A/N: Well, that was a fun two chapters in Mike's dream world. Now back to some more FNAF-related stuff. There aren't many chapters left to go in Special Delivery, I predict maybe 2 to 3 chapters left before we fully bring things to a close on this part of the FNaF timeline.

There's going to be a time skip in this chapter so that we can speed things along, but there isn't all that much left to do now that Glitchtrap and Vanny have decided to gracefully take the L, rather than risk getting discovered and ruining anything.

ThePencilDude: My current plan is to have Mike die of old age. I certainly won't give him a death that is less dignified than he deserves.

Chapter 180 – A Limited Victory Part 1

After a night of intense Pokémon battling, Mike and the ghost kids were in good spirits and ready to get back to work at Fazbear Entertainment's factory. None of them had any idea that, that very same night, Glitchtrap and Vanny had made one final attempt to infiltrate the factory and see if hacking or corrupting the animatronics was still a feasible option…only for them to ultimately abandon the idea in the end.

As such, it was a surprise to them both when one of the night shift workers went up to them, looking a little hesitant and uncertain. "What's up?" Mike asked invitingly. "Is there something wrong?"

"I'm…not sure," the night shift worker replied after a few seconds of silence. "The footage on the camera last night…it kinda got a little weird."

"So…something's up, right?" Gabe asked telepathically to the rest of his family. "Like, whenever something weird happens in the movies, that usually means it's a lot more important than it looks at first?"

"Yeah," Fritz agreed dryly, "and the ones who think it's nothing are usually the ones to get fucked first or get fucked the hardest."

Mike was clearly on the same page as them. "Show me the footage," he commanded. The night shift worker nodded, and escorted Mike to the security room with his bodyguards and the ghost kids in tow. When they arrived, the group could see that the other security guards were still there, sharing looks of concern or confusion. "Love the dedication you guys are showing," he commented as he approached the computers. "What do you need to show me?"

"Well, it happened sometime last night," the worker explained, pointing to a screen showing one of the hallways. A hallway that was fairly close to one of the side entrances/exits to the factory. "Things were mostly normal, just like they usually are…and then this static started appearing in the screen." As if on cue, that particular camera recording started to be filled with static that distorted and obscured the hallway, although it didn't block the screen completely or even significantly. "It lasted for a few seconds before going away…and then it happened in a camera showing a hallway right next to the first one. And so on, and so on, and so on."

Mike carefully studied the recordings on the camera. It didn't take very long for him to realize that the "static abnormalities" were making a beeline straight for the hallway that was right outside the main factory area…but that was as far as they went. The static seemed to stay in that particular room for longer than any of the others, but then it started to go back the way it had come, beelining through the same hallways that it had come through until it stopped in the hallway right outside the side entrance/exit. "This shit just seems weird," another worker commented. "Like, I almost get the feeling that somebody did try to break in and fucked with the camera somehow…but they didn't really do anything if they did."

Mike frowned. "You know, I'm thinking the exact same thing," he admitted without hesitation.

The worker shuddered. "Thank God they didn't try to break in here then, and that we had stun guns around for if they did. I still don't get how they managed to fuck up our camera screens like that, though."

Mike shrugged. "I don't have any answer to that. Maybe it's some advanced technology, I don't know."

"Should we contact the police?" he wondered. "They've been working with us a couple of times in the past."

Mike frowned. "I'll send a report later, but I don't think it's gonna do much good," he answered grimly. "The static might not have been subtle, but it's been so effective that you straight-up can't see whoever invaded the factory. Plus, with all the doors between the rooms and hallways remaining in the same places throughout the night, the police might just dismiss it all as an error with the security camera system."

"I'm just glad that they didn't try to mess with anything," Susie muttered. "Otherwise we could have another messed-up animatronic trying to kill people again."

"Yeah, but we could've maybe caught'em in the act if they tried," Cassidy countered.

"Well, just make sure that there's a record of the footage available before you sign out to the day team," Mike gave his orders. "I'll have to think on this a little bit more while I'm in the office."

