A/N: With how busy my schedule is coming up I'm going to wait until the next chapter before I decide to write the next serious arc. I want to give the serious and lore-related arcs in this chapter (believe it or not, there are still some FNAF lore-related things I have planned) the full time and devotion they deserve, so I hope you understand.
I feel like including living characters that aren't Mike would be a nice breath of fresh air, and we haven't had Alex or Meghan in a chapter for a while, so let's fix that!
Note: Due to formatting issues when I tried to upload this chapter the first time, replace X with _ in the later half of this chapter. You'll see what I mean.
Chapter 48 – Supernatural Playdate 2
"Thanks for doing me a solid, Mike," Ryan sighed with relief as Alex and Meghan climbed out of his car. "Stella got locked in jury duty and the job decided to plop a random business meeting on my ass and I couldn't think of anybody else to take care of the kids while I'm gone. Sorry to do this to you on short notice."
Mike smiled and waved off the apology. "Nah," he briskly replied, "the kids'll love to hang out with Alex and Meghan again." No sooner had he said that when the Puppet popped her head through the front door of Mike's home.
"Great to see you guys!" Charlie declared once she saw who had arrived. "Come on in, the rest of us are waiting for you!"
Alex and Meghan both cheerfully greeted her and followed her inside. In the meantime, Ryan turned his attention back to Mike. "Take care of my kids, Mike," he waved at him as he climbed back into his car.
"Will do, buddy," his long-time answered, returning the wave as Ryan's car drove off. Once Ryan was gone, Mike turned around and entered his house. As he passed by the living room, he could see his ghost kids and Ryan's children happily catching up with each other.
"So how're you doing so far?" Gabe asked.
"Can't complain," Alex shrugged. "School's going well, life is good."
"Have you guys gone on any of those vacations we talked about earlier?" Meghan questioned. "You guys seemed really eager to go on those."
"Not yet," Cassidy admitted. "Dad's still working on that one."
"He can take as long as he needs to get this sorted out," Jeremy added. "It's not like we're in a big hurry or anything."
"It's surprising just how many things we can do around here," Fritz commented with a grin.
"Well, since we're here, what do you guys want to do?" Meghan asked.
"You're the guests here, YOU guys should be the one who decides what we do," Susie answered fervently.
"Yeah, we'd be terrible hosts otherwise!" Liz agreed.
"Well, we've got a couple of ideas. For starters, why don't we start with a movie?" Alex suggested.
"Ooh!" Susie's eyes lit up excitedly. "You mean like Star Wars? We just finished Episode 3."
"I didn't like episodes 1 or 2 as much the others, but they were still fun to watch," Fritz added. "So should we get started with the sequels?"
Disgusted looks appeared on the Marshalls' faces. "OH GOD NO!" both declared. "The Star Wars sequels SUCK!"
"That bad?" Jeremy asked incredulously.
"Trust me," Alex warned. "Leave it while it's still on a high note. Don't taint your eyes with that garbage."
The ghosts started at the sudden vehemence coming from their living friends. "Okaaaaaaaaay…" Gabe slowly replied, "…we'll take your word for it. But what should we watch instead?"
"How about what's replaced Star Wars as the big thing?" Meghan asked with a smile. "Are you down for a superhero movie?"
"Superhero?" Liz repeated. "We haven't seen any of those yet!"
"Perfect!" Alex went over to Mike's stack of DVDs. He frowned as he looked through the case. "Huh, your dad might not have the one I'm thinking of, though, I'm not seeing it here."
"That's okay," Fritz smirked. "One of us can just buy it on iTunes. Dad gave us each 500 dollars on iTunes for Christmas."
"Lucky…" Meghan jealously commented as Charlie opened up her computer.
"Which movie were you thinking of?" she asked.
"Captain America: The First Avenger," Alex replied and Meghan nodded in agreement. In their eyes, the first Captain America movie was one that fit the stereotypical mold of superhero vs. supervillain more closely compared to some of the others, and it would serve as a good introduction to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
"Okay…got it!" Charlie bought the movie on iTunes and loaded it. She proceeded to connect her laptop to the TV and set it up so that the movie could be seen on the big screen. The kids all scattered onto the couches and sofas as the TV flickered to life and the iconic Marvel logo appeared amidst the flipping of comic book pages.
"One of Dad's close friends told us that the Marvel Cinematic Universe was really good," Susie commented as the movie started.
Meghan blinked. "Huh, I didn't know you've met other living people besides us," she said, clearly surprised.
"It was…kind of a happy accident that happened," Liz admitted.
Alex snickered. "You mean like how you met us."
