A/N: Hey, guys. This was originally supposed to be the chapter in which Fazbear Entertainment calls Mike to invite him back to the (almost) completed Mega Pizzaplex, which was meant to give the Schmidt family a preview of the finished Pizzaplex and give them a taste of what they'd have to deal with.

The problem is…I've just been so busy and exhausted over the past few weeks. This month is easily one of the busiest I have (I work 12 hours a day, 6 days a week with pretty much zero chance of going home early), and whenever I get home I'm so drained I just basically spend the rest of the evening doing nothing. I certainly don't have time to do the extensive research into Security Breach that the arc would definitely require for a high-quality and major story arc.

So…I'm giving you guy this instead. Still a plot-relevant chapter, but one that doesn't require me to sit down and spend pretty much what little remains of my free time after work just to get the groundwork going. Sorry if you were hoping for something more substantial after 3 weeks, but I just don't have it in me to do more than this right now.

Guest: (and also ThePencilDude who had a similar question): The ghost kids' families would have absolutely (and unsurprisingly plead) with God not to send the kids to Hell despite their crimes. And even without that taken into account, God pretty much pulled every string and exploited every loophole in the cosmic lawbook without actually violating His laws to give the ghost kids a proper chance at redemption. And kids in general are safe from Hell (the only exceptions would be truly, purely evil Enfant Terribles like Damien Thorn from the Omen series who only exist in scary Halloween movies), and God knows full well that the FNaF ghost kids didn't have a choice in their enslavement and torment in the animatronics.

ThePencilDude: If I had more time or interest in continuing this fic long-term I could probably devote a chapter or few to Love, I'd probably do it. But I don't, and at this point given that I plan on finishing this fic after Pizzaplex-related arcs, I might just stick with Melody and Mike being good friends at this point and leave it at that since it'd be super late to start a romance in a fic that's already 200+ chapters in. Susie and Cassidy will be disappointed, but it is what it is.

As for your other question, given that I'm planning on ending this story in the foreseeable future and introducing even more plot points would counteract that, I'll probably stick with the ghost kids remaining as kids instead of transforming them into teenagers.

As for your question on the ghosts controlling electronics, read below to find out more. 😊

Chapter 205 – Supernatural Power Training

"Is there anything we can really do to help us prepare for this?"

It was a simple enough question, asked by Jeremy one day while they were waiting to hear from Fazbear Entertainment. This was going to be the biggest step (and possibly the final step) in completing their redemption and proving without a doubt that they had risen above their bloody and tainted pasts. They weren't going to make that redemption a success just by sitting around playing video games and otherwise just doing a bunch of nothing.

But that simple question was enough to get everyone's thought processes rolling. "We should practice using our supernatural powers!" Susie declared. "That way we'll be as ready as possible for whatever Glitchtrap has planned!"

"But we use those all the time!" Fritz pointed out. "I don't think there's been a single day in the past couple of years where we don't use our powers to move stuff around."

"Are you sure about that?" Gabe countered with a raised eyebrow. "Because I can think of a couple of powers we HAVEN'T been using for a while."

Everyone's eyes turned to the former Freddy inhabitant, practically begging him for an explanation. "We haven't been using our power to mess with technology," he explained. "You know, like we used to do in the old animatronics and we sometimes did with the Rockstars. Things like causing static on cameras to mess people watching them, things like that."

"Ohhhhhhh…" Cassidy blinked. "Yeah, you're right, Gabe! We only really use that nowadays to mess with Dad when we play One Night at Mike's, and we haven't played that in a long time. Heck, I don't think we even used that power back when we were in that factory!"

"And that kind of power could be really important to have," Jeremy added. "There's a pretty good chance that Glitchtrap's puppet will be around, whoever she is. And she's very likely gonna be keeping an eye on things, possibly through cameras."

"Especially if she ends up as the night guard at the Pizzaplex like Dad thinks she's gonna be," Liz muttered.

"Being able to mess with cameras would really help us mess with Glitchtrap's puppet or at the very least slow her down," Susie agreed. "Even if Glitchtrap can fix the cameras right after, that'll still buy us a couple of seconds to help out while they're distracted."

"There's a problem, though," Fritz interrupted bluntly. "We've only ever really used that power a lot while we were in the Rockstar animatronics. We won't be able to use those in the Pizzaplex, and trying to possess enemy animatronics that we don't know anything about sounds like a REALLY bad idea."