"Sounds good, boss," the workers replied. Mike left the security room, his body guards and ghost kids accompanying him all the way back to the office. Once he was back in his office and dismissed his guards outside the room, only then did he allowed himself to communicate with his ghost kids directly. "So what do you guys think?" he asked.

"I mean…you pretty much said everything we were thinking," Jeremy answered with a frown. "It sounds like Glitchtrap's possession victim tried to infiltrate the factory…but gave up and left without doing anything."

"Shit, we could've seen who she was if we were there," Cassidy mumbled. "Maybe we should've had one of us around the factory at night, just so we could've seen something like this."

"I mean…whoever she was, she was probably wearing a ski mask or some kind of covering so it wouldn't have been so easy," Gabe countered, before admitting, "but yeah, we dropped the ball by not having someone here."

"I was thinking about having one of you guys here on a night shift, but I didn't want to force you kids to go through the pain in the ass of a night shift when that's something even most adults don't know how to properly deal with. That, and I genuinely didn't think Glitchtrap and his possession victim would make a play this soon," Mike admitted, before shrugging. "Either way, what's done is done. At least nothing bad seems to have come out of it, just a missed opportunity."

"What kind of tech do you think Glitchtrap's possession victim brought?" Liz wondered. "I can't think of anything off the top of my head that can do something like that."

Charlie frowned. "I honestly don't think it was technology that Glitchtrap's possession victim used," she commented. "No technology I can think of can completely get rid of someone's presence on a camera like that. Obscure it, make it ridiculously difficult to see anything, absolutely. But getting rid of someone's presence completely? That seems a little too much."

"I was honestly thinking something like that too," Gabe admitted. "Seems a little too good for a piece of tech to pull off."

"That was something I noticed too," Mike agreed. "I'm trying to remember when you guys were in the animatronics trying to do something similar to me, and while you might've fucked with the cameras enough to appear and disappear out of them whenever you were moving around, you were never able to disappear from them completely. Otherwise, I probably would've gotten fucked in the first 2 days on the job before I figured out my strat to keep you out reliably."

"Which is why I think it might be a magical power of Glitchtrap's," Charlie declared, throwing her proposition out in the open for all of them to hear. "You know how all of us have some level of supernatural powers, to different degrees? I'm good at magic in general, Cassidy can flat-out teleport around and cast illusions, Liz can interact with the physical world better than anyone else in her Scrap Baby form, and we all have the same basic powers like telekinesis and telepathy? I think Glitchtrap might have something similar to us…

"…and because Glitchtrap was born as part of a glitchy virus in a video game, his powers are related to technology," Jeremy realized. His eyes widened in horror. "Oh, FUCK!" he exclaimed. "What if he can fuck with the animatronics from a distance with his magic powers?"

Mike shook his head. "I don't think he's capable of doing anything like that," he denied. "If Glitchtrap had that kind of power, he wouldn't have needed his possession victim to fuck around with the chips in the animatronics. He would've just corrupted them from a distance…and he would've corrupted every single animatronic in this factory with no problem. Plus, he wouldn't have needed to try and break in the factory last night in the first place. All he'd need to do is have his possession victim be around the animatronics while he does his evil magic, and none of the workers would suspect anything was wrong. Say what you want about Glitchtrap, but this version of William Afton seems to be a lot smarter than the original, and I don't see Glitchtrap taking dumb, pointless risks if he can avoid it."

"And we've been pretty vigilant about checking on the animatronics," Charlie added. "In general, the more powerful the magic, the less subtle and the more obvious it is to people like us who can sense that kind of thing. If Glitchtrap tried to use magic to corrupt the animatronics after the factory workers spent several days fixing them, someone like me or Cassidy would've picked up on it immediately, and I honestly think all of us would've been able to as well."

"I also don't think Glitchtrap is able to manifest a physical form outside of his possession victim either," Mike added. "He'd have a lot more freedom to mess with the animatronics if he was able to leave his possession victim freely and float around the factory like you guys."

"We haven't seen anything that looked like that evil bunny from the VR game around here," Susie agreed.

"And I haven't felt anything like that presence I noticed in the VR game when I almost fell into Glitchtrap's trap, or anything that felt like Nightmare Springtrap," Jeremy supplied, before shuddering. "I'd have recognized it anywhere."

