A/N: Mike's finally coming home, everyone! But although the Schmidt family is finally reunited, their work is far from done.
Piigg: There used to be 3 music chapters that I had to delete because they had copyrighted lyrics that could have taken this entire fic down (which was the case for another fic of mine). I keep the chapter numbers like this partly to commemorate the previous existence of those chapters, and partially because I don't have the time to go back and fix every single chapter number.
Ripped-NtrippsMo: I don't know every single actor or actress you've put down, but I do like the choices that I DO recognize (Steve Blum in particular I think would be amazing for Dark!Mike or Demon!Mike), although Shadow Freddy has a deep booming voice in his supernatural form and definitely wouldn't be voiced by a female.
BatTony15: I don't take a lot of stock in MatPat's theories nowadays. And no, I'm not going to have William be defeated by a "happy thought," it goes completely against his characterization as an immoral monster, would be an extremely cheap redemption, and to be honest the whole idea just sounds extremely stupid in general. Glitchtrap as presented in this fic has already demonstrated himself to be more competent than the original William Afton was, ironically enough.
Chapter 166 – Family Business
Mike couldn't help but smile as he caught sight of his house in the distance. As much as he appreciated the services of the hospital, there was only so long he could spend lying down on a hospital bed without driving himself crazy.
Granted, he was still rather limited in what he could do. His left arm and leg were completely wrapped in a cast, his mobility was extremely restricted, and he would likely need a wheelchair for at least a few weeks. But that was still a lot better than being cooped up in the hospital room.
And more than anything, he missed his kids. That was the first and only thing on his mind at that moment.
"They've really missed you, Mike," Melody gave him a gentle smile as she opened the front gate of his house for him.
"I've missed them just as much," Mike replied wistfully as they drove up towards the front door of his house, leaving the gate shut behind them. "How were they for you?"
"They were really well-behaved, shockingly so," Melody answered honestly. "Like, I don't think I've ever seen kids that well-behaved in my entire life. Heck, even Fritz didn't give me any problems, and I know that one in particular's a bit of a troublemaker."
Mike chuckled. "Well, the fact that their Dad was stuck in the hospital after an animatronic attack probably had something to do with that," he admitted as they got out of the car, Melody prepping his wheelchair and gently maneuvering Mike into it. As they did so, the familiar spectral figures of the kids flew out of the house, having caught side of their father and eager to greet him at last.
"Dad!" Susie shouted joyfully, being the first to catch up to him, "you're back!"
"Are you all right, Dad?" Cassidy checked on him worriedly, looking at the arm and leg that were wrapped up in the cast.
"How was the surgery?" Jeremy wondered. "Were you really asleep through most of it?"
Mike laughed as the kids wrapped him up in a gigantic hug and bombarded him with questions. It had been a while since they had had a group hug like this, as they had gotten more comfortable and casual with each other's presence, but it only made moments like this all the more precious. "I'm fine, guys," he reassured them. "Yeah, there's still some pain, that's to be expected when a giant metal robot whacks your arm and your leg. But overall, I'm fine. It'll take a while before I get back to where I was before, but I'm fine."
"That's good to hear," Liz breathed a sigh of relief. "We've been so worried ever since those guys took you off to the hospital."
"It was just boring more than anything else," Mike admitted. "Imagine lying on a hospital bed doing nothing for days, and then starting to walk and move again very slowly after that. Thank God it didn't get any worse than that."
Fritz scowled. "Dealing with that asshole from Fazbear Entertainment probably didn't help," he growled.
"I mean, dealing with Fazbear Entertainment's always going to be piss me off, but Averus was less of a pain in the ass than I thought he was going to be," Mike commented. "Of course, Nightmare paying him a little visit probably helped with that."
Susie very slightly cringed in the air, but fortunately for her, nobody else noticed. "I'm still surprised that Nightmare was able to get away with that," Gabe couldn't help but point out. "I know dealing with Glitchtrap is a very high priority even for Heaven and Hell, but they're extremely strict on limiting the influence of the supernatural world onto Earth."
