I Don't Own Fnaf
The best the two could come up with was just staking out the Pizzeria, so that's where Fritz and Jeremy found themselves, staring out at the front of the building, waiting for... something to happen. Though nothing had for a long while, both men instead had long since gotten bored of just staring a head at the building, waiting for something to happen as the two sat in silence. A small of take out between Jeremy's legs in the passenger seat that had long since eaten and put away.
Eventually the silence was to much as Fritz was the one who finally broke the quiet, coughing a bit to break up the silence before speaking.
"I can't believe movies make this look so intense and interesting" Jeremy let out a soft snort in agreement, unfortunately he didn't seem to have much else to add beyond just passively agreeing as the car quickly went back to being silent as Fritz absently messed with his hair for what must have been the hundredth time in the last thirty minutes. It wouldn't be to much of a stretch to say he was past being nervous anymore and was almost wanting something to happen at this point with how dull it was just sitting out in the car in the middle of the freezing winter, waiting on something to happen.
This time Fritz lasted about another minute before speaking up again.
"So... What have you been up to? I mean, like in the time we lost contact" Jeremy blinked away from where he was staring with unfocused eyes at the front of the pizzeria from where they were parked down the street a bit, glancing back at Fritz once more before shrugging.
"I mean... Not much, you aren't know the broad strokes of it all" Fritz nodded, the two didn't really do great to keep in contact but they had at least tried for the first few years, so he did know most of the story of what the other man had been up in the time to between the last location and this one. It wasn't sure interesting in all honesty, mostly depressing, the first two years was mostly just recovering and relearning how to exist with his new disabilities among other things. Then Jeremy went to work at his family's business for the rest of the time from what Fritz knew, it was some cooperate thing that Fritz never got more information on.
"I mean sure, but something else must have happened right? Like, anything at all? I'm desperate for something here alright, meet anyone? Do anything when you weren't working? I'll take hobbies at this point man" Jeremy thankfully looked mostly amused at what was essentially Fritz whining about being bored, though he only managed to shrug, glancing back at the front of the pizzeria for a short moment before suddenly speaking up.
"I did met someone..." He sounded a bit hesitant to talk about it, but Fritz grabbed onto it like it was a life line, he wasn't great at not having something to work on, usually he kept his hands busy, but without that, it seemed he was more than willing to pry into the personal lives of the people around him without a second thought.
"Yeah? Good on you! What's she like?" Jeremy flinched a bit at that, he was still looking away before coughing in what seemed like embarrassment as he said.
"Well, I mean... It didn't go anywhere so don't get to excited"
"Oh, that sucks, what happened?" He just shrugged.
"Turns out dating is hard when you can literally feel when your partner is feeling guilty for cheating on you" Jeremy sounded a bit bitter about it, but Fritz couldn't tell if it was because of his weird spirit thing or the fact that he was cheated on, he just sounded tired of everything more than at anything in particular within what he said. That didn't keep Fritz from suddenly feeling like a jerk for prying. He got taught that lesson quicker than he thought he would, as he awkwardly said.
"Uh, well, you know, it's her lose right? I mean, who wouldn't wanted... uh..." It only made Fritz feel even worse as he realized all of Jeremy's most noticeable traits weren't exactly what a person looked for in a relationship, trauma, facial scars, and freaky supernatural connections weren't really good ice breakers and Fritz felt like a jerk that he couldn't think of anything else about someone he has known for years to use. Some friend he was. Thankfully Jeremy seemed to take it in a much more humorous way, letting out a short only sort of self-deprecating laugh as he just shook his head, giving Fritz a side look.
"Oh, thanks man, really know how to cheer a guy up huh?" Fritz gave a sheepish shrug, though Jeremy did quiet down for a moment before saying absently though with a hint of hesitance, "But... h-he wasn't looking for my 'Uh' as you so put it" Before Fritz could figure out how he was suppose to react to the sudden quiet admission, Jeremy bulldozed his way through the awkwardness, "But it's fine! I wasn't really ready for a relationship I don't think. Just wanted to feel normal more than anything at the time, I doubt it would have went anywhere anyways. To much unaddressed baggage you know?"