"So I don't think we need to worry about the worst-case scenarios," Mike concluded, "because otherwise all of our efforts here would've been for nothing and we'd have wasted our time if the worst-case scenario was reality." He frowned. "Still, if we can assume that Glitchtrap was using some kind of supernatural power to fuck with the cameras, it means that he has tools of his own to work with, and we have no clue just how powerful he really is."

"His powers were also probably limited further by being trapped in a host body," Charlie added grimly. "Glitchtrap's powers might be fairly weak right now, but if he and his possession victim ever found a way to get him his own body, like in an animatronic or something, his powers could get stronger."

"…and we have no clue what he's actually capable of, since he's been working through his possession victim all the way up to now," Cassidy concluded. "Fuck."

"True," Mike agreed, "but the implications of what Glitchtrap is or isn't capable of are a problem for the future. Right now, as far as the Special Delivery project is concerned, I actually think we're in a pretty good position. The very fact that Glitchtrap was forced to lay low ever since his attack during my first day failed, doing basically nothing while we tore down his plans for the project, and that he forced his possession victim to do a risky break-in that didn't even accomplish anything for him, means that what he's currently capable of right now is very limited. Heck, even his distorting the security camera screens is more flawed than it looks, because if we can't see who his possession victim is, it's easy to follow the trail of distorted screens to know where exactly they're going." He took a deep breath, before exhaling. "While we have to keep our guard up until the day the animatronics are released, and not do anything stupid that will give Glitchtrap a free opening, I think at this point we can declare victory over Glitchtrap as far as the Special Delivery project is concerned."

Fritz grinned. "Wait, really?" he exclaimed. "Holy crap, we've actually done it, then! We stopped Glitchtrap!"

Liz didn't share her brother's optimism. "I'm not really sure we should be celebrating," she countered. "Yeah, we stopped Glitchtrap from messing up the animatronics, and that means innocent people won't get hurt or killed because of them. But we didn't catch Glitchtrap either, and we still don't have any idea who he's possessing other than the fact that she's female." The former Baby inhabitant sighed. "And if they really did decide to give up their plans for the project, I really don't see how we're gonna be able to catch them before the project gets released and everything wraps up."

"I think you're being a bit too harsh, Liz," Gabe interjected as he tried to encourage his sister. "Catching Glitchtrap and whoever he's possessing wasn't the only goal for why we came here. Heck, it wasn't even the main goal to begin with. The main reason why Dad and all of us came here was to see what kind of damage Glitchtrap had caused to the Special Delivery project, and fix the mess that he caused. And as long as we remain vigilant and keep a close eye both on the workers and on Dad's safety until the animatronics get sold to the public, we can say that we've succeeded with flying colors."

"Besides," Mike added dryly, "the more you try to do everything to get a perfect solution and get everything right, the more likely you are to get distracted and confused, and fuck up your individual objectives as a result. In all honesty, I didn't really expect us to outright catch Glitchtrap when I took over leadership of the Special Delivery project. My biggest priority, and the mission that I absolutely wanted to make sure was a success, was to fix the Special Delivery project like Gabe said." He smiled. "And so far, everyone here has done a tremendous job of making that happen."

The ghost kids grinned, feeling relieved and content that Mike had such an optimistic outlook towards the progress they had made on the Special Delivery project. "That being said," Mike warned, "the fight is not yet done. Glitchtrap's slipped under the radar, which means that at some point we will be seeing him again in the future. He might be smarter and saner, but he's still a copy of William Afton in the end. He won't resist the urge to sneak into and fuck up the next major Fazbear Entertainment project, as we've already seen here. We're close to winning this particular battle, but we've still got a war to fight. And that war won't be won until Glitchtrap is dealt with permanently."

There was no malice or desire for revenge in Mike's words, just the grim certainty of a man who had fought his own share of personal battles in the past, and knew from experience what needed to be done. Something which made Charlie in particular feel more relieved than she expected, having seen the inner cruelty and darkness that lurked in Mike's heart more than anyone else in their family.

"So what do we do now?" Fritz decided to ask the obvious question, something that nobody in the room could fault him for. "It can't be this easy."