It was a surprisingly insightful comment, and one that was completely valid. Gabe's face hardened in determination. "Then we're gonna have to see if we can mess with technology without using the Rockstars," the former Freddy inhabitant declared, "and see just how good we are at using our powers without them."

A Few Hours Later…

The good news was that the ghost kids were still capable of messing with technology even without using the bodies of the Rockstar animatronics.

The bad news was that the effect of their magic was significantly diluted compared to with the animatronics. Gabe's first attempt at messing with a camera to cause static only caused a little bit of it to flicker for about 3 seconds, barely affecting visibility at all and certainly not enough to meaningfully hinder anyone looking through the camera.

"I wish I could say something different," Mike commented with a sigh as he the fleeting static flickered away, "but yeah, that was kinda crap."

Gabe sighed. "I figured it wouldn't be that easy." Nobody was sure if the effect was much weaker because the animatronics enhanced their powers in some way, or if it was because that particular skillset had atrophied from lack of use. Either way, it was far below anything anyone could consider "acceptable."

"We're really gonna have to work on this," Susie mumbled. "Otherwise we're not gonna be useful for anything at the Pizzaplex apart from moving things around and making noises."

"And if you're too obvious about it, Glitchtrap or his possession victim might pick up on the fact that there's supernatural interference going on," Mike added grimly. "Remember the advice I gave you a few days ago?"

"If you're fighting an enemy who doesn't know you exist, never let them know you exist until you've hidden yourself for as long as possible and you don't have any choice but to give yourself away," the ghosts all chorused. It was sensible advice, and ironically one of the few pieces of advice that hadn't come from the Dark!Mike battle in the depths of their father's mind.

"Well, guess we better start training then," Jeremy muttered. "I just hope the Pizzaplex doesn't open too soon." Just one day ago, the ghost kids had been eagerly anticipating the phone call or e-mail from Fazbear Entertainment, anxiously waiting for the time when they could finally act on the final stages of redemption as the Pizzaplex opened its doors. And after just one revelation, their perspective on the timing of the Grand Opening had completely changed. None of them missed the irony, and it didn't improve anybody's move in the slightest.

Still, nothing ever got done by moping around and complaining, so the ghost kids grimaced but got to work. For the rest of the day, and for the next few days, they slowly trained their supernatural abilities to cause static and disruption on cameras without needing to use the Rockstars as their "batteries," so to speak. They first familiarized themselves with the power they had previously neglected by possessing the Rockstar animatronics and channeling their power through them first, and then departed from their bodies to try and affect technology in the same way outside of the Rockstars.

Using their powers in such a way was exhausting in a way that they hadn't really felt before, and more than one of them needed to take a nap in the middle of the day to "recharge" from the stress caused by their training. Yet gradually, with each day that passed, they were able to hone their "camera hacking" abilities to the point that they could almost completely cover the screen with static.

"Ooh, look, look!" Susie called out excitedly as she channeled her power into the camera in her bedroom, causing the same screen on Mike's camera tablet to completely fizzle and block out with static. "I'm finally blocking out the screen on Dad's tablet completely!"

"Same with me!" Jeremy confirmed with a grin, doing the same thing except with the camera in his bedroom instead. "I definitely don't need to use Rockstar Bonnie to mess with cameras anymore!"

"And we're not even getting tired anymore while doing it!" Fritz laughed as he sent his own bedroom's camera into haywire. "This is great!"

Gabe suddenly had a thought. "Hey…what happens if I try to mess with Dad's tablet directly?" he wondered. "Would it mess with all of us his cameras at once?"

Without even asking for permission, he reached out and channeled his energy into the tablet that Mike was holding. To his surprise and delight, ALL of the different camera screens being shown on the tablet began to fizzle and blur with static, interfering with Mike's ability to look through the cameras completely. "Oh my God!" He exclaimed. "That actually works!"

"That's so cool!" Cassidy gushed excitedly. "We could find whatever device Glitchtrap's possession victim is using to monitor the cameras in the Pizzaplex, mess it up, and stop her from looking at ANYTHING in the Pizzaplex through the cameras!"

Several of her siblings looked visibly eager at the idea…but Mike and Charlie noticeably weren't. "I…don't think that's a good idea, Cass," Charlie replied with a hint of wariness.

