A/N: With the transitional chapter out of the way, we can now get started on some actual plot advancement!

Also, this is super late, but I've started a Persona 5 fanfic on AAOx3 called "Breaking the Rigged Game," in which Ren Amamiya (Joker) goes back in time and uses both his knowledge of the timeline and his hilariously overpowered nature as a NG+ Persona protagonist with max stat Personas to save Goro Akechi and fuck up Shido's and Yaldabaoth's plans. If you guys could give it a look over there (under the username Lord_Tenebros), I'd highly appreciate it!

ThePencilDude: Mike hasn't really met a special someone that he's had romantic feelings for. The closest he's had is his friendship with Melody, but that's still up in the air (maybe because I'M still up in the air of whether I want them to be romantically involved or not). He's either straight or aromantic, and whether it's because he hasn't really met anyone he feels that way about or he's just not interested in romance is entirely up to reader interpretation.

Chapter 167 – Interviews, Schmidt-Style

"Hey, guys!" Susie shouted. "Fazbear Entertainment's on the news!"

The ghostly family abandoned whatever they were doing to crowd in front of the TV, where a representative from Fazbear Entertainment was being interviewed by a news reporter.

"We had gifted an early animatronic to a loyal and valued customer of Fazbear Entertainment," the representative was explaining with an admittedly convincing expression of solemnity and regret. "All of us were, and still are, horrified to learn that the animatronic had malfunctioned so dramatically that the customer in question ended up in the hospital because of it. The moment we received word of this terrible news, we immediately suspended all operations regarding the Special Delivery project and launched an investigation. However, before we could finalize our statements to the public or even collect enough information to understand the nature of the malfunction, Mr. Culpo made his statements to the public."

"Wow…" Fritz muttered. "If I didn't know any better, I'd actually believe the shit this guy is saying."

"I don't necessarily think he's lying," Gabe pointed out. "Nightmare scared the shit out of several of them, so they might have actually been doing the right thing for once. Even if they were doing it for selfish reasons."

"This is Fazbear Entertainment we're talking about," Liz sighed. "At this point, I'd rather they do the right thing for the wrong reasons than not do the right thing at all."

"Public perception of your company and its project has been…highly controversial, to put it mildly," the interviewer commented. "There are several detractors online who are claiming that your company was merely trying to cover up the incident, so that you could sell faulty and highly dangerous animatronics to an unsuspecting public without bothering to put in the time, effort, and resources to identify the cause of the malfunction and correct it."

"That is absolutely ridiculous," the Fazbear representative asserted. "Mr. Culpo's exposure of the incident occurred merely days after the company as a whole learned of the incident ourselves. I am well aware of our less-than-stellar reputation, but even the most exemplary of companies would require at least a few days to properly organize and initiate an investigation. I can assure you that once we learned of this incident, we immediately stopped production to ensure that all our animatronics are safe for use and to find the cause of the malfunction. And I am happy to say that, even with the limited time that we have been given, our investigations have already borne fruit."

"Oh?" the Fazbear executive raised an eyebrow. "And what have you found out?"

"That the animatronics' programming was corrupted from the outside," a new voice interrupted the conversation. Mike's voice.

"Hey, it's Dad!" Fritz exclaimed as Mike entered the room. He was still on his wheelchair, but he was wheeling himself onto the stage instead of having another person do the work for him. A clear sign that he was willing to do all of the hard work himself to get where he needed to go, and didn't need to depend on others.

"Go, Dad!" Liz cheered.

"And who do I have the pleasure of speaking to?" the interviewer asked.

"My name is Mike Schmidt," Mike politely introduced himself. "I was once the head robotics engineer of Eisensteel Inc., and worked there for several years before I decided to retire early. As part of the early stages of their new Special Delivery entertainment, Fazbear Entertainment were looking for an experienced but independent individual to test their animatronics before they could be mass-produced and released. They knew of me based on the work I had done at Eisensteel, and asked if they could send me one of their first animatronics to test its functionality."

He gestured towards the casts on his leg and on his arm. "Take a guess how well THAT turned out," he deadpanned.

The reporter's eyes widened. "Are you saying that…"

"…yes," Mike confirmed with a single nod, his face betraying nothing. "I was the patron that the animatronic from Fazbear Entertainment attacked. I was able to destroy the animatronic, but it broke my arm and my leg in the process, and I needed several days in the hospital to recover."