Thankfully Fritz did know, and it was a very thankful segue to get out of having to come up with something to say to what felt like a very personal admission from the younger man, so he just took it and ran with it.
"Yeah, trust me, I'm the king of avoiding my problems, I'm the one who's been working at Freddy's nonstop basically for the last five years of my life. Can't exactly go into work without gaining at least another skeleton in my closet" It was a darker joke, one Mike was more likely to make, but it seemed to help ease any sort of awkwardness away as they continued to talk on and off for the next little while as they stayed camped out in front of the pizzeria, waiting for something to happen.
Sadly the good nature couldn't last much longer until it was Jeremy who asked the next hard to answer question.
"What... What are we going to do if we see the Purple Guy? Like, honestly?" Fritz frowned, unsure how to answer, because what was he suppose to say to that? He had no idea just what they were suppose to do, so he decided to be honest.
"I'm not really sure... I guess call the cops on them, but if they didn't get caught when it was happening then the most this is going to do is maybe pin breaking and entering on the guy. Maybe destruction of property?" Jeremy was quiet for a long second before saying.
"But, uh, if we do that, he could put the blame on me, I was already fired for that right?"
"Nah, the police would catch him in the pizzeria right? That's enough proof to get you off the hook for anything Freddy's could try to pin on you" Jeremy sent a look at Fritz at that.
"This is Hurricane, by the time the police get here, the man could be across state borders already, then it's just a case of breaking and entering and management already has something against me" Though, he clearly pondered something for a moment before adding afterwards, "Though they might also try to pin it on Mike, he looks the type" It was serious, but Fritz did give a soft laugh at that, cause, yeah, Mike looked a lot more like the criminal type than Jeremy did, it was more believable.
"They'd have to find him first" Fritz winced because, just like that, he ruined the mood again, though Jeremy did frown, he didn't react that much, instead just looked back at the building with a contemplative look on his face.
"D-Do you think we should kill him?" He sounded uncertain, but there was a certain level of certainty to Jeremy's sudden words that took Fritz incredibly off guard, as he spun his entire body around to stare at the younger man, who was still staring out at the building with a quiet frown on his face.
"What? Jeremy, no! Where the hell did that come from?!" The younger of the two seemed to flinch back, as he turned to look at Fritz, before quickly looking again in what looked like shame, "We aren't going to be killing anyone! I- Just no! End of discussion!"
That seemed to be the wrong thing to say, the faint shame turning quickly to determination, where it was just to defend the point he had made or Jeremy actually wanting to go through the killing a person, Fritz had no idea, it frankly didn't matter that much to him either what was causing it as Jeremy spoke back with a sudden but sharp fierceness.
"Why not? How the hell are we going to handle a freaking serial killer? He's going to try to kill us the first chance he gets! Hell, for all we know Mike's already been killed by him!" ...And there it was, the one thought, the one shared idea that neither of the two men had dared voice up until now.
Mike was probably dead, the man wouldn't just vanish, not for this long, it had been days at this point, this was the third night since either of them had heard from Mike, and that had been just before the Purple Man came and destroyed Freddy. Neither were stupid enough to ignore the signs, they just hadn't wanted to think about it, much less mention it. Fritz had thought they had been doing a pretty good job of keeping the thought to himself, but he hadn't considered how hard it would be hitting Jeremy.
But it was apparently hard enough that the other man was contemplating murder. Maybe once upon a time, Fritz would have had that same desire, that same hurt and need for revenged that would make him think to do such an act. But that was before he spent years watching his coworkers slowly vanish one by one, years of visiting graveyards where empty boxes had been buried. He was to numb to death to truly do anything more than mourn another life that had been cut to quickly.