"It's probably because Nightmare was only causing a nightmare and nothing else," Mike mused. "Sure, the nightmare was probably the worst thing Averus and those other Fazbear Entertainment fucks have ever experienced in their lives, but there's nothing inherently supernatural about a bad dream."
Melody sighed. "I still don't know how to feel about the fact that you're frenemies with a demon lord," she commented as she drove Mike's wheelchair up to the house, clearly conflicted about the whole idea. "I feel like in every fiction story I've read, this is always a terrible idea."
"Most of the time, you'd be right," Mike agreed. "But unlike pretty much every other genuinely evil force that's gotten involved with the Fazbear tragedy, Nightmare isn't an idiot, and he's capable of basic fucking decency." He glanced over at the front door, and for the first time he noticed that there was actually a ramp leading up to the door for his wheelchair to smoothly roll up. "Oh, wow!" he exclaimed, clearly impressed by the foresight, "Whoever came up with the idea of setting this ramp up, great job!"
Charlie giggled. "It was my idea," she explained. "I asked Melody to order some workers to set this ramp up as soon as we heard that you were coming home soon."
"That's Charlie for you," Liz commented with an appreciative tone. "Can always depend on her for anything you need."
Charlie smiled gratefully back at her as Melody wheeled Mike into his house, the ghost kids gently pushing the chair with their telekinesis to help make the job easier for her. Mike glanced at the stairs leading up to the second floor and shook his head. "I think the second floor's out of the question for a while," he acknowledged, "and so is the basement."
"You'll get there eventually, Dad!" Cassidy tried to reassure him as they made their way into the living room.
"I'm sure," he replied, before looking up at Melody. "Thanks again for sticking around with the house and the kids while I was in the hospital, Melody," he thanked her gratefully. "Really appreciate the huge amount of time you've spent here. I hope it didn't mess with your life in any way."
Melody shrugged. "Nah, not really," she replied nonchalantly. "I mostly just dropped by after work, and I might've slept over a few days if I was really feeling tired."
"That's no problem at all," Mike reassured her. "Now then, as for your payment…"
Melody groaned. "Oh, come on, Mike, we've been friends for, what, how long?" she asked. "I still can't believe you gave me all that money from your Vegas trip…"
"I've got something a little different in mind for my gift to you this time around," Mike replied, before seemingly changing the question. "How's Bonnet treating you?"
Melody smiled fondly as she thought of the little pink bunny animatronic. "She's amazing," she declared. "She's absolutely adorable, loves to play around without going too far, and she's great to have around whenever I'm feeling lonely. And I haven't had any problems with her since the first time I took her home."
Mike smiled. "I'm glad to hear that, because I'd like to give you another one." He glanced over at Charlie. "Would you mind getting Helpy for me?"
"Sure thing," Charlie nodded and left.
"We're giving Helpy to Melody?" Cassidy asked.
Mike nodded, before letting out a sad sigh. "If we're being completely honest with ourselves, we've barely spent any time with Helpy ever since we brought him here from Henry's old house," he explained his reasoning. "Most of the time, Helpy just ends up staying in the garage or somewhere, being deactivated and not doing anything, since we always keep getting wrapped up in doing our own thing. I think it would be best for everyone if we give Helpy to someone who will better at remembering to take care of him properly." His lips twitched into a smile. "And besides," he added, "it would be great for Bonnet to have another smol animatronic for a friend."
Susie shuffled guiltily. "Yeah, now that you've mentioned it, we really have been kinda neglecting Helpy, haven't we?" she mumbled.
"I think it's for the best," Jeremy agreed with Mike. "There's no point keeping Helpy here if we're so wrapped up in our own thoughts that we can't properly take care of him. And Melody absolutely deserves some payment for sticking around with us for so long while Dad was in the hospital."