"On behalf of Fazbear Entertainment, I can only give you our sincerest apologies," the Fazbear representative offered, with a tone that was either sincere or a very convincing falsehood. "We had no idea how such a terrible accident could have occurred."

"Ah, but that's the thing," Mike's gaze hardened. "It was no accident."

"What?" Both the representative and the interviewer got up on their chairs, clearly hearing this for the time. "What do you mean?" the interviewer asked.

"After the accident occurred, I had a friend of mine from Eisensteel investigate the remains of the animatronic that attacked me," Mike explained. "I wanted to know if there was some malicious external programming that caused the accident, or if it was a glitch caused by sheer incompetence." The man smiled, but it was cold and devoid of any friendliness. "If it was just because Fazbear Entertainment screwed up that badly, I wouldn't have bothered informing them of the incident. I would've just gone to the public immediately, exposed the disaster that had just occurred, and done everything I can to get Fazbear Entertainment shut down. I would've made sure everyone knew that Fazbear Entertainment had been so incompetent in programming their animatronics and so negligent in testing, that the first one they sent out to a random person malfunctioned so spectacularly that it very nearly got them killed. Heck, if I didn't know how to deal with animatronics and didn't have backups prepared, I probably would have been killed that night."

"But you didn't go to the public after this event," the interviewer observed. "You chose to report your findings to Fazbear Entertainment, instead of getting your revenge. Which means that you must've discovered something that must have convinced you to approach things differently."

"I did indeed," Mike confirmed with a solemn nod. "My friend, whose name I will not reveal out of respect for their privacy, discovered that someone or something had introduced malicious programming into the animatronics. Malicious programming that was dormant for the first few moments after the animatronic was turned on, and only triggered several hours after the fact. Which complicates the whole issue significantly."

"As soon as Mr. Schmidt so courteously informed us of this situation, we immediately focused our investigation on that fact," the Fazbear representative helpfully supplied. "As I've mentioned before, we've stopped all production and any plans to deliver the animatronics to the public. And we've also started to re-examine the backgrounds of our employees to see if there are any…concerning irregularities."

Mike shook his head. "But that's not enough," he commented. "That's not nearly enough for me to be satisfied that Fazbear Entertainment's animatronics will be safe for the public. Which is why, after much discussion and debate with Fazbear Entertainment's executive board, I will be accepting a new position as chief of the Special Delivery project."

"Oh my!" the interviewer exclaimed, completely taken by surprise by this announcement.

"You heard me correctly," Mike affirmed. "As of now, I will be the head of Fazbear Entertainment's latest project. It might not be the most conventional way to get promoted all the way to the top," a smirk briefly appeared on his face, "but I managed to be very persuasive."

"Mr. Schmidt provided a very convincing argument as to why he should be hired and elevated to the position of our project," the Fazbear representative added. "While he may not have worked under as a robotics engineer in the past, his pedigree under Eisensteel is very impressive and even a basic background check will thoroughly demonstrate his expertise."

"I made sure to take a look at my friend's findings the moment I got out of the hospital, and confirmed them myself," Mike added. "Which makes the whole situation much more complicated."

"How so?" the interviewer asked curiously.

"Because now, we don't know what's going on behind the scenes," Mike elaborated solemnly. "If it had been a glitch or faulty programming caused by Fazbear Entertainment's own staff, then that would've been easy to explain." An unpleasant smile twisted his lips. "And I would've also made sure that it was the last mistake that they would ever make."

"But that's not what you found," the interviewer pressed.

"No," Mike shook his head. "External programming had been introduced that specifically caused the animatronics to attack. Which means we have no idea where that came from. Maybe one of the workers at Fazbear Entertainment has either gone mad, or is a sick piece of shit who put that scrap code in the animatronics on purpose. Or maybe it's someone from outside the company who infiltrated it and put the code in the animatronics at night when nobody was around to stop them. If it's the second case, then it might not even be Fazbear Entertainment's fault." Mike frowned, a disturbed look appearing on his face. "If someone from the outside could successfully intrude and mess up the animatronics' programming, then that intruder could do the same thing to other machines and other companies, causing them to explode or something possibly even worse than an animatronic beating me up."