"Kinda," the ghosts smiled wryly as they remembered how Fritz had blown their cover so many months ago. They watched as Johann Schmidt blasted through an old church in Norway and stole the Tesseract, an artifact that they could tell possessed tremendous power even without any knowledge of superheroes or the Marvel universe. "There's no way that guy isn't the villain," Gabe muttered. "Everything about him just screams "I'm a sociopathic asshole.""
"There's more to him than you think, but you're not wrong," Alex replied.
The scene switched to Steve Rogers, and the ghosts stared at the scrawny looking blond man who had just been rejected by the military. "Wait a minute, THAT'S Captain America?" Susie asked incredulously. "But he doesn't look anything like the guy we saw on the title screen!"
"Yeah," Jeremy shook his head. "He looks like…well, he looks like, uh…"
"…a wimp?" Fritz bluntly finished for him.
"I didn't want to be a dick about it, but yeah…"
"That's what I thought at first too," Meghan admitted, "but you'll see just why THIS guy is Captain America soon enough."
And indeed, as the movie continued, the ghosts started to see the makings of a true hero in Steve Rogers, even as a fragile weakling. Rogers' unbreakable determination to join the army and fight for his country endeared him to them, but it was his unflinching willingness to throw himself on a grenade that truly won their full respect.
"Wow…" Gabe whistled. "That guy has some SERIOUS balls."
"Do you guys think Dad would do something like that?" Cassidy asked.
"He kinda DID, Cass, if you think about it," Susie pointed out, and the ghosts nodded as they recalled the tale of Mike's shift at Freddy's.
"Really?" Alex's mouth fell open, eyes wide in shock. "Was your dad a war hero or something?"
Liz shook her head. "He wasn't, but his adoptive father was. We don't really know him personally though, he died a long time before any of us ever met Mike."
"So what kind of heroism were you talking about?" Meghan asked eagerly.
To her surprise, Susie shuddered ever so slightly. "We, uh…we don't like to talk about it," she quietly replied.
Alex raised an eyebrow and frowned. "Wait, why not? That's a bit weird…"
"Please."
"Okay…" he and Meghan looked at each other, shrugged, and turned their attention back to the movie, the ghosts inwardly sighing in relief as they followed suit. The kids all watched with growing excitement as Steve was given the super serum that would fully transform him into one of the most iconic superheroes of all time, only for their awe to be turned into horror as Dr. Erksine was assassinated by one of Johann Schmidt's agents.
"He was one of the few people to truly believe in him," Cassidy murmured. "And Steve just watched him die right in front of him…" Dr. Erksine had reminded more than one of the ghosts of Mike, and their hatred of Johann Schmidt, already firmly established by how much of a power-hungry maniac he was, inflamed even further.
"He'll get what's coming to him," Fritz snarled, and the ghosts cheered when Captain America single-handedly broke into one of Schmidt's bases later in the film and broke out his prisoners, beating the ever-loving crap out of numerous HYDRA soldiers in the process. Everyone watched as Captain America and Johann Schmidt finally faced each other, only for the ghosts to be shocked by the revelation of Red Skull's true face and disappointed at the fact that the man would get away from his well-deserved justice.
"What a monster!" Jeremy shuddered.
"The MCU is full of all kinds of villains," Alex explained. "Some of them are sympathetic, some are just pure, flat out evil, and some are between. Guess which category Red Skull falls into?"
"A sociopath who thought other lives were worthless when compared to his own. Just like William Afton," Charlie thought, though she didn't say it out loud.
"That super serum did NOT mix with Red Skull well," Gabe dryly commented.
"No kidding," Meghan agreed. "No wonder he wore that face mask."
"Captain America will kick his ass!" Jeremy declared. The eagerly awaited defeat wouldn't happen just yet, but the ghost kids were treated to a satisfying montage of watching Captain America and his army invade and destroy numerous HYDRA bases. "Get wrecked, loser!" he taunted as he watched Red Skull gradually lose his cool and shoot one of his minions out of frustration.
Their satisfaction would be short-lived, however, as they watched Captain America's attempt to capture Zola from his train unexpectedly lead to his best friend Bucky's fall down the mountainside to his death. "NO!" Susie cried out in horror as she stared at Bucky's motionless body.
"His best friend…" Cassidy murmured, saddened at the superhero's loss. Even when they had been brutally murdered by William Afton, at least the children that had become her family had stayed together through the cruel decades.
"These guys are surprisingly emotional about this," Alex thought to himself. The scene of Bucky's death was a tragic one, absolutely, but it was hardly one that he would openly cry over – there were few movies that could elicit tears from him. He had already suspected that the ghosts had gone through some horrible tragedy in the past that none of them wanted to talk about, and the way they expressed their grief at a simple movie scene was doing nothing to alleviate those suspicions. Still, it wasn't like he was ever going to force the issue. Even if it was true, he'd be an utterly terrible friend if he forced them to relive whatever had happened.
