response, as the gravity behind Charlie's realization hit him like a truck.
"…dad?" Charlie gave him a concerned look. "You're kinda worrying me."
But Mike didn't say a single word all through the rest of the drive back to his house, despite the former Marionette inhabitant's attempts to restart the conversation. The moment he parked the car in front of his house, he got out and, instead of going to his house, he walked straight towards his garage/workshop.
By now, the other ghost kids had noticed that Mike had come home, and were flying out of the house. But Mike continued to ignore them all, not stopping until he had made his way into his garage and slammed the door behind him.
"Uhh…what's going on?" Susie asked Charlie, who could only shrug in response.
The answer came a few seconds later, as Mike shouted a single word at the top of his lungs. A single shout that was loud enough to be heard outside of the garage by all of the ghost kids.
"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!"
/
A/N: To those of you who posited that the Schmidt family' mistake was to get Eisensteel to refuse Fazbear Entertainment, you were completely correct. Letting Eisensteel partner with Fazbear Entertainment would have given Mike the opportunity to influence the development of Special Delivery, both through his good reputation with Eisensteel's board of directors and his status as "technically the benefactor who saved Fazbear Entertainment's ass but also the one guy that Fazbear Entertainment REALLY doesn't want to piss off." Sadly, those opportunities are gone now, and the family will now have to shift gears to deal with the problem.
Anyways, next chapter we'll focus on the Schmidt family's reaction to Special Delivery, and their new plans for dealing with what will almost certainly be Fazbear Entertainment's latest series of fuck-ups without a hand to guide and intervene.
That's all I have to say for now. Hope you guys enjoyed!
