Mike's New Ghostly Family

by Archcommander Tenebros

Freddy Fazbear's tale has come to a close. Mike and the girl inside the Puppet are the only two left who know the full story, and the older man has adopted the last pizzeria's sole survivor in all but name. But neither of them expected the ghosts of the murdered children to return, nor did they expect their family to expand so dramatically in such a short time. Now on AOx3.

207. Chapter 210 - Return to the Pizzaplex 5

A/N: All right, everyone. I was having a real rough time when it came to getting this next chapter out. I moved over the weekend for a new job, so I was super busy. And then RIGHT when I finished this chapter, I promptly lost over half of the chapter and several hours of work only a few minutes after I finished the author's note. That absolutely crushed my morale and I needed to take an extra week off just to recover from that heavy blow. I'm sorry this chapter took so long, but it was just too much for me to deal with all at once and I just needed some time to cool off.

Unfortunately, I think 's bot has crapped out again, and disappointingly only a few days after they got it fixed. As a reminder, I would recommend that you check this fanfic every 2-3 weeks to make sure that you aren't unintentionally missing a chapter/update.

Chapter 210 – Return to the Pizzaplex Part 5

With their little detour to El Chip's out of the way, the group returned to their original plan of exploring the Mazercise. The attraction in question was only a short distance away from El Chip's restaurant, and it was marked by a rainbow-colored "Mazercise – Chica's Delicious Path to Fitness!" sign over a series of glass walls with a pair of red double-doors in the middle.

"Here is the Mazercise," Mr. Raugelan introduced the Schmidt family to the attraction. "A Chica-themed attraction that is dedicated to fitness." He pushed the doors open, guiding them into the Mazercise lobby. There were multiple pads arranged on the floor covered in what looked like purple towels, which Mike presumed were for exercise purposes. There were large TV screens on the walls to either side, some showing pizzas while others featured the "Let's Rock!" motto. The sides of the lobby also featured snack bars, presumably for guests to enjoy a snack after spending several minutes working out.

"Welcome to Mazercise!" a female voice which they guessed was Chica greeted them. "Work off the calories while you eat! Sign up for a membership pass today! Super cool perks include discounts on Pizza, Nachos, Fries, and Cookies! Now, that's the smell of fitness!"

"Wait, wait, wait, hold on a second!" Susie interrupted. "This is a fitness-based attraction, right? Working out, losing weight, all that stuff?"

"Uh, yeah…I think," Fritz replied uncertainly.

"So why the heck are they serving a whole bunch of fried crap and desserts here?" the former Chica inhabitant ranted. "Like…I get that Fazbear restaurants were always pizza places, but this is literally the WORST possible place to serve fried food and desserts! If there's ANY place you'd want to serve healthy food, it's here, and I don't even like healthy food all that much! Glamrock Chica even called fries and nachos the smell of fitness! How the heck does that make ANY sense?"

"That's actually a really good point," Gabe acknowledged with a frown. "Fried food and desserts completely go against the very concept of fitness. What's the point of working off all those calories when you're just gonna fill them right back up again with a large pizza slice? Heck, we're ghosts. We physically don't need to exercise and we STILL know this is messed up!"

"Is there a reason why you are offering distinctly NON-healthy foods at the snack bars in your fitness center?" Mike asked the two Fazbear representatives in a deadpan tone. "Kinda defeats the whole purpose of having a fitness center if you're gonna fatten up the kids afterwards with this shit, doesn't it?"

Mr. Raugelan and Mr. Leelurd looked at each other, and then shrugged. "To be quite honest with you, Mr. Schmidt," Mr. Raugelan replied. "We weren't the ones who came up with that particular design choice. The executive board did. And from what I understand, the executive board didn't come up with an exclusive health-focused menu for the Mazercise because children who come to a Freddy Fazbear-themed restaurant aren't interested in eating healthy foods to begin with."