Charlie returned to the living room, telekinetically lifting Helpy up with her powers. She turned the animatronic on, and Mike explained what was going to happen and why they were giving him to Melody. Helpy glanced up at Melody, who smiled at him and gave him a friendly wave. The little animatronic bear waved back at her and nodded, a sign that he had accepted his new owner.
"There's another animatronic in Melody's house named Bonnet," Mike added. "She's about the same size as you. I'm sure you'll be great friends!"
The idea of having another small-sized animatronic as a friend seemed to cheer Helpy considerably, and he lifted his tiny arms up towards Melody with considerably more enthusiasm than before. Melody picked him up, holding him in her hands just as she had with Bonnet. Unlike Bonnet, Helpy was a fully animatronic with more mechanical workings in his body rather than it all just being centered in the head, so the animatronic was noticeably heavier. Melody was no stranger to working with robotics, however, and she was able to keep her grip on him.
"Thanks a lot for the gift, Mike," Melody gave him a grateful smile. "I'm sure the three of us are gonna have loads of fun back at home." She glanced down at her watch. "Speaking of which, I should be going. I've actually got quite a bit of work to do back at home."
"So soon?" Cassidy asked a bit sadly. "Aww…"
"Well, I hope those projects are going well," Liz offered. "And say hi to Bonnet for us!"
"I will," Melody promised. "See you guys later."
"Bye!" everyone called back to her as the current chief engineer of Eisensteel departed from Mike's house, her second animatronic friend in tow.
Once they were gone, Mike looked back over to his kids. He was about to say something, but his stomach growled. "Oh, man…I am actually really hungry," he admitted. "The hospital food wasn't the worst I've tasted in my life, but eating the same shit over and over again sure got real old, real fast."
"Ooh," Susie perked up. "I've made some dinners for you over! They're in the fridge right now!"
"Oh?" Mike asked, clearly interested in the prospect of a dinner made by one of his kids. "Lead the way, then!"
Susie guided Mike over to the kitchen as her father pushed himself over there with his wheelchair. The ghost kids had initially been concerned that Mike wouldn't be able to move around his house at all without their help, but fortunately he was perfectly capable of maneuvering with the wheelchair on his own after several sessions of physical therapy in the hospital. Susie opened the refrigerator door and…
"…wow," Mike whistled. "Are those all pizzas?"
The former Chica inhabitant looked a bit sheepish. "It was always one of my favorite things to do," she admitted. "Plus, it was a nice distraction to keep my mind off…you know…"
She didn't mention the fact that cooking had been a hobby to keep her mind off the fact that her father had been grievously wounded and stuck in a hospital, and Mike didn't force her to confront the issue. Instead, Mike reached out towards one of the pizzas, a Meat Lovers slice with sausage, ham, and pepperoni, reheated it in a microwave, and took a bite out of it.
"Damn, this is really good!" he whistled. He gave Susie an appreciative glance. "I still don't know how you're able to cook so well when you can't even taste the food that you're cooking normally."
Susie grinned happily at her father. "I had a LOT of practice as Chica," she explained. "And the staff and kids were always saying how good the pizza was. I don't think they ever realized I was the one making a lot of it."
"It's Fazbear Entertainment," Fritz scoffed. "Do you really expect them to pay attention to shit like that?"
"True," Mike acknowledged. He ate a few more slices until he was feeling full, and then wheeled himself back over to the living room. Once the family had all gathered back in the living room, he turned to face them. "So," he spread his arms out into the air, "what do you guys want to do? I'm finally back here, and I'm open to suggestions."
The kids glanced at each other, before Gabe finally spoke for them all. "Actually, Dad…we kinda wanted to talk about what you're going to do about Fazbear Entertainment, Glitchtrap, and all that stuff," the former Freddy inhabitant answered.
"Yeah," Jeremy agreed, "we've been stuck at home on our computers and playing video games, because with you in the hospital, there's literally nothing we can do besides post on the online forums and give you advice when you call."