The interviewer looked alarmed at this. "Are you saying that there's a saboteur out there who might be hacking robotics companies and causing their machines to catastrophically malfunction?" he wondered.

"What I'm saying is that we have no idea if this is an isolated event or the start of a more widespread problem," Mike answered back. "Which is one of the biggest reasons why I'm accepting the new position as head of the Special Delivery project. My first and biggest priority is to find out just what is going on with the animatronics, discover just how extensive the problem is, and do everything that I can to make sure that the animatronics are safe and free of any dangerous programming before I deem them ready to be sold to the public. I'm also placing the security of the manufacturing area itself as another top priority. If we can find the criminal who's hacking the animatronics, then that would solve all of our problems right then and there."

"Mr. Schmidt's hiring and elevation to the new chief of our Special Delivery project is meant to demonstrate our company's commitment to both the safety and the satisfaction of our customers," the Fazbear Entertainment representative added. "As the unfortunate victim of our malfunctioning animatronic, he has more motivation than anyone else to ensure that such a narrowly averted tragedy never happens again."

"And how much will you be compensated for your services?" the interviewer asked. The question he was about to ask was rather a bold and personal one, but his curiosity was outweighing his decorum at this moment. "If I may be frank, Fazbear Entertainment over the past few months has gathered a rather…controversial reputation for cutting corners, scandals, and trying to make money at any cost. There will very likely be some who will view you as nothing more than another corporate pawn, Mr. Schmidt. What would you say to them?"

Mike smirked. "I'm well aware that this could perception could come up, and while technically this isn't anybody's business, I'll give a straight answer anyway. I will not be accepting any sort of payment as the head of the Special Delivery project. I'll be doing this work entirely for free."

The Fazbear Entertainment representative had known about this, but the interviewer's eyes widened. "You'll be working for free?" he repeated incredulously.

"I accepted this job for several reasons," Mike answered determinedly. "The biggest one being that, after the accident that sent me to the hospital, I owe it to myself to discover what's going on with these animatronics and to make sure that they're safe for other people to be around. I also have to admit that, by itself, the idea of selling animatronic performers to people's houses is a unique and novel idea, and I'm curious to see just how viable this idea can really be." Mike's gaze immediately hardened. "What I don't give a shit about is the money. I couldn't care less how much Fazbear Entertainment pays me. They don't have any power over me in that regard. And right now, they have pretty much the last of my goodwill. If they ever try to bribe my silence or threaten me into doing what they want," the smirk returned, and this time it was decidedly unpleasant, "I have my ways of making sure that the public will be first to know."

The Fazbear Entertainment representative coughed. "There's no need for that, Mr. Schmidt," he hastily reassured him. "As per our agreement, you'll have free reign to organize and run our Special Delivery project as you see fit, so long as you can provide valid justifications for doing so."

Mike gave a pointed glance over at the Fazbear Entertainment executive. "I'll hold the company to that," was his only, curt reply.

"Mr. Schmidt," the interviewer got everyone's attention back to him. "While I certainly admire your dedication to your new job, I can't help but notice that you're still in a wheelchair, and with both of your left limbs stuck in those casts. Do you really think that you'll be up to the task, even though you're still injured?"

Mike nodded thoughtfully in response. "That's a good question," he acknowledged. "One that I believe I've found a solution to. I still have yet to finalize the details, however."

"I see. Well, thank you for taking the time to speak with me today, Mr. Schmidt," the interviewer thanked him appreciatively. "I wish you the best of luck in discovering the truth behind the malicious programming that you found within the animatronics."

"I have a job to do, and I'm going to make damn sure that it gets done," Mike promised, before an attendant came to wheel him out of the studio.

Later, Back at the Schmidt House

"So what did you guys think?" Mike asked with an amused smirk.

Fritz grinned back at him. "Perfect," the former Foxy inhabitant declared. "You did pretty much everything you wanted to, dad!"

Gabe was a little more cautious. "You and that the Fazbear Entertainment rep didn't look like you were too happy with each other," he pointed out. "Was that really a good idea?"

"That was actually on purpose," Mike explained. "I needed to make it clear that Fazbear Entertainment and I might be working together, but we don't see eye-to-eye on everything. If I looked like I was too cozy with them, the public might just think that I'm another one of their stooges."