The sad thing was, the Fazbear representative did have a point. "I recommend that you introduce a menu with healthier options like salad and sandwiches for the Mazercise snack bars," Mike advised. "I'm not gonna put a high priority on this like I did for some of the other changes I've made, but I think it would make you guys look less like a bunch of hypocrites if you did."

Unfortunately, Mike couldn't simply demand this change like he could for some of the other attractions. Unlike some of the other corrections that he had practically demanded Fazbear Entertainment to make, this wasn't a fundamental flaw that threatened the integrity of how the Pizzaplex ran, or a hazard that posed a severe risk to the life and health of children. It was merely a questionable design choice, but not that was inherently illegal or highly dangerous unless you counted the health threat posed to children through obesity. But Mike knew full well that Americans didn't need Fazbear Entertainment's help to gain unhealthy amounts of weight and all the health risks that entailed.

"…you're not gonna argue this one any more, Dad?" Liz guessed.

"It's not high on the list of important things that need to be corrected," Mike replied telepathically, "so we can't push for this as hard as we could for other things."

Mr. Raugelan guided the Schmidts through the purple door at the opposite end of the Mazercise lobby, leading them into a smaller room with two yellow neon lines cutting straight through the middle. There were two doors with borders outlined by white neon lights, which were presumably the two entrances of the Mazercise itself. There was also a smaller office that was hidden to the right, looking almost like a closet. "What's in there?" Mike asked, pointing at the small room.

"That room, Mr. Schmidt, is essential to how the Mazercise operates," Mr. Raugelan replied. "There are multiple different wall configurations for the actual maze that exists in the Mazercise. These different configurations can be programmed through a device that exists in that office. Would you care for a demonstration?"

"I absolutely would like to see a demonstration," Mike answered in the affirmative. Telepathically, he sent additional message to Charlie. "Go check on the Mazercise while I'm in the office just to make sure there isn't anything dangerous going on."

The former Marionette inhabitant suited and flew over to the Mazercise entrance, while Mike and the rest of the ghost kids followed Mr. Raugelan and Mr. Leelurd into the office. It was cramped and honestly too modest to be called an office, more akin to a closet. On the wall to the right was a silver rectangular control panel with two pairs of arrows, one pointing to the left and right, and one pointing to up and down. There were also 5 pairs of 2 buttons under the numbers 2-5, and a small TV screen to the right showing an overhead view of the maze layout. To the left of the control panel was a small picture of Helpy standing alone in the middle of the maze, instructing lost individuals to stay in place and wait for help while carrying plenty of water.

"That sign should really be posted around the Mazercise," Cassidy pointed out. "What good is it doing here where the public can't see it?"

Mike pointed the flaw out to the two Fazbear representatives and added a suggestion that multiples of the poster be placed on the walls in the room both outside the Mazercise and in the Mazercise itself. The two men shrugged and wrote the suggestion down without any pushback.

"So what exactly do we do here?" Jeremy wondered. "Do we just push some buttons, flip that switch up or down, and that changes the layout of the maze?"

"Allow me to demonstrate," Mr. Raugelan offered even before Mike could vocalize his son's question. He pressed a few random buttons on the Mazercise pad and flipped the switch a few times as well. Everyone watched as several of the walls in the Mazercise room swiveled and rotated around, creating an entire new configuration different from what they had seen before.

A few seconds later, Charlie floated through the wall and into the office. "The walls just rotated and flipped around," she reported. "Nothing too crazy."

"You guys DID make sure that every possible configuration for the maze actually connects both entrances, right?" Mike asked suspiciously. "Because kids are gonna be super confused if they think there's a separate entrance and exit, when in reality there's only one way in and one way out because you guys screwed up."

Mr. Raugelan and Mr. Leelurd both hesitated and looked at each other with dismay…causing the entire Schmidt family to groan in disbelief. "You've gotta be kidding me!" Gabe exclaimed. "So you're telling me that you don't even know for sure that there's even a guaranteed way for kids to get from one end of the maze to another? You couldn't even do something that basic?"

