A/N: All right, guys. My month in Hell is over, and the long-awaited moment is here. Time to celebrate Mike Schmidt's birthday party!
On an unrelated note, there certainly is a lot of FNaF-related stuff that's been released over the past month, most of which took me completely by surprise. I certainly wasn't expecting Help Wanted 2 to be announced, especially when Help Wanted seemed to conclusively end with Glitchtrap's escape into the real world. Depending on what minigames and settings show up in Help Wanted 2, I may or may not be able to incorporate this game into Mike's New Ghostly Family (especially if certain elements from Sister Location, pretty much anything from Pizzeria Simulator, or Ultimate Custom Night shows up), although I'll probably try to incorporate lore elements as much as possible. But if you listen closely, you can hear the sound of Mike and his children in an alternate timeline violently facepalming at the stupidity of Fazbear Entertainment at releasing another VR game after how badly they fucked up with the first one.
Ginopippofreebooter: Unfortunately, if I was gonna include drastic new plot elements like that, the correct time to do it would've been many chapters ago. And there's enough characters (both canonical and OC) for me to juggle about without adding more even more to the mix.
Chapter 184 – Happy Birthday Mike Part 3
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"
Mike stumbled back, his jaw dropping to the ground in stunned disbelief as confetti flew around him and a yellow banner in the living room that had been held up by one of the ghosts' powers fell from the ceiling, the words "Happy Birthday Dad!" boldly emblazoned on it in rainbow colors. "Wh…what?" he spluttered once he finally found his voice. "How did you guys?"
"Your kids called us and invited us to a birthday party," Colm explained with a smug expression on his face, clearly amused at how flatfooted they had caught Mike in their surprise. "I honestly didn't expect them to invite me, but I'm glad I came now just so I could see the look on your face!"
"It was so hard keeping all of this secret from you," Liz added, before her face broke into a grin. "But we pulled it off! You didn't see this coming!"
"I mean, I had a feeling something was up," Mike admitted, "no way I couldn't with my birthday coming up. But I wasn't expecting you guys to invite every single family friend over to the house today!"
Ryan chuckled. "It's a good thing I didn't have work today so that I could bring the kids over. I know there's no way either of them would miss it for the world, not after you guys haven't visited us for months on end."
"Yeah, I heard you were the new head of a project or something for that Fazbear Entertainment thing," Alex chimed in. "Sounds like you were really busy."
"You have no idea," Jeremy commented dryly.
"What are we gonna do?" Meghan asked. "Now that Mr. Schmidt's back, what's the first we're gonna do to celebrate his birthday."
"Well, I can tell you one thing we can do," Mike answered dryly. "Let's eat some food. I haven't eaten any lunch yet and I'm really hungry now."
Charlie smiled. "I think that's a great idea," she agreed. "We brought a lot of food but the living people here were holding off on eating it since we were waiting for you to come back. It's your birthday, after all."
"All right then, I don't see any reason to delay lunch any longer. Let's eat!" Mike declared.
Alex and Meghan both cheered, and even the adults couldn't help but feel some relief as they had also deliberately held off on lunch just so they could celebrate a birthday meal with their friend. They quickly relocated over to the dining room, which thanks to everyone's efforts had been redecorated into the style of a classic birthday party. It reminded the ghost kids a bit of the many birthday parties that they had once celebrated together in Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria, even if those happy moments were a vague and distant memory.
But unlike Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria, there would be no tragedy and darkness lurking underneath the scenes. Only happiness and fun, like there should have been from the beginning.
"Can somebody help me bring the food out?" Melody asked. "There's still quite a lot, even if the ghosts here aren't eating."
"I'll help you!" Gabe volunteered, with Liz also offering her own services a few seconds later. Together, the engineer and the two ghosts made their way into the kitchen and started bringing out trays of food to lay on the table. Once they were all out, Melody started lifting the covers off the trays to reveal the delicious meals that lay underneath.
Mike raised an eyebrow. "Oh, wow," he whistled. "I wasn't expecting this."