"What then?" Fritz's voice came out tired, exhausted even, because he didn't know what else to say, "What then? We have some person's dead body, another body, at Freddy's and someone will come looking, and what then? We go to jail for killing a person?" As fucked as it sounded, Fritz considered it, that's what Freddy's did to a person, it made the idea of going to jail almost tempting, it would be the sharpest break he could get form this horrible place. He'd have no chance to allow himself to be dragged back if he was literally locked away.
Jeremy's thoughts went into another direction.
"We could get the animatronics to handle it, how many people have died in there without the bodies being found? They can do... something, whether that's just being really good at hiding the man or just vanishing him into the ether or whatever, we both know he'll never be found" Fritz just sighed.
"Would they be willing? Freddy apparently was willing to go quietly into that good night, no matter what Goldie said, you yourself was sure he let himself move on. That's why we're here isn't it? Because we for some godforsaken reason are worried about the murderous robots not wanting to kill the one person they've been trying to murder for the last decade!" Fritz hadn't meant to yell, but he had anyways near the end of his almost manic venting of his frustrations, about all of it, about how unfair it was.
Because none of this was fair, to any of them, not him, not Jeremy, not Mike or any other the other employees who died on the dumpster fire of a pyre that was Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria, certainly not fair for any of the children, it wasn't fair at all, and Fritz was fucking sick of it.
Jeremy just stayed silent for a long moment, looking away, probably trying to shield himself or whatever from the hell that was going on in Fritz's head, waiting until he calmed down enough to listen. It took a few minutes, Fritz finally though just slumped into his seat, pressing his hands into his face as he took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself down a bit quicker, it was embarrassing to just explode like that. In an effort to act like he still had some control over himself, he waved at Jeremy so the man could finally get whatever he wanted to say over with.
"I get it" ...That hadn't been what he had expected after a melt down, as he just leaned back and looked over at the man who was giving him a sympathetic look, "I get it sucks, the injustice of it all, being angry and having no idea what the hell to do with it. That was most of my time recovering, not just because my emotions were all over the place cause of my missing parts, but because of what I learned when I was dead" The way he so causally said it made Fritz flinch back a bit, neither of the men had truly addressed it, so hearing about it so bluntly was kind of like a hit to the chest, "But we can do something... I'm still pissed, I'm always kind of pissed about all of this, but unlike before we can finally do something. Mike... He's probably gone, but he brought us into this when he was the one who knew nothing, if he can willingly give his life to this, then we can at least do what we can to avenge everyone who's died in the name of Freddy's"
It was hardly the most convincing argument, but it never had to be, because Fritz got attached easily, that had always been the case, and once more it was going to have him do something he never wanted to do. He knew it, and there was no escape or nice thinking that by the end of this he'd he able to live a normal life again, it was a cruel lack of comfort, given it was that thought that had kept him going over the last few years when he worked as Freddy's glorified handyman.
"You suck at speeches" Jeremy looked worried for just a second as Fritz sighed, dragging a hand down his face before continuing, "But fine... We need to know that the animatronics are going to help us, hell, we need to know if they won't just handle all this themselves, for all we know Foxy is more than willing to hook this purple killer for us, and Freddy was just a weird one off. Not all ghosts are the same... or something like that" Jeremy slowly nodded.
"If we're lucky we can convince Foxy, he's the one that's the most agreeable, maybe he could talk to the others" The man sounded like he already dreaded the conversation, but Fritz wasn't in the right mindset to be able to comfort the younger man, he was already regretting everything he was doing and they technically hadn't even done anything yet.
"We'll say it's Mike's idea or something... Let's also make sure not to mention anything about what's going on with Mike until we know for certain" Jeremy looked devastated for a moment, before he managed to pull himself together with a nod. The blonde was probably thinking something similar to Fritz, about how the hell they were going to break the news if Mike really was dead, of which both had managed to convince themselves of now that they weren't pretending that he was just happened to be missing, to Goldie, and Foxy both really.
"Yeah... Let's not tell him, Foxy is already messed up because of Freddy, I think we were right when I said this isn't exactly what they all planned for. I think Freddy might have went rogue or something" Fritz just huffed.