"At least Zola's capture means that Bucky's sacrifice will be worth it," Charlie half-assumed, half-tried to comfort the ghosts. And indeed, Zola spilled the beans on the final HYDRA base, giving Captain America the opportunity he needed to stop Red Skull from unleashing WMDs on America. The ghosts cheered Rogers on as he invaded the base and later infiltrated Red Skull's plane, watching in awe as he and the genocidal megalomaniac battled against each other on the bridge. What really surprised them was the fact that Red Skull ended up defeating himself when the battle between hero and villain knocked the Tesseract off its pedestal, and the Tesseract outright disintegrated Red Skull in a powerful blue beam that shot what was left of him high into space.
"Wow…" Gabe whistled. "I was NOT expecting that."
"Sometimes villains beat themselves just as much as heroes beat them," Meghan said with a shrug. "Which one is more satisfying really depends on the story, I guess."
Charlie's mask didn't change, but inwardly she smirked as she remembered how William Afton had stumbled into the trap pizzeria despite knowing that Henry's words were a lie, all thanks to his own bloodthirst and stupidity.
"The story isn't over yet, though," Alex warned, his smile fading. The ghosts soon learned why, as Captain America shared one last, heartfelt phone call with Peggy before diving Red Skull's plane into the Arctic, saving the world from the lethal weapons on board through one final sacrifice.
"Poor Peggy…" Susie murmured sympathetically.
"That's IT?" Fritz asked incredulously. "The hero goes through all this just to DIE at the end? Bullshit!"
"Hold on a sec, Fritz, it isn't over just yet," Meghan advised. And to the ghosts' relief, Captain America's friends and allies would indeed recover his body from the depths of the Arctic. But there was still one final surprise left for them both, as Captain America rose from his slumber only to discover that he had woken up decades after the world he had come to know and protect. The ghosts watched with curiosity as Nick Fury approached the temporally-displaced hero, and the movie ended.
"Damn…that was a really good movie!" Jeremy commented. "Seeing Captain America kick ass was awesome, especially with the way he started out."
"What's Captain America going to do in the present day?" Liz asked, curious to know more. "I mean, everyone he knows has to be dead now."
"Probably doing hero things, I guess," Cassidy shrugged.
"Now I see why Melody liked the MCU so much!" Susie gushed. "If the other movies are this good, I can't wait to see them all!"
"The MCU is full of good movies," Alex agreed. "Granted, not EVERY single one of them is amazing, but I've never watched an MCU movie and felt like it was a complete waste of time. I always got something out of it."
"The two biggest heroes of the MCU are Captain America and Iron Man," Meghan added. "We picked Captain America first since it's the most straightforward good-guy superhero vs. bad-guy supervillain film of the bunch, I think. Other films can be a lot more nuanced both with the heroes and villains, even if they're still definitely good guys or bad guys."
"Thanks for showing us this!" Gabe smiled at the two Marshalls. "We'll definitely watch more of these in the future!"
"If you want to watch another one with us, give us a call or PM or something and we can figure something out!" Alex offered. "You guys will be blown away by Infinity War, but you really shouldn't watch it until AFTER you've seen most of the others."
"Fair enough," Susie agreed. "So…what should we do now?"
"I have an idea," Mike's voice called out. The children, living and dead, all looked up to see him standing at the doorway. "Have you guys ever heard of Wheel of Fortune?"
Alex and Meghan's eyes lit up. "Heck yeah!" Meghan exclaimed. "That show is so much fun! I love watching the Runaway Guys and Achievement Hunter play that game on Youtube!"
Alex laughed. "Especially with Chugga's guesses. It's freaking legendary how bad they are. I mean, seriously, Metropolitan Mutant of Ark, what in the actual fuck."
Mike raised an eyebrow. "I didn't expect you guys to curse," he commented.
Alex shrugged. "I think dad gave up on teaching us not to curse considering that it's literally everywhere at this point."
"Fair enough," the man conceded. He walked over to his game console and began setting up the game. "My kids don't have enough awareness of the outside world for them to play the game independently, so let's divide the three players into teams. Alex, Meghan, and Charlie, you'll each be in charge of one team since you're the ones who probably have the most awareness of things in the real world.
"Okay, Mr. Schmidt!" Alex agreed. The children scrambled to make different teams, with some occasional arguments and complaints about who they wanted on their side. Eventually, when the figurative dust settled, Alex, Gabe, and Jeremy (red) were on one team, Meghan, Susie, and Cassidy (yellow) were on another team, and Charlie, Fritz, and Liz (blue) were on the third team.