"I think it worked," Susie commented. The former Chica inhabitant was reading the posts on one of the online forums that they anonymously commented on. "There's a lot of people who are pretty surprised and happy about you taking over the project, Dad. They're calling you the "the first person to work for Fazbear Entertainment who actually gives a shit" and things like that." She giggled. "I think they're really sold on the idea of you working for free."

"Good," Mike replied dryly. "That was the whole point of saying that in the first place."

"I noticed you didn't actually announce that you were looking for bodyguards, though," Liz realized. "Wouldn't that interview have been a good time to announce that?"

Mike shook his head. "No, actually. If I let those plans be widely known to the public, then that might give Glitchtrap's possession victim critical information on how I'm defending myself from her and how to deal with their attacks. Hell, depending on how well she can hide her Glitchtrap-induced craziness, she might even try to pose as a bodyguard hire, only to stab me in the back when I least expect it. By doing things this way instead, I can keep this part of my plans a secret until it's too late for her to do anything. Heck, we're technically already putting a target on my back by going public as it is."

The ghosts gave each other queasy looks but didn't say anything. They and their father had both known the risks of going public, and now it was up for them to accept those risks and do everything in their power to counteract them.

"So how are you going to find a bodyguard, Dad?" Cassidy asked curiously.

"…that part I'm still trying to figure out," Mike admitted. "I'm not sure what's the best way to go about it. Part of me was tempted to broadcast this on the Internet, but then Glitchtrap's victim might find out about it. The other part, the one that I think is the better idea, is to just go out into Hurricane and let it slip that I'm looking to hire some bodyguards. Less chance of Glitchtrap's victim finding out, but it's also less reliable and less people will find out about it."

"We can try and help you figure this out," Jeremy offered.

Mike smiled. "Thanks, Jeremy. I'm sure between the eight of us, we'll think of something."

The Next Day

As it turned out, they wouldn't need to come up with a solution by themselves after all.

"Dad?" Charlie called out to him. "There's somebody who wants to come into the house at the front gate. I think he looks kind of familiar."

Mike went over to look at the cameras. And to his surprise, he did recognize the figure that was waiting for him outside of the front game. "Isn't that the thief who tried to break into our house?" he asked. "Colm, or whatever his name was?"

"Yeah, I think that's him!" Gabe agreed, recognition appearing on his face. "I recognize him now."

"Do you think he's here for the bodyguarding job?" Susie asked.

"There's only one way to find out," Liz replied.

Mike, clearly sharing the same thought as Liz, asked that very question to Colm. The former thief confirmed this to be the case, and Mike opened the gate for him to enter his grounds. From there, it didn't take very long for Colm to park outside of the doors to his house and knock on the door.

"Glad to see you're trying to come into my house the right way this time," Mike joking commented as he allowed Colm into the house. The ghost kids didn't bother to hide themselves, having already revealed their existence to him beforehand. They were neither friendly nor hostile this time around, instead watching Colm carefully with neutral expressions. It did make him feel a little unsettled, but they were nowhere near as terrifying as they had been the first time around.

"Heh…touché,"Colm acknowledged with a wry smirk that vanished as quickly as it came. "I saw your TV interview on the news the other day, and I know you're about to be the head of some big project. The money you gave me back when I tried to rob your house has been a big help, but my wife Neimi and I are still not doing as well as we'd like. So I guess when it comes down to it, I'm here cause I wanted to see if there was any job I could do for you, and see how much I can get paid for it."

Mike raised an eyebrow. "Rather abrupt, just asking me out of the blue like that, isn't it?" he commented.

Colm had the grace to look sheepish. "I didn't have any way to contacting you," he admitted.

Mike smirked and brushed the issue aside with a wave of his hand. "Nah, don't worry about it. As a matter of fact, I do have a job that I'd be willing to offer you. How does the idea of being a bodyguard sound?"

Whatever Colm was expecting, it wasn't that. "Wait, what? A bodyguard?" he repeated, clearly confused.

"That's right," Mike nodded in confirmation. "I need somebody by my side at all times to protect me from harm while I'm working over at the factory where they're making the animatronics. Either from animatronics going haywire from evil programming, or from anybody who might try to attack me directly."

Colm's eyes fell on the casts covering Mike's arm and leg, some of his enthusiasm about the prospect of a job already fading away. "How dangerous is this, exactly?" he asked, notably more wary than he had been seconds ago. "What the heck is going on over at that factory?"

