A/N: As you can imagine, Charlie is NOT happy to learn about just how atrocious Fazbear Entertainment's Pizzaplex building design is, and the rest of her family probably won't be any happier to learn about it than she is. Something must clearly be done…and now it's time for the Schmidt family to do something about it.

Chapter 190 – Forcing Our Hand

It honestly spoke volumes about Mike's sense of self-control that he didn't let out another enraged scream when he learned about the massive fire hazard that was Fazbear Entertainment's Pizzaplex building design. In fact, he refrained from talking about it at all until they were out of the hotel the next day, his face stony and filled with cold fury for every second of the drive home.

The scream of rage that Mike let once he had secluded himself in his workshop garage was loud enough that every single one of his kids could hear it from outside, though.

"Okay, I'm calm enough that I can now talk about Fazbear Entertainment's latest fuck-up without blowing my lid and doing something really regrettable," Mike declared once he had left the garage and the family was back in the living room. He was still clearly pissed, but seemingly no more than any of them felt at this latest revelation. "I think we're all in agreement that something needs to be done about this, right?"

"No doubt about it!" Fritz fervently agreed, speaking for all of them. "We can't let Fazbear Entertainment get away with this!"

"I know some of you guys didn't see it personally," Jeremy added with a scowl, "but that was one of the worst building designs I've ever seen!"

"Seriously!" Charlie crossed her arms with a furious look in her eyes. "Who's the genius who thought that blocking all the fire exits behind VIP and high-security rooms was a good idea?" The word "genius" was spoken with so much venom that it would've made a Nightmare proud.

Not a single voice of disagreement came up from his kids. "Good," Mike replied curtly. "Because this is something that I'm actually willing to outright destroy Fazbear Entertainment over. The only reason why I allowed Fazbear Entertainment to keep existing was because Glitchtrap was the bigger threat, but that's no longer true if we let them keep a building design that's THIS badly fucked up."

He was well aware that the Special Delivery project could also qualify as a catastrophe that could've killed hundreds of people, but that had purely been Glitchtrap's fault, and the potential disaster was one that Mike and his family were able to contain. This atrocity, on the other hand, was just as deadly if not more so, and the blame for it could solely be laid on the feet of Fazbear Entertainment and nobody else.

"How are we going to get Fazbear Entertainment to change it, though?" Liz asked the question that got straight to the point. "Dad shouldn't have any reason to know about the design of the Pizzaplex. If he tries to go to Fazbear Entertainment directly, they'll accuse of him spying on them and might even try to get him arrested!"

"Yeah…" Susie reluctantly agreed, "Dad can't just walk up to Averus and try to get them to do what he wants, like last time."

A thoughtful look appeared on Gabe's face. "Not right away, at least."

Everyone turned to face the former Freddy inhabitant. "What do you mean by that?" Cassidy asked curiously.

"Charlie said something earlier about how Averus accidentally sent the blueprints for the Pizzaplex building to the guy who confessed about the Special Delivery on live television," Gabe explained. "His name was Culpo or something like that."

Mike made a face. "Oh right, that guy," he replied dryly. "The worst part is that I can't really hold a grudge against him, because what he did was absolutely the right thing under any other circumstance."

"I think that guy's the key," Jeremy realized. "If he sends the blueprints to Dad, then Dad has a realistic reason to have them without spying on Fazbear Entertainment, and THEN he could go and confront them and force them to change the blueprints!"

"There's just one problem," Charlie interrupted with a frown. "Dad has never talked with this Culpo guy before, or vice-versa. We have no idea how to contact him. And even if we did, we're still exposing that Dad knows about the blueprints without him having any reason to. Yeah, it's not as bad as talking to Fazbear Entertainment, but it's still incredibly risky."

The entire family fell into silence as they pondered the problem that Charlie brought up, wondering what was the best way to reach out to Culpo and convince him to send a copy of the blueprints to Mike.

It was Liz who finally broke the silence. "I think…I think we might need Nightmare's help for this," she finally admitted.

The entire family grimaced as they heard Nightmare's name. "I really don't think that's a good idea," Susie objected. "The last time I got him involved, completely by accident, he ended up torturing the mind of half of the executives! And that torture session was the reason why Culpo confessed in the first place and forced Dad to get directly involved in the Special Delivery project. What if sending Nightmare after Culpo causes more problems than it solves?"

"Oh, I don't want to send Nightmare after him to torture him with nightmares!" Liz quickly reassured her sister. "That's the last thing I want to do!"