"This is just horrible!" Susie added with a scowl. "Kids would go into the maze thinking they'd be able to find a way to the other side, and they'd be so lost and confused when they couldn't find one that they'd end up being completely miserable!"

"That's not the only problem," Liz declared, pointing at the small camera screen that showed the inside of the maze. "I can see certain parts of the Mazercise where the walls make a full shape to block in an area of space. If a kid is in the wrong place and the wrong time, they might get completely trapped with no way to get out until the walls change again."

"Were you at least going to wait until the kids were out of the maze before changing it?" Mike questioned.

"We were…going to change the layout of the maze every 10 minutes," Mr. Raugelan admitted, earning looks and expressions of contempt from the entire Schmidt family as they realized that Fazbear Entertainment had seriously thought that changing the walls of the maze while children were still in it had honestly be a good idea."

"Okay, you know what?" Mike declared. "This isn't anything close to acceptable." He pointed at the control panel in the wall that controlled the walls of the Mazercise. "I'm going to make this a lot simpler for you. That control panel and its current programming? Scrap it completely."

"But…but…" Mr. Raugelan spluttered in disbelief. "That would destroy the variety and versatility of the Mazercise completely!"

"I'm not finished," Mike interrupted. "Instead of freely controlling the walls and messing something up, have someone create 10 different, specific maze configurations. Configurations that you know for SURE have a definite connection between both entrances of the Mazercise. Then, program that panel over there so that pressing each button changes the entire maze to match one of those ten configurations. Much easier for an employee to operate the Mazercise since they can change the layout with just the press of a button, and it also doesn't run the risk of ruining the experience for any kids in the Mazercise who go in looking for a way to the other side and not realizing one doesn't exist."

"And they should make sure that they only change the maze when nobody's inside!" Charlie helpfully added. "Otherwise somebody might get boxed in by the walls!"

Mr. Raugelan and Mr. Leelurd both grimaced as Mike made his demands. "That would require a complete overhaul of the Mazercise's programing…" Mr. Raugelan mumbled.

"That's too bad for you, because this is one of those fixes that I'm not giving you the option of refusing," Mike cut him off brusquely. "Because the Mazercise as it is right now? Has some serious fundamental flaws that could completely destroy a child's experience. And there's no way I'm going to let that happen."

Mr. Raugelan sighed. "I'll relay your demands to the board, Mr. Schmidt." He acquiesced.

"Please tell me there's a fire exit in the Mazercise!" Fritz pleaded. "Otherwise this thing will be a massive fire hazard!"

"There is indeed a fire exit in the depths of the Mazercise," Mr. Leelurd reassured them once Mike reiterated the question. "We originally had that fire exit locked behind staff access, but that restriction has since been removed. Now the fire exit only locks down at midnight long after closing hours to prevent theft and vandalism from outside intruders."

"Make sure that every single one of those 10 maze layouts I ordered also has guaranteed access to the fire exit," Mike warned. "Because otherwise this whole place is an unacceptable fire hazard. Now, are there any other problems about the Mazercise I need to know about?"

Mr. Raugelan and Mr. Leelurd glanced at each other with concern in their eyes, which immediately made the Schmidt family suspicious. They seemed to be weighing whether or not to tell Mike about whatever they were thinking. After a moment of silence, Mr. Raugelan let out another sigh. "There is a vent shaft that exists within the Mazercise," he admitted. "One that, given your previous comments on vent shafts…is unlikely to meet your approval in its current state."

"We need to see it," Cassidy commented immediately.

Mike agreed with her and voiced as such. Mr. Raugelan nodded and began pushing buttons and flicking the switch on the control panel, causing the maze walls to start moving. The Schmidts honestly expected this to only take a second or two, but Mr. Raugelan continued to press the buttons with increasing fervor and with increasing levels of frustrations on his face. "What the hell?" he exclaimed. "I can't get the walls to line up in a way that gets access to the vent!"