It turned out that Melody had brought not one, but two separate meals. Half of the food was the type of meal you'd expect at a high-quality fast food restaurant. Freshly grilled hamburger sliders, French fries, chicken tenders, a true American meal who could give someone high blood cholesterol just from looking at it. The other half, by contrast, looked as though it had been taken straight out of a Chinese restaurant. Fried rice, Lo mein, egg rolls, and multiple different kinds of Asian-style meats and vegetables that had been mixed together in different ways. Melody had gathered food from two separate worlds and brought them together on this birthday table…and all of the food both looked and smelled delicious.
"Oh my God…" Ryan could barely breathe out in disbelief. "There's so much food here. So much variety, I don't even know where to begin. It all smells so good!"
Colm looked similarly stunned. "I can't remember the first time I've seen so much good food all in one place," he commented once he broke out of his stupor.
"My mouth is watering just from looking at all this, and I can't even eat food!" Susie exclaimed, very much in agreement with the living adults.
Mike chuckled. "Well, I'm pretty sure we're not gonna finish all this today, so you guys can feel free to take any of the leftovers home after we're done with all this. I insist."
He reached out towards the tray containing the hamburger sliders and gave himself 2 of them, before passing it on to Ryan to his left. The living guests to the birthday party proceeded to take various pieces of food until their plates were covered with diverse and delicious meals. Alex had filled his plate almost entirely with the fried foods that Melody had brought, while Meghan had done the opposite and filled her plate almost entirely with Chinese food. The rest of the adults, Mike included among them, had opted for a mixture of the two different types of food, allowing them to satisfy their taste buds in two different ways at the same time.
Mike glanced over at the ghost kids. "You know the drill," he addressed them. "Possess for a few seconds to enjoy the food, yadda yadda yadda."
"Thanks for letting us enjoy the food, dad!" Fritz cheerfully and gratefully replied. As Cassidy was the one closest to Mike, she approached him and entered his body as he took a huge bite out of a hamburger slider, sighing contentedly as she enjoyed the taste of the meal through Mike.
"Wait, hold up!" Colm stared at the two of them. "Are you possessing Mike?" he asked incredulously.
Cassidy giggled. "Yep!" the former Golden Freddy inhabitant answered happily. "We can enter his body whenever he eats something, and this lets us taste whatever he's eating!"
"We've done this before a couple of times," Gabe explained further. "It's how we've been able to taste food from fancy restaurants whenever we travel somewhere away from home."
Melody looked completely unfazed, having seen the ghost kids possess their father to taste food already, but Ryan was rubbing his eyes as though he were trying to make sure he was seeing the sight before him properly. "You know…it's been so long, I've completely forgotten you guys can do that," he admitted.
"Yeah, me too," Alex had to agree with his dad. "Kinda spooky, but also kinda cool too."
Jeremy snickered. "It makes for a cool party trick, doesn't it?" he asked.
Meghan sighed. "I'm honestly a bit envious," she confessed. "Being a ghost sounds like it's really cool."
The ghosts' smiles vanished instantly. "Trust me," Liz warned, in a tone that made it clear she didn't want to go into the details, "it really isn't worth it."
There was something in her tone that made everyone alive in the room, both adult and child, shudder. "I'll take your word for it," Alex muttered.
Mike could see the need to quickly change the subject back to happier matters. "Damn, this stuff amazing, Melody!" he praised her. "You really know how to pick the best meals for a birthday party!"
Melody laughed. "Actually, it wasn't just me," she replied, the heavy atmosphere in the room rapidly vanishing. "The kids helped me go through different options and picked out what they thought were some of the best ones based on my experiences with them."
Colm whistled. "You picked a selection of food this good without even being able to taste food normally? Not bad," he commented approvingly, "not bad at all."
Susie grinned back. "We just did what Dad always told us to do, and trusted our gut," she answered confidently. "And it worked out!"
"I'm just glad my wife isn't here," Ryan mumbled to his kids. "Your mother would go crazy if she saw all of this fattening food right here in front of us."
"Oh come on, Dad!" Meghan protested. "It's a birthday party!"
Ryan raised his hands up in surrender. "I know, I know, that's why I'm not saying anything. Just try not to eat so much you end up getting sick."