A sentiment that Mike could certainly agree with. Culpo had been one of the only executives to willingly choose to do the right thing. It might have been due to genuine moral objection to Fazbear Entertainment's corrupt practices, or purely out of fear of what Nightmare would do to him either in this world or the next if he continued on his current path. Either way, he was pliable to further influence from Nightmare already…and torturing him with yet more nightmares after he had done the right thing was wrong from both a moral and a practical standpoint.

"What if we send Nightmare after Culpo in his human form?" Gabe suggested. "It might be easier for Culpo to handle whatever we ask him to do through Nightmare if he isn't this terrifying evil demon bear with a whole bunch of sharp claws?"

"That's it exactly!" Liz agreed excitedly. "That's what I think we should do! Get Nightmare to show up at Culpo's house, wherever it is, and POLITELY," she emphasized the word, "ask him to send Dad a copy of the Pizzaplex blueprints."

Susie was still a bit skeptical. "We can't really control what Nightmare does, though," she pointed out. "What if he decides to go ahead and torture Culpo anyway?"

"Knowing Nightmare as well as I do, I think he'd be more likely to understand if we explain things to him in terms of pragmatism," Mike decided to chime in. "If we explain to him that we need a surgical approach to this problem with a scalpel, rather than going balls-to-the-wall with a sledgehammer, he's more likely to cooperate than if we just ask not to torture this Culpo guy in his mind because it's morally wrong."

Charlie sighed. "Besides, we're out of options," the former Marionette admitted. "Without Culpo sending Dad the blueprints, Dad has no way of knowing about their existence and the problems in them in a way that makes sense. Now that I've calmed down, I realize that calling on Nightmare's help is something that we shouldn't depend on unless we absolutely have to. But in this case…we don't have a choice."

For the next several minutes, the ghost kids tried to come up with different alternatives to calling on Nightmare for his assistance. Unfortunately, nobody in the family could come up with a better solution.

"Let me handle the call with Nightmare," Mike offered once they had all reluctantly decided to invoke the Nightmare solution. "He doesn't have a problem with you kids per se, but he respects me more than you guys, and I know what to say to make him agree with the plan we have."

Not a single one of his ghost kids had any complaint against that. Though Nightmare might not have been an enemy anymore, the aura of terror and dread that he had brought upon them when he had first invaded their house was something that none of them would ever truly forget.

Mike dialed Nightmare's number on his phone. The demon lord answered after only a single ring. "AH, SCHMIDT…" the demon lord's voice echoed from the phone, loud enough for all of them to hear. "TO WHAT DO I OWE THIS PLEASURE?"

"Hello, Nightmare," Mike carefully kept his voice cordial, but otherwise neutral overall in tone. "We have a bit of an update regarding Fazbear Entertainment and their latest plans. And we need your help…but we need it in a very specific way. I know you'd love to invade those executive's minds and torture them in their dreams…but we need a scalpel this time, not a sledgehammer."

"A MORE SUBTLE APPROACH, THEN, IS IT?" Nightmare was clearly curious. "I AM LISTENING…"

The Next Morning…

Benedict Culpo grumbled to himself as he glanced over the email that Averus had sent him. "I'm sure the asshole sent it to me by accident," he muttered. After all, after he had resigned from the Fazbear Entertainment board, he was no longer privy to whatever secrets that the godforsaken company had for their great revival.

Culpo didn't have any desire to get entangled in Fazbear Entertainment's schemes anymore, anyway. Not after the dreadful night when Nightmare had invaded his mind and tortured his soul, unleashing horrific agonies so unspeakable that he could still feel the demon lord's claws upon his soul long after that night had passed. That alone was enough for him to swear off Fazbear Entertainment and anything that had to do with it entirely. The only reason why he hadn't deleted the email Averus had sent him was because it would be useful blackmail material to defend himself if Fazbear Entertainment ever reached out to him again, either to try and wrap him up in another harebrained scheme or if they ever tried to threaten him for any reason.

"All right, I'm starving, time to get some breakfast," Culpo thought as he got off his computer and went downstairs to prepare himself a batch of pancakes. He was about to get the batter ready when the doorbell suddenly rang. "Who the hell is that?" The former executive grumbled. As far as he was aware, there was nobody he had planned to accommodate in his house today. He walked over to the front door and swung it open…

…revealing Matt R. Nacht, Nightmare's human form, in all of his finely-dressed and unholy glory.