"Yeah, maybe, though that also doesn't make sense, that damn bear was nearly the most deadly of the four, he doesn't move much, but when he does he's fast and he's almost impossible to catch in time" It's why Fritz had dreaded working on Thursday and Friday nights, those were insanely difficult and it was usually a miracle more than anything that got him out of them. He normally planned an excuse after a while ahead of time so he wouldn't be able to be called in on them just in case. The fact Mike managed and kept managing for so long without a hint of concern was what made the thought of him dying so hard for Fritz at first, the man seemed almost untouchable in that way.
Guess that just showed how dangerous the guy they were dealing with was...
God, Fritz really wished he hadn't just had that thought, Mike would have been able to beat both his and Jeremy's asses with his eyes closed, he'd only have to spin around fast enough and he'd probably be able to knock them both out while they flailed around trying to figure out what to do. It made Fritz glad he had grabbed a taser when he had the chance, hopefully that would even things out.
"Let's just get this over with then, we can probably get in through the back or something, it's obvious enough no one's going to be showing up here anyways, this is a bust" Double checking the time on the car's dashboard, just to make sure they had hours before twelve, he glanced back at Jeremy who just nodded in agreement. The two quickly climbed out of the car and began to make their way over towards the building.
Moving around behind it, Fritz did his best to not look overly nervous as he looked around trying to see if anyone had spotted them. It felt a bit ridiculous, given this wasn't the first time they had broken in technically, but Mike had a way of making someone not think about the fact they were actively committing crimes. Probably because he had keys to the place, and that made it harder for Fritz to remember it was actually breaking and entering.
"H-Hey, what are these" Fritz paused, stopping long enough to turn back to look at Jeremy who had seemingly noticed something, as he leaned down to look at the ground, a frown on his face that quickly turned to shock as his palish skin turned white as he lifted up the thing he had seen so Fritz could take a look.
It was the same exact keyring that Fritz had just been thinking about, laying loose on the ground. It was Mike's keys.
Fritz's eyes moved away, staring at the ground where Jeremy was standing and felt sick as he noticed the dried looking red on the ground that he had thought just been some weird stain, but looking at it, it could easily be dried up blood. It wasn't a lot, but it was enough to paint a horrific picture.
"O-Oh god, it happened here" Fritz barely managed to turn away to hide the struck look of grief that had passed over his face as Jeremy let out a soft whine like sound like he was trying to keep himself together. "J-just, put them in your pocket, let's just talk to the fox and then get the hell out of here" Jeremy managed a nodded and quickly the two rushed to the back door exit to the building.
Pushing it, Fritz frowned to himself when the door gave way without resistance, he honestly thought it would be locked and they would have to break a window or something to be able to get inside before they happened to find the keys. Glancing back over to Jeremy as he pushed the door open.
"This should definitely be locked right?" Jeremy nodded, looking concerned as Fritz made the quick decision to pull out the taser before tossing it over to Jeremy, who just gave him a look, he just shrugged, "What? You'd need it more"
"I'm not an invalid Fritz" Fritz just rolled his eyes and just waved him off, he just felt better with Jeremy having it then just keeping it on him. Walking into the unlit Pizzeria, he frowned, pulling out a flashlight and quickly shining it around before looking back at Jeremy.
"Where was Freddy? Maybe we can gather him up and put him back together. Goldie did say his spirit was still around right?" Fritz admittedly was mostly just grasping at straws, but the idea of not even trying was worse than failing. Jeremy seemed to understand that, though he still paused for a long moment, staring away for a moment at seemingly nothing, a strange look pulling on his face which made Fritz think for a moment he was missing out on something, before the man just turned back and said simply.
"Uh, yeah, sure, follow me" Fritz just did as he was told, shining the light down the halls that felt empty somehow, the place was still as gross as ever, the walls still looked like they were actually peeling off like always, but somehow the place felt hallow, past anything he was used to before, it was startling in a way. Sure the place had never really been lively in any description of the word, honestly it usually felt more like a graveyard to Fritz, though he wasn't sure if that was just because of what he knew or something else entirely, but even graveyards had bodies in them...