"I don't know," Mike answered honestly. "For all we know, it could have literally been just the one animatronic that attacked me that could have been hacked, or it could be many of them. There's no way to find out how bad the situation is until we actually go in there and figure this shit out ourselves."

Colm silently contemplated Mike's answer for several seconds. "If it's a human you want me to protect you from, I don't have a problem with that," he finally commented. "I know my way around a fight, and I can kick some ass when the chips are down. But if you want me to fight a freaking robot? Especially when it's strong enough to break your arm and leg?" He frowned. "I hope you can give me something that'll actually protect me against something like that, because if you expect me to fight robots with just a rod to whack them with, then I'm outta here."

Mike shook his head. "Absolutely not," he immediately replied. "I wouldn't let my potential bodyguards get into that kind of dangerous situation unless I was sure that they were thoroughly prepared to deal with it. Let me take you over to my garage, and I'll show you the tools I've used to defend myself."

Mike, Colm, and the ghosts made their way over to Mike's garage. Once they were inside, Mike showed Colm the bullet and knife-proof vest he would be wearing over at Fazbear Entertainment's electronics factory, as well as the shocker device, the electrostaff rod, and the Freddy Fazbear mask. A combination of tools that Fazbear Entertainment had supplied him with, and that Mike had prepared for himself. "Unfortunately, I don't know how good the Freddy Fazbear mask actually is at fooling the animatronics," Mike admitted once he had explained what each of these tools had been used for. "I tried to use it on Toy Bonnie, but even though it slowed him down for a bit, it didn't stop him from actually attacking me. The shocker was more useful and can hit animatronics from further away, but it might not stop them completely by itself." He grabbed the electric rod and held it in his hand. "This electric rod was the one thing that finally put Toy Bonnie down, so from what I know it seems to be the most reliable, but it means you have to actually be up close and personal with the animatronic to smash them with it. Which causes its own set of problems."

"I can imagine," Colm acknowledged. He considered himself a fairly agile person, but he definitely didn't have a lot of upper body strength, and if an animatronic was already in his face then that meant things had already gone horribly wrong. "But I'm glad to see that you're actually prepared to deal with those evil robots."

"For sure," Mike agreed. "There's no way I'd ask you to fight an animatronic bare-handed. But I'd ask you not to use those electric weapons against other human beings unless it's literally the difference between life and death. I don't know how powerful they are, but considering the electric rod could fry an animatronic to death, I don't want to think about what those voltages can do to a human."

Colm shuddered at the idea of electrocuting a fellow human being until they were nothing but a fried crisp. "Point taken," he muttered.

"If I find other weapons that can defend us from animatronics, I'll be sure to get them for us before we start working over there," Mike promised.

"And you'll have us helping you, too!" Susie quickly chimed in. The ghosts had largely remained silent while they let Mike give Colm his explanations, but they had their own contributions to offer.

"We'll be looking around the factory too, and because we're ghosts, we can fly into the air and look around in places that other people can't look at," Jeremy added. "Some of us will be next to Dad keeping an eye out for things, while the others will be flying around and looking for any sign of trouble from far away."

"Between you, Dad, and us, we'll be unstoppable!" Fritz boasted. "That jackass who hacked the animatronics won't get a second chance to fuck things up this time!"

"Calm down, Fritz," Mike chided. To be honest, he was a little surprised and relieved that Fritz hadn't given away the fact that they already knew more about the truth regarding Glitchtrap's victim and Fazbear Entertainment than they should have.

"You're not gonna actually be haunting the place, right?" Colm questioned. "I feel like things will go to hell real fast if things start floating around in the air and people start screaming about the factory is haunted by ghosts and shit."

"Nah," Gabe shook his head. "We'd mostly be surveillance. We'll act and do things if we really need to, but even then it would be subtle things that can be explained naturally."

"Got it," Colm nodded. "How much are you going to be paying me?" he asked.

Mike didn't even hesitate for answering. "$2500 a week," he answered. "That's $10000 a month, for as long as we're there."

Colm whistled appreciatively at the offer. $2500 a week was more than what he got every 2 weeks on the jobs that he had worked at previously. It would definitely cover his and his wife's needs for a good long while, so long as they were careful with how they spent the money. And while he would normally be very suspicious about such a generous offer, Mike had already proven his character without any doubt when he had given him the free $5000 from his vault instead of just calling the police and chucking him to jail.