"Yeah!" Susie agreed. "What if, after you leave the project, Fazbear Entertainment decide to be lazy assholes again and ignore all the changes you've made? Cutting corners, not giving a crap about people's safety, all the stuff that made the Freddy Fazbear pizzerias so dangerous in the first place? If they go back to their old ways, Glitchtrap and his possession victim can have all the time in the world to mess with the animatronics again like they did the first time!"

"That is a very good point, Susie," Mike immediately acknowledged her concern. "I might've been able to enact sweeping reforms, but all that hard work and effort doesn't mean anything unless I can make sure that those reforms stick even after I'm gone."

"Maybe we could get Nightmare to threaten those Fazbear Executives in their dreams again to make sure they stick with what you've done?" Fritz suggested.

Mike winced. "I…can ask Nightmare to do that, but I'd really rather not if I can help it," he answered reluctantly. "That's the kind of plan that I'd only do if I didn't have any other options and I thought that things were going to go to shit without his help. We've seen how getting help from Nightmare has its downsides, even if the demon lord genuinely wants to help us."

Susie winced at the memory of how her stress-induced outburst and what that had led to. "Yeah…I don't see anything wrong with keeping him updated on how things are going, but the less we need him to get involved, the better," she agreed.

Mike smirked. "Fortunately, I know exactly what needs to be done to make sure that all the reforms and improvements we've made to the Special Delivery project actually stick."

"Wait, really?" Cassidy spluttered, clearly not expecting Mike to have come up with an answer that quickly or easily.

"Yep," Mike nodded. He took a deep breath, and let it out. "I've got to play some politics."

"Play some politics?" Jeremy repeated, clearly not comprehending. "I thought you said you hated politics."

"I did, but that doesn't mean that knowing how to play politics isn't a valuable skill to have," Mike explained. "And in this case, playing some politics means going out of my way to make myself as popular and as well-liked as humanly possible. In fact, I need to be so well-liked by the workers in the factory that when I finally step down to let someone take my place, they'll be just as loyal and just as dedicated as I am to making sure the project goes forward with the same high safety standards that I set for it. The best way to make sure things you want to happen is to make it so that the people around you want them just as much."

Liz gave him a skeptical look. "Sounds kinda shady," she commented.

"Oh, it is," Mike readily agreed. "But unlike pretty much every politician to ever exist, I actually have good motives for doing this. And also unlike pretty much every politician to ever exist, I actually know what the fuck I'm doing."

And over the next few months, Mike would proceed to make good on his word. Mike had already won the respect of his workers with his decisive leadership, clear dedication, and intelligent management of the project; that could not be denied. However, despite his best efforts, he had been forced to limit his movements around the factory and spend much of his time isolated in his office because of his injuries.

Now, however, Mike made it his mission to overcome the limitations of his injuries and spend as much time out integrating with and opening up to the workers as much as possible. He rotated around the different areas of the factory and the activities taking place within those sections, offering both words of encouragement and approval, as well as gentle but firm criticisms whenever he noticed a performance that he considered substandard. Mike also started spending time with some of the workers whenever they were on break or at lunch, making small talk with them and even joking around with them (and there were plenty of jokes to be made at the expense of Fazbear Entertainment itself). Though the constant presence of his bodyguards might have intimidated some of the workers, it didn't take very long for Mike to thoroughly establish his reputation as a "friend of the workforce." And since he himself was popular among the employees of the factory, the many reforms he had implemented to improve quality and safety were just as popular, to the point that the ghost kids didn't report a single whisper of dissatisfaction or dissent among the workers beyond the occasional, grudgingly accepting grumble.

To Mike's delight, his interactions with the workers actually had an unintended, but beneficial side effect. As his reputation amongst the employees of the factory grew more and more positive, Mike started to hear more complaints about Fazbear Entertainment itself, and how they were "sitting on their high horses and not giving a shit about what goes on in the factory," as one worker so eloquently put it. These grumblings of dissatisfaction were reported more and more frequently by the ghost kids, who remained just as vigilant as ever in inspecting the inner workings of the factory. Mike hadn't intended to stir up dissent or conflict between Fazbear Entertainment and its employees in the factory, but he certainly wasn't going to complain about this unexpected development. Driving a wedge between the two parties was only going to make them even more loyal to him and his ideals, which suited Mike perfectly in his plans to make sure that his reforms would remain sustainable for the long-term.