"The game is pretty simple," Mike explained for his children's benefit as it started. "You have a blank puzzle and you spin the wheel. If you land on a money value, you pick a consonant and if it's one of the letters in the puzzle, you get money equal to the number you spun times however many times the letter appears. You can also spend $250 to buy a vowel, but if you get it wrong in either case, you lose your turn. You also lose a turn if you land on the "Lose a Turn" or "Bankrupt" spaces, with the Bankrupt space also wiping out any money you won for that round."
"Sounds simple enough," Gabe commented as the first toss up puzzle appeared. It was a fairly easy puzzle even for the ghost kids, especially with the food category, and Alex quickly scored the first $1000 for his team with FRENCH FRIES.
"All right, now for the fun to begin," Mike said with a smile as the first true puzzle appeared. XXX XXXX Jeremy spun his team's wheel and it landed on $500.
"S!" he proudly called out as he selected it. Only for the game to tell him it was wrong.
"No S, huh? Damn…" Gabe remarked as Susie spun the wheel for her team next. She selected T, only for that letter to be wrong too.
"No S AND no T?" Charlie asked. "That's weird. Usually both of those are safe choices." She spun the wheel and landed on $750. "R?" Once again, the game marked it as wrong.
"No R, no S, and no T," Mike stared at the screen. "What the hell is in this puzzle?"
The answer to Mike's question wouldn't come until several minutes later, as nobody was able to find even a single letter for several turns in a row. The teams burned through L, M, N, C, K, H, and Y without any success, and more than one of them ended up on Bankrupt or Lose a Turn, wasting even more time. By the yellow team's fifth turn, everyone's frustrations had mounted, and the competition between the teams was temporarily abandoned as everyone wanted to just solve this thing and move on.
"D!" Susie all but shouted, and every single person cheered as two "Ds" appeared. "Oh thank Christ!"
"Buy vowels!" Fritz insisted. "Buy vowels!"
"Yes, I am ABSOLUTELY going to buy some vowels!" Susie fervently agreed. She picked E, and to everyone's relief and delight, two Es appeared and nearly completed the second word. DXX DEEX.
"Crap, I still don't know what the first word is," Meghan admitted grumpily. She spun the wheel, and all she nearly had a heart attack when it almost landed on Bankrupt, though fortunately the wheel changed to $900 at the last second. "G?" she suggested, and she breathed another huge sigh of relief when a G appeared on the puzzle. DXG DEEX. "Oh, I got it!" she started typing the answer into the screen. "DIG DEEP!" The background flashed brightly and the screen glowed, indicating that she had gotten the answer correct.
"Good job, Meghan!" Cassidy exclaimed as she instinctively tried to hug her. Unfortunately, the Marshall girl lacked the supernatural attunement that Mike did, so all she felt from Cassidy's hug was a slight breeze in the air. Still, Meghan appreciated the gesture and she smiled gratefully at her friend.
"The puzzle was that simple and it took us how many turns to figure it out?" Jeremy shook his head. "Wow."
"This game goes from "What the fuck is that word" to "I'm a fucking moron," real fast," Mike commented dryly.
"No kidding," Gabe muttered as the next puzzle loaded. The ghost kids' eyes instantly caught the blue $1000 space with a question mark above it. "Wait, what's that thing?"
"That's a mystery space," Mike explained. "There are two of them in this specific round. One of them is hiding $10000 and the other is hiding a Bankrupt. If you land on the space and call the letter correctly, you can choose to either take $1000 per letter or flip the space to see what's under."
"So we either win big or go broke," Liz clarified.
"Yup," Mike confirmed. After a few seconds, he added: "Also, I'm making it a house rule that if you land on the mystery space, you HAVE to flip it. It's mandatory."
"But why though?" Fritz asked.
"Because for the next Wheel of Fortune round my house is a dictatorship," Mike replied smugly. "My house, my rules."
Charlie rolled her eyelights as the next puzzle loaded. XXXXXX XXXX XXX XXXXXXX Meghan spun the wheel only for it to land on Bankrupt. "Of course," she dryly remarked. "Still, at least it's better now than later," she admitted as Liz spun the wheel and it landed on $700.
"Please tell me that there's an R this time," she muttered as she put it in. To her relief, there were three Rs in the puzzle. "Thank God."
It was Fritz's turn next, and everyone's eyes widened as he landed on a mystery space. "S!" he called out. One S appeared on the puzzle, and the mystery space offered the choice of flipping it or letting it be. "Do I really have to…"
"Yes," Mike's response was as unyielding as iron.
"Fiiiiiine..." Fritz flipped up the space…revealing a Bankrupt. "Oh God dammit!" he shouted as Liz and Charlie facepalmed and the rest of the kids howled with laughter. "Screw you, dad!"
"Sucks to suck, doesn't it?" Mike retorted as Fritz wordlessly flipped the bird at him.
"You let them get away with things like the middle finger?" Alex pointed out.