"Ever wish your brain would just... not?" Jeremy actually paused at the unprovoked question, turning around to give Fritz a look to let him know he really needed to shut his mouth, or pick a better audience. He was really on a roll with saying unintentionally dickish things today wasn't he? Giving the man a short apologetic look, he quickly muttered out a, "Sorry," before the two continued on, quickly ending up in the hallway that Jeremy had apparently found Freddy's broken body in.
It also happened to nearly break Fritz's heart when he say it, because the scene had changed since the last time Jeremy had been in here not even a few days ago.
The animatronic body wasn't alone.
Mixed together with parts that were clearly of Freddy's endoskeleton and suit, were similar parts and that made up the remains of both Chica and Bonnie. But that wasn't what truly broke something in the man's chest, that was the sight of Foxy the Pirate, sitting down, cross legged, in front of the pieces of his fellow animatronics, just staring up at them both, his sole yellow eye blankly looking up at them as they approached. Jeremy sucked in a deep breath and Fritz watched as a hand went up to his head as he gritted his teeth, a look of heartbreak pulling on the man's face, as Fritz spoke, without realizing he was speaking, the thought on both of their minds.
"We were too late" He hadn't realized he had spoken, his own voice startling him, an he also nearly didn't notice his mistake, as the sound of his voice broke the air and seemed to snap Foxy out of whatever headspace the fox had been in. It was only because of their time spent as night guards, having to keep their guards up no matter what they were feeling, that caused the two men to react in time as they watched as Foxy launched himself, somehow in his sitting position, straight at Fritz. The sound of sharp static bounding out of the fox's voice box as Fritz practically let out a scream of his own.
Half stumbling back saved him from the first swipe of the fox's enraged claw, it was Jeremy who shoved him from the next, as a pair of hands wrapped around one of his arms and yanked him back with surprising force out of the way of the attack as the two barely managed to turn around in time to start running as Foxy charged at them from behind.
They would never have made it to the office under normal circumstances, even broken down Foxy could have out paced them, now though? With Fritz's maintenance and fixing of the fox's legs? They stood no chance, needless to say Fritz was to busy beating himself up over that decision and the fact that he was about share Jeremy's trauma in being mauled by a Foxy model when Jeremy himself found their solution. Fritz hadn't even noticed the strange way that on one of the walls there seemed to be a section of the wallpaper that was ripped up with broken up drywall on the floor, which was exposed just enough to show a small latch built into the door.
Jeremy didn't think twice, tugging Fritz's nearly sideways in the rush, one of his hands came out and flailed at the latch handle before thankfully finding purchase just in time to swing the door into the side room he hadn't known about as he dragged the other man instead before slamming the door closed as the two listened to the sounds of scrapping metal against the the weird metal door that Jeremy had pulled them through. The two just took a moment to try and get themselves back under control before sharing a look.
"Did you know that this was here?" Fritz just shook his head, but answered quickly enough, having in the rush actually recognizing the latch that Jeremy had used to open the door in the first place.
"Secondary rooms weren't that uncommon, being covered up is a bit weird but not that strange. There was a few back at the last location to, they... shouldn't be able to be seen by animatronics though, guess that's another thing that didn't actually work on the fox, yay for us I guess"
"What? Why not just make those rooms the security offices then!" Fritz opened his mouth to say something... before slowly shutting it. It hadn't actually occurred to him, it had been years since he last seen one of these places, but at the last location...
"I- uh... I have no idea actually, doesn't matter right now though, we just need to wait until Foxy gets bored or tired, then we need to get the hell out of... here..." Fritz slowly stopped talking as he had turned to look at Jeremy to address him properly, but all that had done is make him actually take a look at the room they were in, and along with it, the almost familiar springlock suit that was in the space with them, it was easy enough to recognize Spring Bonnie, he had used that animatronic suit blueprint to practically rebuild full sections of Fredbear's springlocks and machinery.