Unfortunately, although Mike's plans were moving along swimmingly with regards to maximizing his popularity and his reputation, he and the ghost children hadn't gotten any further in identifying who Glitchtrap's possession victim was or what he was planning. Mike had sent a report to the police explaining his suspicions, but none of the family were surprised when the police were unable to do anything beyond send an officer over to investigate the security camera footage and the hallways where the static had been in. Nor were they surprised that the static never reappeared in any of the hallways after that one night, confirming their suspicions that Glitchtrap had given up any future plans for a nighttime infiltration.

Their search to identify and expose Glitchtrap and his possession victim during the day wasn't any more successful. None of the ghost kids felt Glitchtrap's malevolent presence anywhere or detected any trace of unfamiliar or evil supernatural power, although this also came as a bit of a relief since it meant that Glitchtrap was still limited in his influence and could still only operate through the body of whoever he was possessing. The ghost kids also didn't find any workers (paying especially close attention to the female ones) who were behaving oddly enough to warrant any further investigation. The worst that could be said about some of them (including the one lady who had volunteered to be part of the strike team against the animatronic attack and who Mike had turned down) was that they were nervous around Mike and didn't talk to him all that much, but that by itself wasn't nearly enough evidence to suggest that they were being possessed by the soul fragment of a serial killer turned into a glitchy abomination. As much as they hated the idea of giving Glitchtrap getting for anything, the ghost kids had to reluctantly give him credit for how he had managed to keep both him and his unwilling partner-in-crime well-hidden and under their radar.

Still, this failure in one aspect didn't mean they couldn't achieve overwhelming success in others. And one of those crucial objectives was identifying loyal successors and leaders who would ensure the continuation of his reforms after his tenure as the head of the project came to a close. At first, Mike had planned to only seek out and train a singular successor, but he soon changed his mind and expanded his strategy after some advice from the ghost kids.

"You should recruit a lot of people to replace you, not just one," Gabe had suggested. "Those jackasses in Fazbear Entertainment might try to fight back and mess things up again if you've only got one person in charge to make sure things run smoothly. But if a bunch of people in charge of the project all fight to keep things running the way you want them to run, Dad, Fazbear Entertainment's gonna have a much harder time ruining everything you've done."

"Yeah!" Susie had agreed. "Just look at us! We're a lot stronger together than if we're by ourselves!"

The environment of a workspace business was much different from a family, but that didn't make Gabe and Susie wrong. As he continued to interact and mingle with the employees, Mike soon identified certain individuals who were particularly promising. Individuals who, while they had never been officially designated as heads or chiefs, more often than not supervised or even took charge of their respective fields and operations, and were looked up to by the other workers as the de-facto leaders. Having already solidified his positive reputation, it didn't take very long for Mike to ingratiate himself with and establish friendly relationships with them. The fact that, like the rest of the workforce, they already had considerable respect for his leadership even before his socialization also helped.

As May rolled around and no further incidents were reported, Mike received a notification from Fazbear Entertainment. "We are planning on launching the Special Delivery project by the end of the month," the email informed him. "According to your reports, the factory has managed to produce over a thousand high-quality models without any of the glitches or abnormalities that you reported prior to your assignment as the head of the project. Once the animatronics are released to the public, our agreement will have reached its conclusion and we will no longer require your services. Thank you very much for the assistance that you have provided for us, Mr. Schmidt."

"What the hell?" Fritz muttered, clearly irritated by the email. "It sounds like they're just trying to get rid of you as quickly as possible."

"I mean, technically Fazbear Entertainment's sticking to the agreement we made," Mike conceded. "When I made that contract with them, I specified that I would be working as the head of the project up until the animatronics were released to the public. And I guess that time is coming soon."

"Aren't you mad about this, though?" Cassidy wondered. "You worked so hard for them, but they're basically kicking you to the side now that you've done your job."