Mike shrugged. "I curse all the time, would kind of be hypocrisy if I didn't let them do things like that too."
"I guess," Alex muttered as Gabe took over. Fortunately, unlike the last puzzle, there were a lot more letters in the puzzle, and the children were able to fill in a lot of the blanks a lot more quickly. In just a few rounds, almost all the letters had been filled in, leaving only SALMON _RA_ AND HERRING.
And that was where things started to go south.
"What the hell is _RA_?" Liz asked incredulously. "I have no idea!" She spun the wheel. "Y?" The wrong answer buzzer sounded. "Dang it!"
"Maybe it's salmon wrap?" Jeremy suggested, but when he tried to call out P it was marked as wrong. "Oh come on!"
"That was a good guess," Mike admitted.
"I think I know the answer but we have no points right now so I have to spin or else we get nothing out of it," Susie admitted. She spun the wheel…and promptly palmed her face when she landed on Lose a Turn. "Of course. Why would I expect anything else?" she muttered.
"I will laugh so hard if the answer turns out to be Salmon Crap," Fritz joked, earning some chuckles from the other children. Suddenly, his eyes widened. "Wait, I've got it!" He spun the wheel and, to his delight, it landed on $3500. Aww yeah, gimme that big money! B!" The letter flashed on the screen, only confirming his suspicions. "Got it! Salmon Crab and Herring!" The entire screen glowed, confirming his answer.
"Nice!" Liz grinned at her brother and exchanged high-fives with both him and Charlie.
"There should have been commas in between those words," Meghan complained. "That threw me off!"
"Yeah, that threw me off too," Gabe admitted. "For a second I was like "what the heck is a salmon crab?" before I realized what it was actually saying."
"I'm just glad we recovered from that Mystery Bankrupt," Charlie commented as the next puzzle loaded. She clicked on the controller to spin the wheel…only for it to land on Bankrupt. "Aaaaaaaand we're off to a great start already."
"Well, at least it happened at the beginning of the round," Alex consoled as he spun the wheel. He groaned as it landed on Bankrupt a second time. "Man, we are going nowhere fast, aren't we?"
Susie took her turn now, and to everyone's shock it landed on Bankrupt a THIRD time in a row. "What the crap?" she exclaimed. "Three Bankrupts in a row?"
Little did she know that this was only the beginning of a cascade of misfortune. Out of the next twelve spins, only two of them landed on a money value, and both teams guessed wrong when they did so. As for the rest, two of them landed on Lose a Turn and eight of them landed on Bankrupt. The frustrations from before returned, now stoked to even greater heights than they had been in the past.
"God, can we please stop landing on these fucking Bankrupts already?" Jeremy growled. He spun the wheel and threw his hands up in the air when it landed on Lose a Turn. "OH, FOR FUCK'S SAKE!"
"We're going to be here FOREVER!" Cassidy moaned as she spun the wheel. Everyone cheered as it landed on $600, but the enthusiasm died immediately when Cassidy guessed M and got it wrong. "Ugggggggggggghhhhhhh…" she buried her face in her hands.
"There's no way this can be normal," Mike muttered. "The probability of this happening is close to fucking zero. There's no fucking way this is normal."
Meanwhile in Hell…
The Nightmares watched with malevolent glee as Charlie took her turn spinning the wheel through the fiery scrying portal they had conjured. "WATCHING THESE LITTLE BRATS RAGE AT THEIR FAILURE IS SO MUCH FUN!" Nightmare Chica cackled as Nightmare Bonnie snapped his fingers, causing the Wheel to land on Bankrupt for the thirteenth time that round.
"I COULD DO THIS ALL DAY," Nightmare Bonnie answered with a sadistic grin. He was about to snap his fingers to cause yet another wasted turn, but Nightmare Freddy suddenly stopped him.
"LET THIS ONE THROUGH, BROTHER," Nightmare Freddy advised with a calculating glint in his eyes. "WE MUST ALLOW SOME DEGREE OF PROGRESSION, OR ELSE THEY WILL RAGEQUIT AND OUR ENTERTAINMENT WILL MEET AN ABRUPT END."
"HOW VERY PERCEPTIVE, BROTHER," Nightmare Bonnie acknowledged as he stayed his hand. They saw the children positively jump (or levitate) for joy as Liz finally got a correct letter on the board. "PERHAPS NOW WE CAN CONTINUE TO TAMPER WITH THEIR GAME?"
"I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THE LOOKS ON THEIR FACES WHEN YOU REDUCE THEIR MINISCULE VICTORY TO NOTHING," Nightmare Foxy laughed as Charlie started her turn. He was about to snap his fingers to cause another Bankrupt when Nightmare suddenly materialized before them in a column of shadowy flames.