"We can work together a lot better now that you're here," Fritz pointed out. "And it'd be great if you could tell us what the hell is going on with Fazbear Entertainment right now."
"I can certainly give you that," Mike replied with a nod. "Basically, that one exec's confession took everyone by surprise. Now, everyone knows that Fazbear Entertainment is making animatronics to be sold to people's homes, and they know that one of those animatronics badly malfunctioned and injured someone seriously enough to send them to the hospital. They don't know who the person is, and they don't know just how fucked up the animatronic was behaving before the actual attack. But Fazbear Entertainment's reputation is teetering on a knife's edge as it is, and even this might be enough to possibly torpedo the whole project."
"Could it be a good thing if that happens?" Liz wondered.
Mike shook his head. "Right now, this new version of Fazbear Entertainment has this tendency to put all their eggs in one basket," he explained. "They did it with their VR project, and they're doing it now with this animatronic project. They're tunneling so hard, I don't think they've even opened a single new restaurant lately. Which means that if this project goes down the drain…"
"…the rest of Fazbear Entertainment more than likely goes down with it," Jeremy finished.
"And then we're all screwed," Cassidy concluded, "because then Glitchtrap's victim disappears and can do whatever the hell Glitchtrap wants her to do."
"Yep," Mike confirmed grimly, "which we can't let that happen. That's pretty much where things stand right now."
"Hang on," Gabe interrupted, a thought suddenly occurring his mind. "Are you still going to be accepting Fazbear Entertainment's offer to be the new head of the Special Delivery project?"
"I am," Mike confirmed, a smirk growing on his lips. "And I'm actually going to be making this a public announcement. Nightmare fucking around with the execs might have put our plans to keep Fazbear Entertainment alive at risk, but they've also helped in making sure that those executive assholes are pretty much forced to do what I say."
"I'm not sure how much I like the idea of Dad going public," Susie commented with a sigh. "This kinda goes against the whole idea of keeping ourselves as secret as possible."
"That's more for us than for Dad," Liz pointed out. "It's not like he's a complete shut-in. He still goes out every so often to hang out with his friends and do things around town."
"You're still doing all this for free, right?" Jeremy asked Mike.
"That's right," the man confirmed.
"Good," the former Bonnie inhabitant replied, a smirk growing on his face. "You should make sure that the whole world knows that when you go public," he explained. "Make it completely clear that you're doing this because you want to make sure the animatronics are safe to be delivered, and that Fazbear Entertainment can't bribe you into cutting corners and doing what they want you do."
Mike smirked. "Glad we're on the same page," he nodded approvingly at his son. "Because that was my plan too. When I make my announcement, I'm going to make it abundantly clear that I'm taking over management of the Special Delivery project purely based on principle, and that Fazbear Entertainment can't buy me since I'm going to be working for free."
"Honestly, the idea of delivering animatronics to people's houses isn't a terrible idea by itself," Liz admitted. "I don't think I've seen anyone else do that kind of thing before."
"The problem is that Fazbear Entertainment is the one doing it," Cassidy pointed out. "And Fazbear Entertainment always fucks everything up that they touch."
"It'll be a lot better if Dad's the one running the show, though," Gabe added. "We know what the main problem is. Glitchtrap's victim, whoever they are, is putting in dangerous and malicious code in the animatronics that is causing them to attack people. Unlike Fazbear Entertainment, Dad wouldn't waste any time in going through every single animatronic and cleaning all that shit out of the animatronics."
"Which brings us to the next point," Charlie decided to redirect the conversation on towards another equally important issue. "What should Dad do once he's actually head of the project and goes over to wherever they're making the animatronics?"
"He needs to go over everything about the animatronics," Jeremy answered. "And I do mean EVERYTHING. Even if we ignore the fact that Glitchtrap's victim is running around, that doesn't mean Fazbear Entertainment didn't come up with some other dumbass ideas that could be just as dangerous to everyone else."