It was a very reasonable offer, and in the best-case scenario, this would be a relatively low-effort job with no danger and the easiest money he'd ever made in his life.

But Colm knew full well that the best-case scenario often turned out to be the least likely to happen. "I think everything you've said and done is fairly reasonable, but I'm not sure I'm comfortable with the idea of doing this job entirely by myself." An idea suddenly struck him. "Actually, I think I might know somebody who might be on board to being a second bodyguard. He's a lot more muscular and a lot stronger than I am, so he's probably better at fighting an animatronic if shit hits the fan."

Mike nodded thoughtfully. "I'll have to meet him myself to see if he's good for the job, but I can understand wanting a second person as a bodyguard besides just you. Does he have any connection to Fazbear Entertainment?"

Colm shook his head and snorted. "Nah. Heck, I don't even know if he knows about the shit that's been going on. But he's a good guy for sure, I've been hanging out with him for years and he gets along great with my wife."

Mike smiled. "Well then, I'm looking forward to meeting him. The pay rate will be the same for him as it is for you."

Colm grinned. "I'm sure he'd love to hear that. Now let me tell you a bit about him. To start, his name is Hector Armads…"

Meanwhile, in an Unknown Location…

A young woman turned the TV off, having just learned of the latest development that would affect her work environment. Her companion, the one who had followed her within her mind ever since she had played that VR game, was silent as he contemplated the news. She could not see her new companion, but she could feel the disquiet and concern emanating and touching her mind and soul.

"This is a rather unfortunate development," the glitch-like entity who had joined with her mused after several seconds of silence. "Whoever this Mike Schmidt is, it seems that he is actually committed to undoing our work, unlike the fool before him who was content to allow us to carry on as we pleased. He may prove to be quite the formidable threat to our plans, especially since he has already recognized the fundamentals of our work with regards to the animatronics."

"What should we do?" the woman asked demurely to the entity who had taken over her life as the one being she should follow above all else.

"If only we had more animatronics reprogrammed to serve our purposes, we could perhaps have launched a massive attack upon our new enemy and drowned him under a sea of metal," Glitchtrap mused, before shaking his head. "But perhaps not. Perhaps, such an overwhelming and blatant show of force might cause those fools in Fazbear Entertainment to panic and shut the project down entirely, assuming that this Schmidt doesn't survive and expose this kind of catastrophe to the public himself. No…quite unfortunately, a mass attack may not be possible."

"If we do nothing, all the hard work that we've done will be for nothing," the woman warned.

"I'm aware of that!" Glitchtrap snapped back, before forcing himself to calm down. "We will not stand idly by and watch the fruits of our labor go to waste. If Schmidt thinks he can simply undo our work without any consequences, then he will soon learn a very painful lesson about the reality."

Within the recesses of his victim's mind, the glitch-like incarnation of William Afton grinned sinisterly. "Let us arrange a welcoming party for your new boss, shall we…my dear Vanny?"

/

A/N: Things are certainly moving along in a rather interesting way, aren't they?

For the first time, we actually get to see the perspective of Vanny and Glitchtrap, the main antagonists of Special Delivery and Security Breach! Just a glimpse, mind you, but more than enough to get an understanding of what they're planning and just how Glitchtrap has dominated Vanny's mind without the advantages that Mike had to protect himself from such an intrusion.

Both Mike and Glitchtrap have already developed plans around each other's actions, and Mike hasn't even started his job yet. Glitchtrap knows that Mike is coming to ruin his plans for corrupting the Special Delivery animatronics with malevolent programming, and is already preparing a "welcome surprise" for this new threat to his plans (although he doesn't realize just how dangerous this new chief actually is, since this version of Glitchtrap never crossed paths with Mike and doesn't know just how horribly other incarnations of himself has suffered at the man's hands). On the other hand, Mike kept the fact that he is hiring bodyguards a complete secret, so if Glitchtrap is expecting an easy kill on a crippled man in a wheelchair, he's about to get an unpleasant surprise…

Next chapter, Mike starts his new job as the head of the Special Delivery project. And he's going to have a VERY interesting first day, to put it mildly…

Hope you guys enjoyed!