"WHAT ARE YOU FOOLS DOING?" Nightmare growled as he took in the sight of his brothers and subordinates lounging around. "HAVE YOU FINISHED YOUR TORTURES FOR THE DAY YET?"
Nightmare Chica waved her clawed hand dismissively. "WE TOOK CARE OF THAT A LONG TIME AGO, BROTHER." She gave him a fanged grin. "I TRIED OUT A NEW TORMENT FOR WILLIAM AFTON, AND IT WAS SIMPLY DELIGHTFUL!"
"OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE, I WAS THE ONE WHO GAVE YOU THAT IDEA!" Nightmare Bonnie complained. "THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME DOING IT FIRST!"
"CEASE YOUR WHINING," Nightmare Freddy growled. "YOU'LL HAVE PLENTY OF OPPORTUNITY TO ADMINISTER THAT PARTICULAR TORMENT YOURSELF. WE HAVE A THOUSAND YEARS TO DO WHATEVER THE FUCK WE WANT TO HIM AFTER ALL."
Nightmare, in the meantime, was watching the Wheel of Fortune game that the children were playing. Thanks to his arrival, the other demons' attention had been distracted, and they were able to get a few letters in. "OH, I SEE WHAT THIS IS," he realized.
Nightmare Foxy grinned. "WE WERE INTERFERING WITH THEIR WHEEL OF FORTUNE GAME, BROTHER. SO FAR, WE HAVE FORCED THEM TO LAND ON THREE LOSE A TURNS AND THIRTEEN BANKRUPTS!" He broke into a cruel laugh. "I SO ENJOY WATCHING PUNY MORTALS RAGE."
Nightmare nodded. "HMM…YOU'VE BEEN LEARNING FROM NIGHTMARIONNE, IT SEEMS." He grinned. "NOT A BAD START, I MUST ADMIT. HOWEVER…THERE IS MOST CERTAINLY ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT."
"WHAT ARE YOU BLATHERING ABOUT?" Nightmare Bonnie growled.
Nightmare glared at him. "YOU ARE VERY FORTUNATE INDEED THAT YOU DID NOT SPEAK YOUR INSOLENCE TO A MASTER LESS GENEROUS THAN MYSELF," he snapped his fingers as the wheel spun, and to the other Nightmares' surprise he allowed the spin to not just pass, but land straight on $5000.
"WAIT, WHAT?" Nightmare Freddy spluttered. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING, BROTHER?"
"YOU'LL SEE," Nightmare answered, a malevolent grin appearing on his face. The other Nightmares watched with growing shock and confusion as Charlie and her teammates spun the wheel successfully multiple times, each time calling out a letter correctly. Soon, Charlie's team had over $10000 in play, and the puzzle was starting to be solved with COCA-COLA XXXCXINXON GLAXXEX.
"Holy crap, we're so close!" Liz exclaimed. "If only we knew what that third word was."
"I think I might know the answer if I get this next spin correct," Charlie mused.
"YOU ARE LITERALLY GIVING THEM A FREE WIN, BROTHER," Nightmare Chica hissed.
"AND NOW…FOR THE PIECE DE RESISTANCE," Nightmare declared. He snapped his claws, the wheel spun…and every single Nightmare finally understood the true nature of their master's plan as the Wheel landed, like it had so many times at the beginning of the round, on Bankrupt.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Liz wailed as the thousands of dollars they had accumulated were blotted out to nothing in a single second.
"Fuck. Fuck! FUCK! FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!" Fritz shouted incoherently, still in disbelief over what had just happened.
"I FUCKING HATE THIS GAME!" Charlie ranted, earning shocked looks from all the ghosts; Charlie cursing was rare enough to be considered a statistical anomaly.
As the rest of the children expressed their sympathy and Gabe's team snagged the win for themselves with COCA-COCA HUTCHINSON GLASSES, the Nightmares all roared with laughter as they congratulated their mastery on his cunning and cruelty. "I WAS WRONG," Nightmare Bonnie admitted with a chuckle. "FORGET CONSTANT BANKRUPTS. THIS IS BY FAR THE MOST HILARIOUS THING I'VE SEEN TODAY."
"YOUR PLAN WAS GENIUS," Nightmare Freddy agreed, his laughter echoing with both his deep, guttural voice and the high-pitched cackles of his Freddles.
Nightmare bared his fangs in a savage grin. "A CONSTANT STREAM OF BAD LUCK YIELDS ONLY FRUSTRATION AND ACCEPTANCE OF INEVITABLE FAILURE," he explained. "BUT TO BUILD ONESELF UP, TO REACH THE CUSP OF GREATNESS, ONLY TO HAVE EVERYTHING YOU'VE WORKED FOR CRUMBLE BELOW YOU AND BURN TO ASH…THAT IS TRUE SUFFERING."