Mike groaned. "That's going to be a major pain in the ass to deal with," he muttered. "It has to be done, but that doesn't mean I'm going to enjoy doing it."
"And we should all be there," Susie added. "We can help Dad look around the place, and if we see anything weird or suspicious, we can tell Dad about it."
"Some of us can," Gabe interrupted warningly, "but at least 3 of us should be next to Dad and protecting him at all times. If Glitchtrap's victim catches Dad alone and off-guard somewhere, there's a chance that Glitchtrap might cause her to attack and try to kill him. For all we know, she might be completely psycho crazy by now thanks to Glitchtrap mucking around in her mind."
Everyone gave the former Freddy inhabitant a horrified glance. None of them had considered the possibility that Glitchtrap's possession victim, if she was still working at the animatronic facility, might try to remove Mike from the picture directly and permanently if given the chance. "Oh, shit…" Fritz mumbled, "this is sounding a hell of a lot more dangerous than it was a second ago."
Mike grimaced. "It doesn't help that at best, I'm stuck with a fucking cast on my arm and my leg, and at worst, I'll still be in the wheelchair before I start working at Fazbear Entertainment," he grumbled. "Which means I'm a lot weaker in a fight than I'd normally be."
The ghost kids fell silent as they realized just how vulnerable of a position Mike would actually be if Glitchtrap's victim went completely batshit crazy and decided to straight-up attack him. Even if he did see the attack coming, it wasn't any guarantee that he'd be able to fight off that attack. "…I'm really starting to hate this whole idea again," Cassidy admitted.
Suddenly, Jeremy perked up as he came up with an idea. "Ooh, I know how we can fix this!" he exclaimed. "What if Dad hires some bodyguards?"
All eyes turned to the former Bonnie inhabitant. "What, you mean like actual living bodyguards?" Liz asked for clarification.
"Yeah!" Jeremy explained. "One or two people standing next to Dad at all times, ready to strike back in case Glitchtrap's victim goes completely off the deep end. They can have guns to shoot anyone who tries to attack him directly, and those electric rods to shock any animatronic in case she hacks one of them to attack Dad in the middle of the factory! They're the ones who can protect Dad in case shit really hits the fan!"
Gabe blinked, before a smile started to spread across his face. "That's a really good idea, Jeremy!" he praised. "If Dad has some bodyguards protecting him, then we don't have to worry nearly as much about if someone's going to attack him!"
"Give them those electric shock rods I used to beat the shit out of Toy Bonnie and some stun guns, and they should be able to take care of pretty much any threat that comes my way," Mike nodded approvingly. "And of course, I'll be carrying my own electric taser to give anybody who tries to attack me a massive shock."
Susie breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay, I'm feeling a lot better about this now." She gave Jeremy a quick smile. "Great idea, Jeremy!"
The former Bonnie inhabitant grinned back. "Thanks, Susie."
Fritz, on the other hand, still looked a bit skeptical. "Hang on, are there even any people around here who'd even WANT to be a bodyguard to begin with?" he interrupted. If nothing happens, then just standing around Dad while he doesn't his job sounds like it's gonna be really fucking boring."
It was a surprisingly good point. "Maybe we could ask one of the Nightmares to do the job in human form?" Cassidy asked hesitantly, as though she were questioning her own suggestion.
Charlie immediately vetoed that idea with a shake of her head. "I really don't think that's a good idea," she countered. "First of all, Nightmare might be willing to help us if we absolutely need to, but he's not just going to do a regular job that any old human can do. He even might get insulted if we ask. And secondly, we've just seen how dealing with demons can backfire. That's the reason why Dad has to go public now in the first place, instead of keeping his new position secret. We can keep Nightmare updated, but I think we should avoid calling on his help unless it's to deal with something that we absolutely, 100% cannot deal with ourselves. I have a feeling Nightmare would feel the same way if he were here."