"If anything, I have to worry about more than you guys," Mike commented dryly. "I have to eat enough food to give seven different people a taste of it. It's honestly amazing I haven't gotten fat off our trip to Korea."
Charlie gave him a slightly worried glance. "I can pass if you don't think you can…" she began.
Mike brushed her offer away mid-sentence. "Nah," he reassured her. "I skipped breakfast and was feeling super hungry by the time I got home, so I've got plenty of room in my stomach for this. Just let me know when you want a taste and I'll let you possess me then."
Charlie, and indeed all the other ghosts, gladly took their father up on his offer. Everyone spent the next several moments eating their lunches, occasionally exchanging small talk or commenting on how good the food was but otherwise eating their meals in contented silence.
Just as Mike had predicted, there was plenty of food left over even when everyone had finished as much food as they could possibly have eaten while still saving a little room for dessert. "I think we might've overdone it a bit," Gabe mumbled as Melody covered the trays that were still at least half-full with food.
"At least I've been getting better with how much food I eat to satisfy your ghostly taste buds," Mike remarked as he threw his colorful but disposable plate in the garbage. "I remember the first time we did this and I didn't know how to control myself, my belly felt like it was gonna explode after we were done."
"We don't make enough money to have fancy dinners on the regular, so I can definitely get what you're saying," Colm commiserated a bit with his former target and employer.
"Are you guys gonna eat the birthday cake now?" Liz wondered.
"Oh, heck no," Mike retorted immediately. "We gotta give our stomachs some type to digest all of this crap first."
"Gotta agree with Mike here," Melody added with a groan. "I definitely don't have room for a cake right now. Trying to throw even a single slice in when we're all this full would just be a disaster in the making."
"Then why don't we do something else in the meantime?" Jeremy suggested. "I was talking with Alex and Meghan earlier, and they suggested we could all watch a movie together. Something fun that doesn't require us to put in any effort whatsoever, especially after all the hard work you've been doing for the past couple of months, Dad."
Mike smiled. "I'm cool with that," he agreed. "It's been a long time since the last time we sat down and watched a movie together. Is this something that we're gonna drive to a movie theater for, or is this a movie that you just wanted to watch at home?" he asked.
"At home," Fritz replied immediately. "Alex and Meghan told us they already had a movie they really liked and they thought you'd like it a lot too."
"Really?" Mike raised an eyebrow. "What's the movie?"
"Puss in Boots 2: The Last Wish!" Alex declared proudly.
Mike blinked. "Pardon? What did you say the movie was?"
"Puss in Boots 2: The Last Wish," Meghan repeated the answer with just as much passion as Alex had."
"Okay, so I didn't hear mishear you," Mike affirmed. "I'm just wondering why you chose that movie of all movies. Because if my understanding is correct, then this movie is about a meme franchise's side character whose first movie was mid at best. And sequels have a not-so-small chance of sucking more than the originals."
Alex and Meghan looked at each other in disbelief. "Okay, you definitely haven't seen this movie before," the older Marshall replied firmly. "Because if you had, you'd be singing its praises just like me and my sister are."
"Completely on the same page as my brother here," Meghan agreed. "Puss in Boots 2 is easily one of the best animated movies I've seen in literal years. I think I like it just as much as Kung-Fu Panda, and in some ways maybe even more!"
That got Mike's immediate and undivided attention. He considered himself a casual animated movie fan at most, but even he admired and enjoyed older animated masterpieces such as many of Disney's older films, Kung-Fu Panda, Ratatouille, The Incredibles, and too many others for him to come up with on the spot. For the Marshalls to claim that a movie was on equal ground as Kung-Fu Panda was a powerful claim that could not be taken lightly.
He turned to the ghost kids. "Have you guys seen this movie?" he asked.
All of them shook their heads, but Ryan spoke up from his spot on the table. "Having watched this movie myself next to the kids, Mike, I can definitely say that it's a hell of a lot better than I expected, and I really think you should watch it at least once."
That was all the additional endorsement that Mike needed. "All right, let's see this movie then!" he declared.