"WILLIAM AFTON WOULD KNOW, WOULDN'T HE?" Nightmare Fredbear commented, having just arrived at the domain in which they had congregated. "WHY DON'T WE ASK HIM?"
"YOU'LL HAVE A HARD TIME GETTING AN ANSWER OUT OF HIM, BROTHER, CONSIDERING THAT I SLICED OUT HIS TONGUE THIS MORNING," Nightmare Chica retorted with a satisfied smirk, "AMONGST OTHER THINGS."
"FAIR ENOUGH," Nightmare Fredbear conceded as he turned to the screen. "SO, IT APPEARS THAT THE FINAL SPIN IS IN PLAY, HMM?" He snapped his fingers as the wheel spun, and the lesser Nightmares watched in stunned silence as the wheel landed on $5000.
"WAIT, WHAT?" Nightmare Foxy spluttered. "WHY THE FUCK DID YOU JUST DO THAT?"
"BECAUSE WITH A SINGLE SNAP OF HIS CLAW, FREDBEAR HAS COMPLETELY INVALIDATED THE ENTIRETY OF THEIR EFFORT AND SUFFERING UP UNTIL THIS POINT," Nightmare replied as he nodded in acknowledgment. "WELL PLAYED, BROTHER. WELL PLAYED."
Back at Mike's House
"Wait," Gabe realized. "We only had like a few thousand dollars each. If every letter's worth 6000 bucks, this final round literally decides the entire game!"
"Yep!" Mike affirmed. "That's what happens when the wheel lands on 5K on the final spin. There's a reason the audience cheers every time that happens."
The children looked at each other, their competitive nature flaring up. "We're gonna kick your asses!" Jeremy declared.
"Not if we solve this puzzle first!" Meghan retorted.
"We have Charlie, there's no way we can lose!" Liz countered.
The children began firing letters at the screen, chittering excitedly whenever they got a letter right. The scores for every team were well in the ten thousands, guaranteeing a massive payload to whoever won.
"Oh, fuck!" Jeremy exclaimed. "I hit the wrong button! I didn't want to actually solve the puzzle."
"Well, you have to now," Mike replied dryly. "Go ahead, give it your best shot."
"Uh…uh…uh…" Jeremy frantically looked at the screen, which only had XXXING MY XXRSX NXW XAR. He looked desperately at his friends, who shrugged helplessly. With no other choice but to guess, he typed in, "WAXING MY PURSE NOW YAR."
Every single person collapsed with uncontrollable laughter as Jeremy's answer was (predictably) marked as wrong. "Waxing my purse now yar," Mike repeated in sheer disbelief. "WAXING MY PURSE NOW YAR? First off, do people even wax their purses to begin with? Second, what the hell kind of guy actually gives a shit about waxing his personal belongings? Thirdly, I thought Fritz was the pirate lover in our family. And number four, what the hell kind of pirate carries a fucking purse?"
Even Jeremy's teammates couldn't resist letting out a few giggles at his expense. "Wow, Jer, I would have expected a guess this bad from Fritz, but not from you!" Gabe commented dryly. "No offense, Fritz."
"None taken, I would have made that bet," Fritz admitted, too caught up in the humor to pretend being offended.
"I now have the image of Foxy the Pirate in women's clothes carrying a freshly waxed purse in his hands," Cassidy admitted, causing the rest of the ghosts (even Jeremy) to laugh even harder. Alex and Meghan gave each other confused looks.
"How do you guys know about Freddy's?" Alex asked.
The laughter immediately stopped. Fortunately, Charlie was on the ball to answer the question. "It was around when we were alive," she replied briefly. More than one ghost inwardly breathed a sigh of relief – the less the Marshall kids knew about…history with Freddy's, the better.
The two Marshalls shrugged and the round continued, and perhaps ironically, it was Gabe's team that ultimately won the puzzle with BUYING MY FIRST NEW CAR, securing his team a dominating victory and (at least partially) erasing the shame of Jeremy's magnificent disaster.
"All right, bonus round time!" Mike declared as the last stage of the game began and the prize wheel started spinning. "You are given a random puzzle with letters R, S, T, L, N, E given freely, and you get to pick three consonants and a vowel. Afterwards, you have a certain amount of time to solve the puzzle with what you're given."
The puzzle appeared on the screen: XX XXXX XXXRSELX
"Uhh…what should we put in?" Jeremy asked his friends. None of them noticed the barely perceptible smirk that had appeared on Mike's face.
"How about C, G, K, and O?" Alex suggested.
"I'm cool with that," Gabe agreed. He put in the letters, and a few more pieces of the puzzle filled in. GO XXCK XOXRSELX.