"Let me try," Mr. Leelurd offered. Mr. Raugelan gladly stepped aside to give him a chance. The Fazbear representative also began to press the buttons in a seemingly random manner…and just like his partner, he too began to feel rising frustration after several moments of no apparent success. "Why is this so convoluted?" He nearly shouted, showing the most emotion for the first time in their entire tour. "Trying to arrange the maze walls shouldn't be this hard!"

"Wait!" Mr. Raugelan exclaimed, stopping him from pushing another button. "I think you got it!" The man was pointing at the camera screen, and while the configuration on it didn't look any more or less special than the previous ones from the Schmidts' perspective, both Fazbear representatives were looking at the screen with notable expressions of relief on their faces.

"Thank goodness," Mr. Leelurd sighed, this time with visible relief. He turned to face Mike with a humorless smile. "Mr. Schmidt, I suddenly find myself much more sympathetic and understanding of your complaints about the Mazercise's programming than I was just a moment ago. I'll be sure to argue very strongly for the changes you've suggested…even though you've made it clear that you are not giving us a choice."

"I'm glad we're on the same page," Mike answered dryly, although this time with complete honesty. Inwardly, however, he was actually quite pleased with their reactions. The fact that both Mr. Raugelan and Mr. Leelurd had personally experienced firsthand how frustrating the current control panel system was would mean that they would argue much more fervently than they would have otherwise…which would increase the chances of Fazbear Entertainment implementing the change without significant resistance. "Let's go see that vent, then. After you."

Mr. Raugelan and Mr. Leelurd guided Mike and the invisible Schmidt family through the maze, although the ghosts had the benefit of simply being able to phase through the walls. The walls were painted in different colors with a different type of fast food or dessert painted on them in patterns, such as cupcakes, tacos, and pizzas. The walls and floor themselves were fairly soft and smooth to the touch but were tough and firm underneath, which was acceptable since it meant kids were less likely to injure themselves running into the walls or tripping over the floor. The two Fazbear representatives guided them to a corner that was bordered by dark green walls with tacos scattered all over them, and in that small section of the wall was a vent shaft that was, once again, completely exposed.

The vent shaft was similar in size to the one they had seen in the Main Atrium, if not a little bigger. What distinguished it from the previous vent shaft they had seen was the fact that the passageway was marked with green light bulbs spaced out every few seconds. There were also bundles of wires lining the sides of the passageway every so often, with sparks popping out of the frayed edges every few seconds.

"Are kids supposed to be able to go through this vent shaft?" Susie asked in disbelief. When Mr. Raugelan answered no through Mike, she scowled. "So we basically have the same problem we had back in the Atrium. There's a wide-open vent shaft going who-knows-where that a kid can just crawl into without anything stopping them!"

"It's actually even worse this time around, when you think about it," Jeremy remarked with a frown. "Because unlike the other vent shaft we saw, this one has wires sticking out of the sides. If a kid touches them, they could get really badly electrocuted or accidentally mess up the wires completely and kill the power to something very important!"

"You know what I'm going to say," Mike informed the two Fazbear representatives without missing a beat. "Put up a vent grate to block this shaft. Seriously, the fact that you have this problem in multiple places is straight-up embarrassing. And make sure somebody fixes those exposed wires, because those could cause serious problems down the road even if nobody sticks their hand in them directly." Mr. Leelurd nodded and wrote down the man's instructions, recognizing that this wasn't a solution worth protesting over.

"Where does this vent shaft lead to, anyway?" Liz wondered curiously. "All those green lights in the passageway kinda remind me of Monty's Gator Golf, now that I think about it."

"That vent shaft does indeed lead to an area of Monty's Gator Golf," Mr. Raugelan confirmed once Mike verbalized Liz's thought. "Specifically, it leads to the upper areas of that attraction, part of which are currently under construction and will not be accessible to the main public when we open up the Pizzaplex as a whole."