Everyone relocated to the basement, which was much larger and had two sofas to accommodate all of the living guests that had been invited to the party. Charlie connected her laptop to the main TV screen, and quickly bought Puss in Boots 2 online. "I didn't even know Puss in Boots had a sequel," she commented as the movie started to appear on the big flat-screen TV.
Mike wasn't sure what to expect from the sequel to the first Puss in Boots movie. His interest in the film had been admittedly peaked by the glowing endorsements from the Marshalls, but he still wasn't expecting anything particularly mind-blowing. He expected to see a mildly entertaining movie for the most part, and something that his kids would be able to enjoy with their friends if nothing else.
As if it had read his mind, the movie sought to challenge and surpass. Even in the first few seconds of the movie, the film looked much crisper and more cartoonish compared to what he remembered from either the Shrek movies or the first Puss in Boots movie. The cartoonier animation actually worked to the movie's benefit as the characters and scenery looked much more colorful and livelier compared to what he had expected.
The battles were also much more exciting as well. The movie hit the ground running with an exciting battle between Puss in Boots and a massive and vicious giant who was trying to attack a town of humans. Despite the giant dramatically overshadowing Puss in terms of raw power and size, Puss' sheer agility and skill with a blade allowed him to easily run rings around the giant from beginning to end. Puss easily defeated the giant in both funny and exciting ways…only to ruin the victory for himself when he failed to notice a humongous bell fall from the giant's head and smash Puss flat into the ground dead.
And that was when the plot truly kicked off. Despite having literally just died, Puss was able to seemingly brush off his death without a care in the world, laughing in the face of death thanks to his nine lives. Mike couldn't help but laugh at the many ridiculous and comical deaths that Puss in Boots had suffered thanks to carelessness and overconfidence…but the hilarity faded away when the realization sank in that Puss had wasted 8 of his 9 lives, leaving him down to his last life. Even this revelation wasn't enough to initially shake Puss' bravado…up until he countered the Wolf in a tavern.
From the moment Mike laid eyes on the Wolf, he knew that he had found his new favorite Dreamworks villain. Everything about the Wolf was just about perfect. His design was intimidating in a way that few other villains in general could match. His savage maw, his menacing red eyes with pupils that glowed supernaturally white at times, his skin as pale as death, his Grim Reaper-esque black cloak, and his dual sickle-blades that were identical to the ones used by Malthael from Diablo III…all of them combined to create a dark and terrifying Dreamworks villain, perfectly complementing a soft yet sadistic voice that carried with it the promise of death and ruin towards Puss. The Wolf's menacing entrance and presence were only intensified even further with his subsequent battle towards Puss, as the cat mistook him for a bounty hunter and tried to fight against the Wolf…only for the Wolf to not only effortlessly dodge his attack as effortlessly as Puss himself had dodged the Giant's, but also thoroughly curbstomp the legendary hero so brutally and so viciously that the sheer terror and mental trauma of the Wolf's attack sent Puss fleeing for his life in a panic.
"Holy shit," Mike breathed as Puss buried his legendary hero regalia and reduced himself to the life of a mere house cat just from the sheer trauma of the Wolf's attack. "Who the heck IS this guy? He just curbstomped Puss into the ground like he was nothing!"
Alex grinned at him. "Oh just you wait, Mr. Schmidt, it gets even better," he promised.
Mike was certainly more willing to take Alex at his word now. He had already been impressed with the Wolf as Dreamworks' villain in this film, and he was pleasantly surprised to discover that pretty much every character in the film was good. From the female feline thief Kitty Softpaws, to the ragged but doggedly cheerful Perrito, and the hilarious yet clearly evil Jack Horner who unleashed lethal magic weapons against his enemies without any remorse or hesitation, there wasn't a single character in Puss in Boots 2 who overstayed their welcome or annoyed him with their presence in any meaningful way. Goldilocks and the Three Bears in particular struck a chord with him, as they contrasted sharply with the Wolf's inhuman menace or Jack Horner's comical yet monstrous villainy. They were antagonists to be sure, but they had redeeming qualities, and Goldilock's own motivations were based on a theme of finding a family only to realize that the family she needed was with her all along. Out of the corner of his eye, Mike could see a wistful yet appreciative look on Liz's face, and he could tell that she resonated with them in a way that none of the other ghost kids did.