Mike chuckled. "And besides, I think it'll be easier to hire a bodyguard than you guys think. You'd be amazed just what people will do for a little bit of extra cash…and I've got plenty of that extra cash to spare."
"We can look up bodyguard hiring services for you while you recover," Gabe offered. "How long are you going to wait to get better before starting your new job as head of the project?"
"Two to three weeks, though I'll stick with two unless something drastic happens," Mike answered with hesitation. "I'd like to see if I can get off this goddamn wheelchair if possible. If not, then I'll go ahead with the new job anyway and just deal with the wheelchair."
"I think taking some time off first would be a good idea," Charlie commented. "You just got out of the hospital, Dad. You need time to rest."
Mike rolled his eyes. "Thanks, mom," he drawled, earning amused snickers from the other ghost kids.
"All right, then," Gabe declared once the laughter had subsided. "We have a game plan. We know what we're going to do once Dad starts his new job, and we have several ways to keep him safe. Things might not have gone according to plan, but we've got to make do with what we have."
"I'm just glad we're gonna actually be able to DO shit for once," Fritz grumbled.
Mike chuckled. "You and me both, Fritz," he agreed. "As soon as I make my announcement and sort out the details, all of us can finally start cleaning up the mess that Fazbear Entertainment made together." The full magnitude of the responsibility and its implications suddenly hit him, and he couldn't resist the urge to let out a groan. "Let's just hope they haven't fucked things up so badly that even I can't salvage this shit…"
/
A/N: This is one of those "transitional" chapters that I view as a necessary evil. A chapter necessary to advance the plot, but doesn't have a lot of exciting stuff going on in and of itself. The dialogue in this chapter needed to be said, but I apologize if it was dull for you guys to read.
One of the things I want to address here is Helpy being given away to Melody. Bringing Helpy into the family was, in my opinion, one of the biggest mistakes I made in writing this fic. For the simple reason that there simply wasn't any opportunity to actually use Helpy properly. Either I would forget to include him in a filler chapter, or he wouldn't be appropriate to use in the more serious FNaF-related arcs. In fact, off the top of my head, I can't think of a SINGLE time I've used Helpy in this fic in a meaningful way. He's been completely shafted to the wayside, and since it wouldn't make any sense for me to incorporate him in important story arcs in the future, I've decided that the best thing to do would be for Mike to give him away to Melody so that I don't have to worry about the continuous (and frankly insignificant) problem of how to incorporate his presence into the Schmidt family, and that Helpy himself can be happier with Melody and Bonnet. Realistically, if I were to ever rewrite this fic from scratch (which I never will due to time constraints), I would have either removed Helpy completely to begin with, or have Mike give him to Melody MUCH earlier (probably even earlier than when he gave Bonnet to her).
As for their plans, the ghost kids have raised a very important point. All seven of them will be present alongside Mike when he starts his new job as the head of the special delivery project, and with eight people constantly vigilant for the identity of Glitchtrap's victim and any potential threat from her, they'll be able to identify a threat from miles away.
But just because you can see a threat coming, doesn't mean that you can properly defend yourself from it. Mike is still crippled from his injuries, and if Vanny decided to pull out a giant carving knife and bumrush him, the ghost kids wouldn't be able to directly stop her without forcefully using the full extent of their powers, which would put them at an unacceptably high risk of being exposed. Subtlety can only get you so far, after all.
Which is why Jeremy's idea of bodyguards is so good. They can come equipped with stun guns to (nonlethally) shoot down any direct attacks, and electric shock rods to smack down any hostile animatronics hijacked by Vanny into attacking Mike. There are no guarantees, obviously, but between the bodyguards and the ghost kids, Mike will be as reasonably safe as he can possibly be in an unfamiliar environment like the animatronic factory.
Of course, I haven't written down all the Schmidt family's discussion and plans. I need to have SOMETHING to write about when Mike starts his job, after all…
Sorry this chapter has been relatively stale. I promise we'll get right back into actually doing things next chapter.
Hope you guys enjoyed!