Cassidy groaned. "We're gonna have to go back to Monty's Gator Golf and check those parts, aren't we?" The former Golden Freddy inhabitant asked, knowing full well what the answer to her question.

"We don't have a choice," Charlie replied sympathetically but firmly. "We have a duty to do, and we're not gonna screw it up by being lazy."

"I want to see these upper areas," Mike affirmed. "I didn't see anything else fundamentally wrong with the Mazercise attraction outside of everything we already covered, and I want to fully go through Monty's Gator Golf before we move on."

The Schmidt family and the Fazbear Entertainment representatives exited the maze and retraced their steps all the way back to Monty's Gator Golf. They entered the elevator, but instead of pressing downward, Mr. Raugelan pressed the arrow pointing up before hitting the button shaped in Glamrock Freddy's head. The elevator slid up smoothly several seconds before stopping and opening its doors.

The lobby to the upper areas of Monty's Gator Golf was overall noticeably smaller than the lobby of the golf course proper. It had a similar layout, with a few rows of couches in the middle and a ticket booth very similar to the one they had seen in the golf course below. However, unlike the ground floor platform, this one led to a landing area of some kind…where several Monty-themed carriages attached to the ceiling were sliding past.

"Are those…cable cars?" Susie asked curiously.

"These are unique Monty Gator-themed cable cars!" Mr. Raugelan declared. "A pair will be able to enter the carriages at a time and ride out in a circle high above the rest of Monty's Gator Golf. It's a separate experience to the rest of the golf course as a whole…and thus will be charged separately, of course."

Everyone rolled their eyes, but it wasn't illegal or even strictly unethical, so nobody said anything. "I'd like to ride one of the cable cars, please," Mike requested.

"Of course," Mr. Raugelan agreed, guiding them over to one of the cable cars that was approaching. "Just climb right in."

Mike did as the Fazbear representative instructed, and Mr. Raugelan closed the carriage door behind him. "We were originally going to design these cable cars without any doors so that children could climb inside and out freely, but the executive board added the safety doors as a last-minute precaution."

"Glad to hear that," Mike commented dryly, the other ghost kids making other various expressions of agreement. The Schmidts might have been less than impressed with some of the OTHER safety failings that had slipped through the cracks in the Pizzaplex, but they would give credit where credit was due. The cable carriage flew at a slow and steady pace past the platform and into the air high above Monty's Gator Golf. The ride was surprisingly smooth, with the pole attaching the cable car to the ceiling holding strong and barely swaying at all. The Schmidts looked over the cable car to look down and enjoy the view…only to realize that much of it was obstructed by a series of metal catwalks that looked almost as though they had purple guns attached to them.

"What the…?" Jeremy squinted at them. "Are those GUNS attached to those catwalks?"

"Yeah…" Cassidy confirmed, briefly teleporting to confirm what they were seeing and teleporting back. "What are those even doing here?"

"I feel like we're missing something really big," Gabe commented with a frown. "Is this that one attraction that they mentioned that was currently still in progress?"

"It might be…but I'm not 100% sure," Charlie acknowledged. "We need to ask about this once we get back."

The rest of the cable car ride was thankfully uneventful, although as the carriage returned to the landing platform they noticed a colossal bucket labelled "Hurricane Hole-in-One" with a gauge split into three colors at its top. "What is THAT?" Fritz exclaimed, pointing at the bucket. "That bucket is huge!"

"Something else we need to ask about," Mike commented as the cable car arrived back at the landing platform and Mr. Raugelan opened the doors to open them out.

"Any concerns, Mr. Schmidt?" Mr. Leelurd inquired.

"The cable car ride was fine," Mike replied tersely. "I'd be more concerned if there weren't any safety doors, but you added those so that's taken care of. The only thing I'd say is that you should add post a list of rules somewhere everyone can see it, because I don't see one around here. Just use the same standard safety rules for any cable car ride, it should be fine."