Mike shrugged. "Not really, to be honest," he answered. "Fazbear Entertainment might have accepted me taking leadership of the Special Delivery project because they had no other options, but we were never going to be able to cooperate in a long-term partnership. They're too greedy and corrupt to make this kind of working relationship sustainable. And honestly," he sighed, "now that we've shut down Glitchtrap's plans for the time being and the project is going to be released soon, there wasn't really much more purpose in us sticking around in this factory for too long anyway. We can feel free to go back to our old lives…as long as we make sure that our efforts pay off in the long-term just as much as they have in the short-term."

"Did you find the people you need to keep your plans going after you get outta here?" Jeremy wondered.

Mike smiled. "I did indeed," he confirmed. "I've had many discussions and meetings with them over the past couple of months, and all of them are on board with carrying on the plans and reforms to the Special Delivery project to make sure none of the animatronics ever go crazy and start killing people ever again."

"I've noticed that everyone you've smoothed into a leadership role was a man," Charlie noticed. "Was that because Glitchtrap's possession victim was a female and you can't take any risks with accidentally putting her in a leadership position?"

Mike sighed. "Yeah," he admitted. "There's a lot more males than females working in this factory. It might look a bit sexist from the outside, but I can't run the risk of accidentally letting whoever Glitchtrap's enslaved sneak her way into my unofficial inner circle. If I want to fuck up everything and ruin all of my hard work, that would be by far the fastest way to do it." He shrugged. "Besides, it just so happened that all of the most competent and effective leaders in this factory really did turn out to be guys, so that works out."

Fritz shrugged. "If it works, it works. I'm not gonna complain."

"It sounds like we're not gonna be here for much longer," Liz remarked. "What's left for you to do, Dad? And come to think of it, what's left for US to do?"

"Well, the important thing is to remain vigilant until the very end," Mike answered. "Until the day we leave behind this factory and don't come back, we treat our duties as seriously as we always have. Glitchtrap's possession victim has probably given up their plans completely and moved on to other evil schemes, but we can't ignore the possibility that she might be waiting for JUST the right moment to strike." He smirked dryly. "The shift isn't over until the 6 AM chime starts ringing."

"I hate how true that statement is," Cassidy muttered.

"As for me," Mike continued, "I'm going to be having a lot more meetings with my chosen inner circle of leaders and workers. I'm going to be carefully overseeing the tests on the last few animatronics that are still being made right now."

His lips spread into a smirk. "And then…I think it's time we have another press conference to announce the release of the Special Delivery animatronics, wouldn't you think?"

/

A/N: You might have noticed that this chapter seemed very fast-paced with several months flying by all the way to May. Heck, you might even call this rushed. This was a deliberate gamble made by myself as a writer to progress the story forward.

I'm going to be honest with you guys, I was starting to get tired of writing about Special Delivery. Vanny and Glitchtrap's aborted nighttime infiltration was meant to be the climax of Special Delivery, evil's one last failed attempt to try and subvert the cleansing and the protections that the forces of good had placed upon the project. With this last plan having failed, I didn't think there was any real need to go into extreme detail about how the Special Delivery project was progressing, when there wouldn't be any real conflict or significant developments to go into.

Hence why this chapter is going through a major time skip, and why I'm voluntarily deviating from one of the most fundamental rules of writing, "show don't tell." It's time we wrapped this arc up, and I wanted to do in a timely manner that wouldn't drag on, and on, AND ON unnecessarily. In this case, being lengthy and boring would be an even greater writing sin than "show don't tell," so I'm opting for the lesser of 2 evils here.

I didn't introduce the "inner circle" of head employees that Mike chose as his trusted successors, because they aren't going to have a significant presence in future chapters (including the future Security Breach arc), and this fic already has enough characters that I have a hard time keeping track of as is.

I can't say I'm 100% satisfied with how this chapter turned out, but sometimes it's better to just peel the band-aid off and push forward so that we can move forward to bigger and better (or at the very least more fun and interesting) things.

Anyways, that's all I have for now. Next chapter will wrap up the Special Delivery arc properly. Hope you guys enjoyed!