"Good morning, Mr. Culpo," Nightmare greeted him with a sinister grin. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance, once again."

"Once again?" Culpo repeated in confusion, subconsciously trying to fight down the feeling of dread that was bubbling up inside of him just from laying eyes on the stranger. "I've never seen you before in my life."

Nightmare laughed. "Oh, but we have, Mr. Culpo. We crossed paths once before, several months ago in the world of your dreams. Such a wonderful conversation we had back then about your company's incompetence and corruption, wouldn't you agree?"

Culpo's eyes widened in horrified recognition as his worst fears were confirmed. "No…NO!" He almost shouted in terror. "Why are you here?" He blabbered. "I confessed the problems with Fazbear Entertainment's Special Delivery project to the public! I didn't do anything to deserve being tortured a second time!"

"Calm yourself, Benedict Culpo," Nightmare reassured him with a placating gesture, even as he relished in drinking the man's fear. "That is not why I am here. If I wanted to torture you again, I wouldn't bother with showing up to your house in the real world in human form. I would've simply materialized in your dreams once more to continue where I left alone, and there isn't anything you could've done to stop me." His scarlet eyes seemingly flashed with menace. "If I wanted to torture you again, I would have done so already."

Culpo shuddered, but he forced himself to take a deep breath. He knew that Nightmare was right, and with that came some relief that he wasn't in any immediate danger. "Then…why are you here?" He asked, his tone respectful but still very wary.

"We have some business we need to discuss," Nightmare answered cryptically. "And I would appreciate it if I could spend a few minutes to have a little chat."

The words were spoken in a respectful tone, but Culpo knew full well that he simply didn't have any choice in the matter. With a sigh, Culpo invited Nightmare in, and guided him over to the living room. "What can I help you with?" He asked once the two of them had sat down.

"How familiar are you with Fazbear Entertainment's latest projects?" Nightmare asked, not interested in pursuing any further pleasantries.

"Not very," Culpo admitted reluctantly. "I know about the Special Delivery project, and Averus sent me some blueprints for the Pizzaplex that they're building." He snorted. "I'm pretty sure that this was by accident, as I'm not an executive with Fazbear Entertainment anymore and I don't want anything to do with them anyway."

"Ah!" Nightmare grinned and lifted a single finger to silence, "And that's what I want to talk about. The blueprints. I want you to open that file and look upon them."

Confused, but knowing than to refuse the demon lord that was literally in his house, Culpo obeyed Nightmare's command and opened up his email, opening up the blueprints that Averus had accidentally sent him. He spent a few seconds looking around the design of the Pizzaplex, nodding occasionally…and then his eyes bulged. "What the hell?" he spluttered. "Did they put the fire exits behind VIP and high-security areas? That's a HUGE fire hazard!"

"So you see the problem then, don't you?" Nightmare answered, clearly amused. "Your former company has once again proven to be a hideous cesspit of corruption and incompetence," the amusement dropped from his face, replaced by vicious and hateful anger, "and I despise incompetence. This?" he gestured towards the blueprint on the screen with a single finger, and in his mind Culpo see a razor-sharp claw, one of the many that had slashed into him that horrible night, "is the most egregious and abhorrent display of incompetence I have seen from Fazbear Entertainment so far."

"I don't disagree with you at all," Culpo hastily assured him, "but…I don't know what you want me to do with this. I'm not a Fazbear Entertainment executive anymore. Even if I brought this to the attention to the company, they'll just ignore me. I know what they're like…I know what I was like. I can't convince them to change the blueprints and make the building safer…not by myself."

"Oh, I'm well aware of that," Nightmare smirked. "Which is why I have come here with a rather simple…request. I want you to send those blueprints to Mike Schmidt. He will deal with Fazbear Entertainment from there."

"Mike…Schmidt?" Culpo repeated in confusion. "Isn't he the guy that took over the Special Delivery project until it was finished?"

"The very same," Nightmare confirmed. "Though the exact nature of his relationship with Fazbear Entertainment, or his relationship with myself for that matter, are none of your concern. All I will tell you that he has a unique level of influence over Fazbear Entertainment that no other being currently has. Of course," he grinned, "some of that influence is thanks to myself."

And Culpo already knew exactly what he meant by that. "So…all you need me to do is to send the blueprints to Mike Schmidt? That's it?"