The Fazbear representatives nodded and wrote down his recommendations. "Then perhaps we should be heading back so we can guide you through the last of the features," Mr. Raugelan suggested.

"Hold on a second," Mike interrupted with a raised hand. "While I was flying over Monty's Gator Golf, I saw this set of catwalks with what I think were guns on them, all of which were pointed at this huge Hurricane Hole-in-One Bucket I saw. What the heck was that?"

"That, Mr. Schmidt, is the attraction we mentioned earlier that is currently in progress and will not be available to the public at launch," Mr. Leelurd answered.

"I'd like to go down and take a closer look at it, if you don't mind," Mike requested, with his tone making it abundantly clear that refusing was not an option.

The two Fazbear representatives had been around Mike long enough to get the hint, and guided the Schmidts away from the landing area for the cable cars and back to the upper floor's lobby. But instead of bringing them to the elevator, he escorted them to a green door that they hadn't noticed when they'd first arrived. Mr. Raugelan unlocked the door with his key, and they descended down a metal staircase to a series of metal catwalks that spanned across a large portion of the general Monty's Gator Golf area.

Right away, Susie noticed a problem with the catwalks. "There's too much space between the handrail and the floor," she pointed out. "I think there needs to be another bar in the middle between them, otherwise a kid could slip through and fall to their deaths."

Mike relayed the concern to their guides, who wrote down the criticism without any pushback or commentary. "So what exactly am I looking at here?" he asked. Now that he was on the catwalks themselves rather than looking down on them from above, he had a clearer picture of both the guns and the huge Hurricane Hole-in-One bucket…but still didn't understand what he was seeing.

"This is a special activity only available to one child a day," Mr. Raugelan explained. "Specifically, a child with a birthday who reserves the spot first."

"Kinda restrictive," Gabe commented. "But nothing inherently unethical about that, I guess."

"The child will be able to use the guns scattered around the catwalks to fire balls into the Hole-in-One Bucket," Mr. Raugelan continued his explanation. "As they fill up the bucket, the gauge that you see on the bucket will brighten up higher and higher. The goal for the child is to fill up the entire bucket as quickly as possible. Then, they will have the privilege to press that switch next to the bucket and let the entire bucket tip over and release all of the balls inside down to the lower level like a waterfall. We will keep records of who fills up the balls the fastest to inspire competitiveness in the children in question."

"And what are these guns shooting into the bucket, exactly?" Liz asked through Mike, a disturbing thought suddenly occurring to her.

"Why, golf balls, of course!" Mr. Raugelan replied cheerfully.

The entire Schmidt family let out gasps of horror, although it took some less time than others to realize the dangers. "GOLF BALLS?" Fritz exclaimed once they were all on the same page. "Wouldn't that be, like…super dangerous?"

"In way too many ways," Jeremy commented. "If a golf ball misses the bucket and falls to the ground below, it could seriously hurt or even kill someone if it falls right on their head!"

"That's not even the worst of it, Jeremy!" Susie replied in disbelief. "Look at those cable cars again. Some of them are moving right in the way of the guns. A kid could shoot a golf ball right at someone in the cable cars either accidentally or on purpose, and it'd probably hurt even MORE than having a golf ball falling on your head from up here."

"And that waterfall of golf balls is just as terrible of an idea when you think about it," Gabe added with a grim look on his face. "Imagine that somebody was unlucky enough to be underneath a whole storm of golf balls and they landed right on top of him. That IS going to kill somebody unlucky enough to be underneath it, straight up."

"I have a question for you," Mike asked Mr. Raugelan, with a deathly calm that did nothing to hide how utterly furious he actually was. "If I threw a golf ball at your head, would be okay with that?"

"What?" Mr. Raugelan spluttered. "No, of course not! That could seriously hurt me, especially if you hit me on the head!"

