Chapter 18: Rough Start

Freddy and his friends arrived to the autobody shop. "There you are Mr. Bun Buns!" said the guy working there, "Didn't think it'd be done so soon. I also didn't think you'd come here so soon too. And you brought friends, huh?" "It's a long story," said Bonnie, "But we need to take my vehicle back now that it's finished." "You got it, I'll ring it up," said the guy as he gave Bonnie the card reader to pay for the paint job.

Chica and Foxy saw Freddy looking really stressed. "What's wrong Freddy?" asked Chica. "Yeah, ye have had that look for 30 sailor minutes," added Foxy. "I'm worried about my dad," replied Freddy, "He hasn't responded to any of my texts and calls between us leaving our homes to now." That was already a sign that Fredbear wasn't doing very well, whether captured or currently on the run.

Bonnie's payment from card went through. "All set!" announced Bonnie, "Now we just need to go and get the van." Everyone followed Bonnie to where they needed to go. It was at this point, Freddy finally got a text back from Fredbear. It read: I'll call in a few minutes. As much as it was a relief to get a text back from Fredbear, it still left Freddy worried to some extent.

Once everyone made their way to the shop and garage, Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy got to see the new look of the van for the first time. "Woah," said Freddy. "I had an idea of what it would look like, but I didn't expect this," added Chica. "Now this is something to tour in," also added Foxy. Even Bonnie himself didn't expect it to look like this. "I guess my paycheck was really worth it!" Bonnie said.

They all got inside the van and Bonnie started it up. "With this new paint job, the police shouldn't be able to recognize us, right?" asked Freddy. "Umm..." Bonnie replied hesitantly, "Yyyeee-Nnnoooo." "You really hesitated there," said Chica, "I think I'll take that as maybe." "50/50 shot may be the safe bet to take," Foxy agreed.

The garage door opened up. With that, Bonnie zoomed out of the autobody shop. "Fredbear will be surprised to see us going to Las Vegas in this new and improved van," said Chica, "Speaking of which, any responses from him?" "He said he'd call me, but he hasn't yet," Freddy said.

The moment Freddy finished his sentence, he heard his ringtone going off. He checked to see who it was, it was Fredbear. He immediately picked up. "Dad?" asked Freddy. "It's me," said Fredbear, sounding a bit down, "I hate to inform you on this son, but I'm stuck in a dead-end alleyway." "What alleyway are you on? We'll come and get you!" "Somewhere on main street, but there's no sense in picking me up. I can already hear footsteps coming this way." "Dad, we can still get you! Just tell us where-" "Son, just go without me, okay?" "We're not leaving you here." "I'm serious Freddy, leave me. You will only get yourself and your friends arrested." "Dad, we really can't-" "FREDERICK! GO WITHOUT ME, PLEASE. If you come to get me, I'm sure as hell you guys will just get apprehended along with me. Go to Las Vegas without me and take Monty down. You can worry about me after."

Freddy felt like a real douche if he was willing to let the police apprehend his father, but his father clearly didn't want him, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy to meet the same fate as Buster. So in a way, he kind of had to, as much as he didn't want to. Freddy sighed, "If you say so, then I'll do so. Before I go though, I love you dad." "I love you too Freddy," Fredbear replied, "If anything shall happen to me, then I wish you good luck and I hope you and your friends can beat Monty. Goodbye son." "Goodbye dad," said Freddy, feeling guilty.

"Wait a minute," said Fredbear, "What was the hang up button again?" "The red button with the phone," replied Freddy. "You sure? I think that's to call 911, which is ironic in more ways than one." "I'm sure it's the red button." "What about the button with the dial?" "Dad, that's the dial for other numbers." "What about the-" "Dad, the red button is the hang up, I promise." Suddenly voices could be heard in the background of Fredbear's line. "Okay, I'll take your word for it!" The call was officially hung up.

Freddy groaned, "Oh god why?" "What's the matter Freddy?" asked Bonnie. "I've got bad news," said Freddy, "My dad won't be able to come with us to Las Vegas. Police were on their way to arrest him in an alleyway and he asked we don't stop to get him." "Aww...damn!" said Chica, "Sorry to hear that Freddy." "First my brother, now Fredbear?" said Bonnie, "Talk about bad luck." "I be hopin he don't have similar experiences to Buster," added Foxy, "But who knows, maybe he and him will find a way out. I mean, if it weren't the 21st century."

Chica then looked at the time on her phone. "It's 4:15!" she said, "I think we're gonna be stuck in rush hour traffic." "I had a gut feeling we should have left earlier," said Foxy. "We would have beat traffic had our vehicles not been taken and had we not been on the run like we are now," said Freddy, but then he remembered the level 2 problem completely, "Wait a minute, we took the files, the evidence got burned, and my dad got arrested! This makes so much more sense as to why we were stalked! We are in the level 2 zone of problems!" "That explains a lot and why we might be caught up in traffic," said Bonnie, "But as long as we drive quickly, everything should be alrig-"

45 minutes later...