"That's it," Nightmare affirmed. "And since you are doing this as a favor to us, Schmidt and I will take measures to ensure that you are shielded from any backlash for sending the blueprints to him." His red eyes flashed menacingly and a malicious sneer stretched across his face. "Of course…you could always refuse…in which case, there will be a price to pay tonight."

He flexed his fingers, and once again Culpo could see the cruel, vicious claws stretching from them in his mind's eye, waiting to tear across his soul once again. "No need…no need for threats," he hastily answered. "I'll send the blueprints to Schmidt, and I'll do it right now!"

Nightmare grinned. "Excellent." He watched carefully as the former Fazbear Executive proceeded to make good on his word, sending the Pizzaplex blueprints to Mike Schmidt as he had promised. "Thank you for your cooperation. It has made things much easier…for you, at least. Now that your task is done, I will show myself out."

"No…no problem," Culpo stammered, relieved that his interactions with Nightmare wouldn't proceed beyond this simple meeting. He stood up to escort the demon in human form out of the door, but by the time he had gotten on his feet Nightmare was already gone. Culpo warily searched around the house, paranoia fueling him as he feared the demon lord might still be around, ready to ambush him when he had lowered his guard time. Only when he had searched the entire house was he finally convinced that the demon lord was well and truly gone.

"Ugh…" the former Fazbear executive groaned as he sat down heavily on his sofa, his appetite from before all but gone. "What a hell of a way to spend the morning…"

Two Hour Later…

"Sir?" Stacey poked her head in into Mr. Averus' office as the man was busy typing away at his computer.

"What is it, Stacey?" Averus asked gruffly. "I'm kinda busy right now."

"Sir, Mr. Schmidt just showed up at the office. He says he wants to speak with you immediately. He seemed really upset about something," Stacey reported.

"Shit," Averus grumbled under his breath. By now, he had come to associate Schmidt with bad news for himself and for Fazbear Entertainment. Ironically, it was also Schmidt who had saved Fazbear Entertainment's major projects from complete disaster…not that it didn't make dealing with him any less annoying.

That being said, he couldn't ignore the guy either. Especially since Mike Schmidt was one of the few people who actually had the power and influence to bring Fazbear Entertainment to its knees, if he wanted to. "Send him in," he ordered.

Stacey nodded and backed out of the doorway. Barely seconds later, Mike Schmidt barged in, and Averus was immediately caught on guard when he saw the expression on the man's face. In all of their previous meetings, Mike Schmidt had been either amused or irritated. There were plenty of times when he had mocked Fazbear Entertainment's predicaments to his face, but he had almost never showed genuine anger before.

For the first time in what he could remember, Mike Schmidt was showing that genuine anger now. And that, more than anything else, made him nervous.

"You have some explaining to do," Mike growled.

"I…fail to see what you mean," Averus replied, genuinely confused. As far as he was aware, Mike Schmidt's involvement with Fazbear Entertainment's projects had ended with the completion of the Special Delivery project.

"Then explain why your blueprints for your little Pizzaplex project have all the fire exits locked away behind VIP and high-security areas!" Mike snarled, clearly having run out of patience.

Averus' eyes widened and he spluttered incoherently for several seconds. "H-HOW!" He demanded. "How did you know about the Pizzaplex project? How did you know about the blueprints?"

"A recently retired Fazbear Entertainment executive sent me a copy of the blueprints for the Pizzaplex," Mike answered brusquely, "the same one who confessed about the problems with the Special Delivery project to the public. He told me you sent them to him."

Averus' eyes widened in horror. "What?" He gasped. "I did no such thing!"

Mike sneered. "Then how did he get the blueprints in the first place?" he challenged. "Why don't you take another look for yourself?"

Averus grumbled under his breath as he did so. His initially dismissive demeanor quickly gave way to horror as he checked the emails where he had sent the blueprints…and he realized that just as Mike had said, he had indeed sent a copy of them to Benedict Culpo. "Shit…" he breathed.

Mike snorted. "Looks like someone made a mistake after all. Either way, where Culpo got the blueprints from isn't my concern. This blatantly unsafe building design that's practically guaranteed to kill everyone in the building if a fire goes off, God forbid? THAT is my concern."

Averus turned to face Mike and opened his mouth, but the man didn't even give him a chance to speak. "I'd like to think I've been very gracious with how I've dealt with Fazbear Entertainment up until now. I could have ruined this entire company the moment that Toy Bonnie attacked me in my home. Instead, not only did I not go out of my way to destroy what was left of Fazbear Entertainment's reputation, but I went out of my way to single-handedly fix the many security problems with the Special Delivery project and save you all from yet another bloody catastrophe."