"Then what the FUCK made you think that having these guns shoot golf balls was an acceptable decision?" Mike all but shouted. "The golf balls coming out of those guns will come out flying a lot faster and hit a lot harder than a human throwing them. If they hit someone in one of those cable cars, or hit someone down in the main golf course after a long fall from up here, you're practically ASKING for those golf balls to seriously hurt or kill someone!"

Mr. Raugelan tried to interrupt, but Mike was fully caught up in his rant now and didn't give him even a second of breathing room. "And that's not even going into the fact that if you send an entire waterfall of golf balls onto the lower floors and someone is in the wrong place or wrong time, you ARE going to kill someone, period," Mike continued his tirade. "Not only that, but you could end up damaging the cable cars too! What if a kid fires a golf ball at the poles connecting the cable cars to the ceiling? You hit them with the golf balls enough times, or you hit the wrong thing hard enough, and you could end up either damaging the cable cars themselves or breaking the poles and sending them plummeting to the lower floors. Killing both anyone who's inside them AND anybody who's unlucky enough to be underneath them in the process!"

"Gah!" Cassidy exclaimed, horrified. "We didn't even think about that!" Mr. Raugelan looked similarly stricken, not saying a word but no doubt visualizing a world in his head where a cable car filled with a terrified pair of children crashing down onto Monty Gator Golf, killing both them and anyone in the collision zone. Even Mr. Leelurd looked uneasy at the idea.

"I think I've made it abundantly clear that having the guns shoot golf balls is completely unacceptable," Mike finished as he crossed his arms. "Luckily, the solution to most of these safety hazards is pretty simple." He smiled, an expression with zero genuine warmth. "You get rid of the golf balls in the guns entirely, and replace them with those soft plastic balls that are all over the places in play-places. Simple solution."

"WHAT?" Mr. Raugelan exclaimed.

"Do you not know what I'm talking about?" Mike asked, tilting his head.

"No, I know what you're talking about," Mr. Raugelan replied, clearly agitated. "But that would completely break from the golf theme of Monty's Gator Golf!"

"Yeah, it would," Mike agreed, before scowling. "Too bad for you, I don't give a shit. I came here specifically to make sure that the Pizzaplex would be as safe as possible for any kids who come into it. The guns shooting golf balls is a huge safety hazard on multiple levels, and that's not even going into other problems, like the fact that there isn't a safety rules list anywhere just like how there wasn't any for the cable cars. And in case you couldn't figure it out yourself, no, I am not giving you the option of refusing for this. This is a high priority change that I insist is implemented before the opening of the Pizzaplex."

"But the attraction isn't even meant to be exposed to the public yet!" Mr. Leelurd protested.

"That doesn't mean anything!" Charlie retorted. "Some kids or teens might just break through the doors and decide to shoot each other with the guns as a way to pass the time. Hell, some employees might do the same thing if they're really irresponsible!"

Mike relayed the argument to the Fazbear representatives. "I'm not budging on this," he declared. "Your executive board has had dealings with me before. And they'll know what happens if they're stupid enough to refuse my demands."

Mr. Raugelan and Mr. Leelurd glanced at each other uneasily. They might not have known the full details on the executive board's interactions with Mike Schmidt, but it was clear that he commanded some level of respect or even fear from them, if the board had given them explicit instructions not to do anything to piss him off, and were willing to take his demands seriously. "We will make sure that our bosses are aware that this is a high priority change, similar to the others you have labeled as high priority," Mr. Raugelan finally replied. "But just to remind you, that's all we can do."

"I'm aware of that," Mike replied, allowing his temper to cool. "And just so you're aware, as long as you make sure that my requests are fully and properly passed on to the executive board, I don't have any real problems with the two of you personally."

"Yeah, we don't want to shoot the messenger," Susie agreed. "They're not the ones making the final decisions."