Yet while the overarching quest to find the Wishing Star might have driven forward all of the characters in the movie, it was the Wolf and his influence that truly commanded Mike's attention and made the movie truly enjoyable. Just the very presence of the Wolf was enough to send Puss into a primal terror every time he appeared, and it was ultimately the Wolf who provided the driving motivation for Puss to find the Wishing Star so that he could wish for more lives. Mike had always had a sneaking suspicion about who the Wolf truly was, and that suspicion was confirmed when the Wolf revealed himself to be Death itself in the most literal way possible. The reveal of the Wolf's identity as Dreamworks' version of the Grim Reaper elevated his power and menace even beyond what had already been established. It transformed him from simply an inexplicably powerful enemy into a primordial force of nature itself that had been so enraged by Puss wasting his 8 lives meaninglessly that he had decided to kill Puss once and for all and take his 9th life early. The darkness the Wolf brough with him into the story was enough to partially turn Puss in Boots 2 into a flat-out cosmic horror story, which was one thing Mike would freely admit he hadn't seen coming from a mile away.
"You guys weren't kidding," Susie couldn't help but comment. After the unending horrors that she and her siblings had suffered before becoming part of Mike's family, a simple movie wasn't enough to instill true fear in her. But that didn't mean she couldn't be thoroughly impressed and intimidated by the Wolf/Death, just like the rest of her family. "Forget Dreamworks villains, I think the Wolf might be one of my favorite villains period!"
"Kinda reminds me of that drawing Dad showed us of his fictional character," Cassidy added as she nodded her head in agreement.
Ryan laughed. "Oh yeah, I remember doing something like that with Mike back in college. We were part of a D&D group that always hung out on the weekends, and one day we decided to draw what we would like in a fantasy world. I remember seeing Mike's drawing and wondering how the heck he was still a good guy, that dark reaper guy he drew really shocked me when I first saw it. Can't imagine how terrifying it would be if he actually existed."
"You have no idea," Charlie thought dryly.
They continued to watch the movie, and it didn't take long for Mike to realize that what really defined the movie wasn't just the Wolf's terrifying presence, but how Puss in Boots reacted to that fear and grew to conquer it. The man watched as Puss in Boots rekindled his relationship with Kitty Softpaws and bonded with Perrito, leading to a rematch and final confrontation with Death upon the Wishing Star without fear. Mike nodded approvingly as Puss in Boots cast aside his one chance to wish for more lives, instead learning the valuable lesson that death was inevitable no matter how thoroughly he might try to run from it, and that what truly mattered was both how he lived his life and the relationships that formed within it. Even with only one life left, this lesson was all Puss needed to regain his confidence as he prepared to square off against Death, though now it was tempered with wisdom that he had lacked at the beginning of the film.
What followed was easily one of the, if not the, greatest sword fights that he had ever seen in an animated film. Against a background made out of scarlet hellfire, the Wolf unleashed savage beatdown upon Puss in Boots, swinging his scythe-like blades with inhuman speed and grace mixed with unholy ruthlessness. But unlike before, where he had been hopelessly outmatched, Puss was able to match the Wolf's attacks with the dexterity and battle prowess worthy of a legend. A single cat was able to fight Death itself to a tie, culminating with a triumphant declaration from Puss that he would fight his hardest to live and care for the one life that he had left. With this final statement, Mike knew that Puss had truly learned the one lesson that he would need to live on, a sentiment that was confirmed seconds later when the Wolf abandoned his hunt for Puss, acknowledging that the stupidity and arrogance that had once defined the hero was well and truly gone.
Compared to the terrifying chase and the epic spectacle that the Wolf had presented in his interactions with Puss, the battle to defeat Jack Horner and stop him from getting his clutches on the Wishing Star's power seemed like a mere afterthought in comparison. The movie finished with Puss and Kitty Softpaws sailing away on an adventure to Far Far Away. And Mike knew instinctively that, even though Puss in Boots might still only have one life left, he was better off now than he had been before Death had tried to come and claim him.