Everyone stared at the puzzle, then their eyes slightly turned towards Mike, who was now trying and failing to stifle his laughter. "Oh my God, dad…" Liz groaned. "Please tell me you didn't…"
"I may or may not have put in a few custom bonus round puzzles in there," Mike replied blithely. "And some of them may or may not be considered inappropriate for social conversation."
"Uggggghhhh..." Charlie groaned as she buried her porcelain face in her hands. "Dammit, dad." Without saying a word, Alex sighed and filled in the rest of the puzzle. GO FUCK YOURSELF.
"Hey congratulations!" Mike grinned as the host revealed the bonus prize. "I just gave you a free 45000 dollars."
"You'd just give us that money in real life if we could use it," Susie pointed out, unimpressed.
Mike shrugged. "Yeah, probably," he admitted. Alex and Meghan couldn't help but feel twinges of jealousy – with how down to earth Mike and his family were, it was easy to forget that Mike was positively loaded with cash. "So anyway," he changed the subject. "What do you guys want to do next? Your dad isn't going to be coming to pick you up until tomorrow, and we've still got a whole night ahead of us."
"I know what I want to do!" Alex declared with a grin. "Video game night, anyone?"
"Heck yeah!" Fritz pumped his fist in the air as the other ghosts gave off similar cheers. "You've got any more games to show us?"
Meghan nodded. "There's so many fun games to enjoy, Fritz. We'll be happy to show you just how many there actually are."
Meanwhile in Hell…
"ALL RIGHT, THAT'S ENOUGH OF THAT," Nightmare growled as he destroyed the scrying portal by slicing his claws through it. "BREAK TIME'S OVER, GET THE FUCK BACK TO WORK!"
"UGH…FINE, THIS SHIT WAS STARTING TO GET BORING ANYWAY," Nightmare Bonnie grudgingly acquiesced as he got off his infernal chair.
"HEY NIGHTMARE, I HAVEN'T HAD MY FREDDLES DEVOUR THEIR WAY INTO WILLIAM AFTON'S INTERNAL ORGANS AND RIP HIM APART FROM INSIDE-OUT YET. CAN I GIVE IT A SHOT?" Nightmare Freddy requested as the other Nightmares started to leave and return to administering their torments upon the damned.
Nightmare shrugged. "SURE, JUST MAKE SURE YOU WAIT UNTIL HE REGENERATES FROM WHATEVER THE FUCK NIGHTMARE CHICA DID TO HIM FIRST BEFORE YOU START WITH THE VORE FEST," he answered, getting a nod of understanding from Nightmare Freddy as he too departed. Soon, only Nightmare and Nightmare Fredbear were left. The gold-colored demon was about to leave as well, but suddenly stopped.
"I HAVE TO SAY," Nightmare Fredbear admitted once he was sure the others were gone, "SCHMIDT'S LITTLE BONUS PUZZLE WAS ONE OF THE MOST AMUSING THINGS I'VE SEEN THIS WEEK, AT LEAST WHEN IT COMES TO THINGS NOT RELATED TO THE PAIN AND SUFFERING OF OTHERS."
"IT'S A PITY THAT WE CANNOT TRY TO CORRUPT HIM, BUT I AM NOT FOOL ENOUGH TO INVOKE THE WRATH OF HEAVEN AND JEAPORDIZE THE UNIQUE PRIVILEGES THAT I ENJOY," Nightmare replied. He thought back to the black rage that Mike had unleashed when he had learned about William Afton's involvement in his attack and the list of torments that he had conjured up in revenge. A grin stretched across his face. "BUT EVIL OR NO, I WILL FREELY ADMIT THAT I DO APPRECIATE THIS PARTICULAR MORTAL'S STYLE."
/
A/N: Remember kids, demons are assholes! :D
I may or may not have used Wheel of Fortune at least partially as an excuse to bring the Nightmares back in for another Black Comedy run :P That and some offscreen William Afton torture, because why not. Hey, the Nightmares can have family moments and enjoy themselves just like anybody else! Granted, a demon's idea of a good time is torturing damned souls and watching and/or planning the misery of other people, but hey, who cares about the minor details?
I drew inspiration from both The Runaway Guys and Achievement Hunter's LetsPlay for the Wheel of Fortune segment of the chapter, as the two of them are by far the funniest Let's Players of that game on Youtube, in my humble opinion. And I figured that, as Alex and Meghan mentioned earlier, Captain America would probably be one of the most "standard" superhero films when it comes to the MCU, as other heroes and films can get quite…complicated.
The next chapter will probably the start of a serious and/ or meaningful arc again. I can only write so many "isolated fun family moment" chapters before things start to get boring, which is why I only write two or three of these in a row at the time. I HAVE dropped hints at this particular arc before.
Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed!