"Are there any other concerns you have regarding the shooting game up here?" Mr. Leelurd asked, now sounding like he was utterly tired of it and wanting very much to move on.

"Why don't they just stop the cable cars from moving completely while the shooting game is going on?" Jeremy suggested. "I mean, the game's only supposed to happen once a day, right? And it can't be THAT long, probably just a few minutes at most. You can't seriously be telling me that it'd be a major problem for the Pizzaplex to just pause the cable cars for a few minutes while the game is going on, and then continue them afterwards?"

"That's a good idea, Jeremy," Gabe praised. "You wouldn't have to worry about any balls hitting the cable cars completely if you did that. Plastic balls wouldn't be nearly as dangerous as golf balls coming out of a gun, but they'd still probably be annoying to get hit by."

Mike relayed the suggestions over to the Fazbear representatives, who groaned as they realized the fairly straightforward situation. "Did you honestly not think about that as an option?" Mike asked incredulously.

"No…we didn't," Mr. Raugelan admitted. "That would certainly make things a lot safer for whoever's riding the cable cars."

"I'm still not changing my demands on replacing the golf balls in the guns with soft plastic play balls," Mike warned, just to be safe. "Even if you didn't have to worry about the cable cars anymore, the other dangers with the golf balls are still very much relevant."

Mr. Leelurd nodded in agreement. "We are aware, Mr. Schmidt," he assured him. "We had no intentions of removing this criticism from our records."

"Good," Mike smiled, this time with noticeably more warmth than before. "And don't forget to add a rules list somewhere where it can easily be seen before you release this attraction to the public."

"We will be sure to do so for both this and the cable car ride," Mr. Raugelan promised. "Anything else?"

"Maybe add some kind of bowl or collecting thing at the bottom of wherever the balls in the bucket are falling down to?" Gabe suggested. "That way all the balls will be collected in one area instead of scattering all of the place. It'll make them easier to pick up later…and it'll also be another way to improve safety since people will know not to climb in that bowl or whatever if you put up a rule stopping them from doing that."

Mike relayed the suggestion to Mr. Leelurd, who jotted it down as the Schmidt family tried to think of any more problems beyond what they had already talked about for a few seconds. "I can't think of anything," Cassidy finally admitted.

"Yeah, I've got nothing either," Fritz agreed.

"Let's move on, then," Charlie declared. "We've still got a few more places left in the Pizzaplex to see."

"I think we're good here," Mike spoke on behalf of them all. "Let's move on, then."

The two Fazbear representatives nodded and escorted them back to the elevator. He and his kids might have highlighted the many problems plaguing the Mazercise and the upper areas of Monty's Gator Golf, but Mike didn't allow himself to feel any more than a minor sense of triumph.

After a spell of fairly normal and relatively safe areas, these past few minutes had been a sobering reminder that there was absolutely still plenty of room for Fazbear Entertainment to screw things up in a big way.

And until he and his family left the Pizzaplex behind them, their work wasn't over yet.

/

A/N: I was originally going to have this one be the final chapter in the Completed Pizzaplex Tour arc, but the problems with the Mazercise and the upper areas with Monty's Gator Golf were so extensive and serious that I'm gonna have to put off the final chapter to the next one instead. Along with the reactions that the Schmidts are gonna have to the absolutely glorious disaster that is Sun/Moon.

The elevator of Monty's Gator Golf going up to a lobby with access to the catwalks and the Monty-shaped cable cars is something that, I admit, I completely made up. As far as I know, there's no way to access the upper areas of Monty's Gator Golf for the boss fight with Monty outside of the one grate in Mazercise. But there has to be a way to get up there from SOMEWHERE, so I just added something that I hope made sense.

Anyways, next chapter will be the one that features the Schmidt family interacting with Sun/Moon. And oh boy, is THAT one gonna be fun chapter to write. I'm more relieved than anything else to finally get this chapter done, and I hope you guys enjoyed!