The fact the suit was here wasn't what caused Fritz to stop, though it was a bit strange to see it at all, especially in this weird back room of all places, no, what caused Fritz to stop was the fact that the rabbit's head was lifted up, just a bit, with a very familiar floating set of spectral white dots lighting floating in it's eyes, staring at the two.
Spring Bonnie was alive, and worse yet, they were trapped in the room with it, as the sounds of banging continued to echoed around the now silent room.
Waking up came in waves of a mix of pressure and pain. The first few times one could say Mike came back to consciousness it would be more accurate to say he cracked his eyes open enough to have a delirious thought before they drifted back shut from the exhaustion and pain racking itself through his body. but eventually he didn't have a choice and was forced to wake up properly, thankfully not in a start, like he normally would have, with his mind still a bit to slow and his body to hurt, to want to make any drastic movements.
It was from experience that he slowly came to the conclusion that he no doubt at the very least had a concussion of some kind, from the not so dull throbbing in the back of his skull along with the slowness that his thoughts were coming to him, as Mike, with a groan, came fully aware of the state of his body. Absently tensing parts of his arms and hands around to get an idea for the damage. The pain that flared up sharply from his right hand did two things, wake him up fully in one quick sharp burst and tell him he probably broke at least a few things.
It was also that that made him finally open his eyes and stare ahead to realize something was very wrong. It was habit to not move much after waking up with an injury, it was a common enough habit that Mike's slower mind at the moment hadn't questioned to hard about what happened to get him in that state.
But opening his eyes and realizing he was peering through a strange mask that was put on his head made everything come back in a wave of information that made his heart spike in rate. Remembering being ambushed after leaving the pizzeria, remembering fighting back before eventually being knocked out. It explained the full body ache radiating from what felt like his very being, tasers had that effect after the fact, they were great at bursting blood vessels and forcing muscle and skin to tense up painfully under the skin and making everything hurt like hell the next day.
Still, Mike instead studied the strange mask over his head instead, the pain wasn't easy to work through, mostly because of the concussion, but it wasn't that difficult either, as he took a deep breath to get his head on mostly right, before studying it as he began to move his left hand to try and reach up and pull it off, only for an unexpected heavy weight found itself keeping his arm in place. That's what caused Mike to nearly start panicking as he quickly, in spite of the pain, tried to move his other arm to only find the same issue.
Leaning back suddenly as much as he could, he felt his back and the back of his head press against something that felt worryingly similar to pointed metal as he took another deep breath to keep his nerve to not freak out, as Mike slowly began to shift his body and neck around the most he could as he looked around the mask, and quickly realized it was more than just a face mask, it was a head of something over his own. Worse than that, as he looked around it, he realized something else, the weight of where he had been sent, sitting against a wall, for it to be around his arms, it would have to be wrapped around his entire chest and the arm restrains would have to be like sleeves...
It all lead to one conclusion that his dazed mind could reach.
Mike was in a suit.
Michael was in a suit.
Damn, Mike's in a bit of a pickle. Anyways, sure he'll probably be fine, or we'll have quite an interesting animatronic joining the Afton family huh?
Speaking of interesting animatronics showing up... Spring Bonnie, kind of weird, wonder who that can be? I mean I'm sure people have some guesses, they might even be right, but... that's for later confirmation.
This chapter, last chapter and the next one coming up all actually were wrote in a near completely different order, I reorganized nearly all of them to make this work out, this chapter here is a combination of the original chapters 10 and 11, while the other two both got a few new parts adding onto them to fill their word counts out while adding in some stuff to make everything flow better. And by that, time's... funky, who knows when the Mike section of this chapter took place? The man's been missing for three days according to Fritz and Jeremy's perspectives after all. It's going to be a bit confusing, but I'm going to try to make sure it's as easy to understand as possible as we go through it, but first we actually have to get there. These next few chapters are going to be very interesting. Anyways, See ya.