"And we are very thankful to you for your help," Averus replied in a carefully polite tone, understanding that this was not the time to antagonize and agitate Schmidt even further.

"But this? This egregious violation of even the most basic safety regulations? This is far beyond anything I would ever even consider tolerating," Mike snapped, his voice dripping with fury. "So I'm going to make this nice and simple. Either you and your fellow execs fix this immediately, or I go to the police and the press with these blueprints and bring your Pizzaplex crashing to the ground before it ever gets the chance to open."

"I…" Averus stammered as he tried to think of a way to placate Mike. "I…"

"This is not a negotiation," Mike cut him off. "When we're looking at a potential disaster that can kill far more people than even the Special Delivery project, I don't play with people's lives. I am going to tell you my demands, you are going to convince the other Fazbear Entertainment executives to unconditionally agree with my demands, or you can watch as I ruin what's left of this company's reputation and expose you to the public as the uncaring bastards you are." He crossed his hands and glowered at him. "Those are your only options."

Averus sighed and slumped in his chair, defeated, knowing that there was no way out besides agreeing to Mike's demands. "What do your want, Schmidt?" he grumbled. "What do you want us to do?"

"It's very simple," Mike answered curtly. "First, you are going to redesign this building's blueprints, with every single fire exit being easily accessible and available to the general public. You are then going to send me a copy of those new blueprints, within one month from today so that I know that you aren't just bullshitting me. And then lastly, when the building is complete, you are going to give me a personal tour of the Pizzaplex so that I know for a fact that the building has a safe design where anybody can leave through the fire exits at any time without any problems. Those are my demands, and I am not going to negotiate on a single one of them."

Averus silently breathed out, forcing himself to relax. If he was being honest with himself, Schmidt's demands weren't as harsh or as unreasonable as they could've been. They had been making a good amount of progress on the Pizzaplex's construction so far, but nothing that couldn't be torn down and rearranged. They could call a halt on the construction while they fixed the blueprints, and continue working on the building once Schmit had approved the new blueprints. And giving Schmidt a tour was something that they could easily accommodate, and could potentially provide further advantages if he spotted another problem before the Pizzaplex was opened to the public.

He was just thankful that the copy of the blueprints Schmidt had didn't include the old pizzeria that the Pizzaplex was going to be built over. Averus had no idea how well Schmidt would react to that kind of revelation, but he doubted the reaction would be a positive one.

"I will relay your demands over to the board of executives," Averus promised, "and I will make it crystal clear that they are non-negotiable." It wasn't like he could do otherwise, not when the fate of the company was at stake.

Mike smiled for the first time since arriving in the room, although there was still zero warmth in his eyes. "Then I'm glad we can come to an understanding. I'll be expecting an update from you within 2 weeks." He turned to leave, but suddenly stopped as though he had remembered something. "Oh, and one more thing, Mr. Averus? If you try to pin the blame for all this on Benedict Culpo…our mutual acquaintance won't be happy. He'll pay you another visit to make his displeasure known…and let me assure you, it's going to be a real nightmare."

Without waiting for a reply, Mike Schmidt turned around and left the office, leaving behind a horrified Averus to sit limply on his chair as the memories of that demonic night flooded his mind.

/

A/N: Mike isn't playing Mr. Nice Guy with Fazbear Entertainment this time around. He's not going to let that massive fuck-up of a corporation get away with their hideously unsafe building design, one way or another. Either Fazbear Entertainment fixes their shit…or Mike Schmidt is gonna kick that shit in permanently.

The Schmidt family once again had to call on Nightmare's help to deal with a situation they can't realistically deal with themselves. But this time, they knew what they were doing and asked for his assistance in a much more controlled manner. A big improvement over how a frustrated and stressed-out Susie ranted to Nightmare over the phone and ended up sending Nightmare on a massive mental torture spree with all the executives, wouldn't you say?

There will probably be another time skip before the next chapter, as Security Breach approaches. I will say this, though…just because Mike might get rid of a massive problem with the Pizzaplex's design, doesn't mean that it's going to make the actual events of Security Breach a lot easier to deal with for the ghost kids when those events finally come. There wouldn't be much of a story if Gregory could simply run out of the Pizzaplex through one of the fire exits, now would there?

Anyways, that's all I have for now. Hope you guys enjoyed!