Unfortunately, the gang got caught up in the evening rush traffic. There was barely any room to move at times, due to how backed up the traffic was. Either that, or some driver not flowing with it properly. Didn't help that they were only 30 minutes into the drive, when they came across the traffic and had made little to no progress in moving. Since it was Friday, that made everyone a little extra eager to wanna go home.

"Err...rush hour traffic is the worst," murmered Chica. "Been stuck for only 15 or 20 minutes and I already feel like losing my mind," said Bonnie. "Lose ye mind eh? That was lost long ago," said Foxy, in which Bonnie gave Foxy an annoyed glare. "Some music should help our nerves," said Freddy, taking out a cassette tape, "At least I decided to bring out one of dad's old recordings, despite it only having 4 songs." His friends gave him a weird look. "No offense Freddy, but those haven't been relevant since the 90s," said Chica. "Like I said Chica, this was originally from my dad," said Freddy.

Freddy put it in the cassette player within the van's stereo. Right as the first song started, the tape broke. "OH! UGH!" Freddy growled, taking the damaged tape out, "My ultra rare recording of dad and his friend in a collaboration with that one glamrock band, destroyed!" The agitation could be felt within the van at this point. It seemed like either Freddy or Bonnie would explode at any moment. Chica and Foxy were preparing for them to do so at any second.

Just then, Bonnie's phone began ringing. "Huh? Who's calling?" he asked himself, then seeing it was Buster, he said to everyone, "Buster still has his phone on him?" "Oh, I guess so," replied Freddy. Bonnie picked up the call. "Hello?" he asked. "Hey Bonnie, what's going on?" asked Buster. "Not so good right now," Bonnie replied, "Stuck on the highway. We're going to Monty's headquarters." "You're what?!" "Let me put you on speaker." Bonnie did so.

"What the hell is going on?!" exclaimed Buster, "Why are you going to Las Vegas?!" Freddy leaned towards the phone, "Those files were burned, along with the pizzeria. I don't know how, but Monty found out where we kept the files, so he burned them and the pizzeria so we couldn't take them to a government center. He then tried to get the police on us, so we ran, but my dad wasn't lucky and got arrested. So we're gonna get all the evidence ourselves." "I got 2 things to say for everyone. Number 1, going to Las Vegas is a major risk, especially since Monty's headquarters is under quite the security. Number 2, I already heard about the pizzeria burning down, I'm REALLY sorry that happened." "How do you about that if you're locked up? Also, you might not want to speak too loudly in case any guards show up." "Don't worry Freddy, it's just me in the cell. Well, almost."

In the cell, Buster was sitting on one of the beds and he looked to the left of him. Fredbear was sitting next to him, bruised up. Safe to say, the police roughed him up a bit. Though, not much is known about what happened between the time he hung up and now.

"Hey everyone," said Fredbear. "FREDBEAR!" Everyone in the van said, except Freddy who said dad. "You okay after what happened?" asked Bonnie. "They didn't search you TSA style, did they?" asked Chica. "I hope ye put up a good fight!" said Foxy. "Did they hurt you?!" asked Freddy worryingly. "Cool your jets, I'm fine," said Fredbear, "But as you found out, I'm locked up. Don't worry though, I only got some bruises." "Still doesn't make it right," said Freddy, "You're nearing 70, they shouldn't have done that."

"They claimed me, and the rest of us were part of a conspiracy," Fredbear explained, "Complete and utter bullshit that was made up." "But why would the police suddenly target us if they seemingly didn't take reports against us seriously?" asked Freddy, "It doesn't make sense." "I don't know why, but Monty must have come up with something serious if the police were that quick to react," replied Fredbear, "Claims were made that we were planning to target Monty for blame because we knew of the partnership, so we would have employees use stinkbombs to make us fail, giving us a reason to go after Friedlander and Monty. That's all I know since the police were so desperate to throw me in here with Buster." "WHAT?! You can't be serious!" "I'm serious and the police thought I was just lying! I am under the assumption that someone under Monty convinced the police of fake evidence against us, or they have direct influence over the police force."

Just then, a honk could be heard from behind the van. This really got under Bonnie's skin as he was trying to listen just as much as the others. And when the honking didn't stop, Bonnie snapped as he stuck his head out the window. "DO YOU MIND??!!" Bonnie shouted, "WE'RE TRYING TO LISTEN TO FREDBEAR!!" The driver of the car behind him, was confused by the statement. "What the hell is a Tedbear?" she asked herself.

"Sorry about that, some lady wouldn't stop honking at us," Bonnie apologized. "Does she know we literally can't move right now?" asked Chica. "Doubt it," said Foxy.

"Hello? Hello?" asked Freddy into the phone, until he saw that the call was dropped, "Dammit!" He handed the phone back to Bonnie. "At least we know Fredbear is alright," said Bonnie, taking out the chips again. "Ye still ain't finished them yet?" asked Foxy. "This is gonna be a long one..." sighed Chica.

To be continued in the next chapter...

(Chapter 18 published 8/20/24)