As the movie's credits rolled through with a Spanish ending song in the background, Mike could only stare and blink in disbelief as his mind processed the wild cinematographic journey that he had just been taken on. "Holy crap," he breathed once he had finally finished collecting his thoughts. "This movie was so good. It had no right being this good. It was a sequel for a side character from a meme franchise. How the hell was this movie SO GOOD?"
"I know, right?" Gabe was similarly awed. "I can't believe I've never heard of this movie before today, this thing was a masterpiece!"
Susie grinned at the Marshalls. "You were right, guys," she acknowledged. "This was one of the best animated movies I've ever seen. I didn't think I'd find something I'd like just as much as Kung Fu Panda, but I'm so glad to be wrong!"
"I'd honestly started to write off the Shrek franchise as a whole," Mike admitted, "but after seeing this movie, I'm definitely gonna pay more attention now."
Alex laughed. "I knew you guys would like it! What was your favorite part?" he asked eagerly.
"I really liked Perrito!" Cassidy volunteered. "He was so adorable!"
Fritz snickered. "Jack Horner was pretty hilarious, even though he was an evil bastard for sure."
"I don't really remember what Puss was like in Shrek 2, but I absolutely loved him in this movie!" Jeremy exclaimed. "What a legend! He fought the Grim Reaper to a tie!"
"Nah!" Gabe challenged all of them without hesitation. "You all are crazy. The Wolf was the best part, by a long shot. There wouldn't even be a movie here worth talking about if it wasn't for the Wolf!"
"I gotta agree with Gabe here," Mike interjected. "The Wolf didn't even technically show up all that much in the movie, but he had such a gigantic impact that I felt his presence through the whole goddamn thing from the moment he first showed up all the way to the final fight. Definitely one of my favorite Dreamworks villains for sure, and heck, he might be one of my favorite villains of all time." He sighed a bit wistfully. "I wish this movie had existed back in college. I definitely would've used him as inspiration for my D&D character."
As Ryan made an offhand comment about how Mike's fictional character would've been even more like the Grim Reaper than he was already, Charlie couldn't help but frown ever so slightly. Because she could absolutely see the dark aspect of Mike drawing inspiration from the Wolf, if he had been around to see it. She could see in her mind, as though it were memory rather than imagination, Dark!Mike approaching Nightmare Springtrap with the Wolf's wickedly sharp sickle-swords instead of his hand scythes. Charlie could see Dark!Mike swinging frenziedly at William Afton with those cruel blades with the same bestial savagery that the Wolf had displayed when attacking Puss. She could even imagine Dark!Mike sticking the two blades together and transforming the sickle-swords into a glaive worthy of Death itself, slicing at Nightmare Springtrap's body with the bladed ends before slamming the hilt of the glaive into William Afton's face.
But unlike with the peaceful resolution between the Wolf and Puss in Boots, there was only one way a battle between Dark!Mike and Nightmare Springtrap in her father's mindscape ever could have ended…and the gruesome finale had been enough to kill even her desire for revenge against William Afton.
Charlie shook her head. She needed to shift her thoughts away from that terrifying memory…and fortunately, she had a way to do it.
/
A/N: I think that's a good place for us to stop for now. I was originally going to write the entire birthday party as one chapter, but I think splitting it in two is a better plan overall.
I'm sorry if this chapter ended up turning into half a birthday party chapter and half a review for Puss in Boots 2: The Last Wish, but I'm completely serious about everything I said in this chapter. I was NOT expecting Puss in Boots 2 to be as incredible of a movie as it actually was (not just as an animated movie, but as a film period), and the Wolf is easily one of my favorite Dreamworks villains of all time. Hell, if I'd known about the Wolf's existence back when I wrote the battle between Dark!Mike and Nightmare Springtrap, I absolutely would have incorporated elements of the Wolf's design in Dark!Mike, without question. I HIGHLY recommend you see this movie, I guarantee you won't be disappointed.
Next chapter, we wrap up Mike's birthday party. It's amazing to think that this started as a filler chapter, and ended up being a miniature arc all on its own.
Hope you guys enjoyed!