"Wait, really? Why?" the former Golden Freddy inhabitant replied, clearly confused. "What's wrong with that idea?"

"There's two big problems I can think of right off the bat," Mike answered, sounding just as cautious as Charlie was. "The first is that fucking with the cameras might convince Glitchtrap's possession victim to come out of wherever she's lurking in and go venturing in the Pizzaplex, either to fix the cameras or just try and kill anyone she comes across herself. If she comes across a completely unsuspecting person, that's adding one more threat some poor shmuck will have to deal with in addition to any animatronics that Glitchtrap might have taken control of."

The excitement in his children's eyes immediately dampened considerably. "Oh, shoot…" Susie mumbled, "…I didn't even think about that."

"And the other problem is that it might not even work," Charlie picked up where her father had left off. "Or even worse, it might give ourselves away to Glitchtrap." To clarify what she meant, she turned to Jeremy. "Jeremy, focus your energy into the tablet and try to disrupt it as much as possible. Then Gabe, focus your energy into the tablet and try to clear the static away after a few seconds."

"Uh…okay," Jeremy replied uncertainly. He focused and started channeling his energy into the tablet, causing all of the screens showcasing the rooms in the house to start flickering and dissolving into static noise. Once every room had been properly drowned in static, Gabe obeyed his instructions and started channeling his energy into the tablet as well, trying to undo Jeremy's work. It wasn't complete, but the effect of the static began to weaken and the rooms shown on the tablet began to reappear. "Huh…I can actually feel Gabe's presence in the tablet trying to push back," he commented.

"Same," Gabe agreed. "I can feel Jeremy to trying to clear away what I'm doing."

"And that's the problem," Charlie emphasized. "Because if you two can feel each other's presence in the tablet, then Glitchtrap definitely can."

Silence fell upon the family as the realization sunk in. "Oh," Fritz finally broke the silence. "That actually is a big problem."

"Yeah," Liz agreed. "It would've been even worse before my Mom gave us that Heavenly protection, cause Glitchtrap could've actually tried to infect us or mess with us in some way if he tried to hack into the same piece of technology we are. But even without that, we'd pretty much be giving away our existence to him right then and there if he tries to fix the static on a camera we're messing with and detects us."

"Even that would be bad," Cassidy commented with a frown. "It'll be a lot harder to help anyone stuck in the Pizzaplex if Glitchtrap learns about us and plans around us being there."

"So if there is a single major device that Glitchtrap's possession victim is using, trying to mess with it is pretty much out of the picture unless we're REALLY desperate," Gabe summarized. "Heck, even being in the same room as Glitchtrap's possession victim might be a problem if Glitchtrap can detect us."

"We don't exactly know what Glitchtrap is capable of," Mike agreed grimly. "He's clearly smarter than the Nightmare Springtrap that rampaged around the house like a crack-addicted moron with no plan except kill shit. And while we shouldn't overestimate his abilities any more than we should underestimate him, giving him free information for no good reason is NOT something we want to do."

"Then I guess we gotta stick with the cameras in separate rooms," Susie decided. "Since Glitchtrap won't be able to detect us if we're messing with a different device that's far away from where he is."

"We should actually test that to make sure that's true," Liz commented.

"I'll go mess with the camera in my bedroom!" Fritz volunteered. Charlie gave her approval, and the former Foxy inhabitant flew out of the study where Mike and the ghost kids were currently experimenting with the tablet. He found the camera that he was looking for and began channeling his power through it, causing the respective screen on the tablet to start flickering and dissolving into static. At a nod from Charlie, Gabe began channeling his power through the tablet again, this time focusing on fixing the screen that was being jammed by his brother. It took noticeably longer and required more visible effort, but Gabe slowly began to unjam the screen that Fritz was interfering with.

And, more importantly, Gabe didn't feel his brother's presence through the tablet this time, unlike when he had been contesting Jeremy's control over the tablet.

"I don't feel Fritz through the tablet at all this time!" Gabe announced to everyone else. "And I only felt resistance against him when I REALLY focused. It's definitely different from when me and Jeremy were fighting over the tablet, that's for sure!"

"So messing with cameras in other rooms is a lot safer than trying to mess with a single controlling device," Jeremy concluded. "That's really good to know."

"Hold up, though. Even if Glitchtrap can't feel you guys through the cameras, he might get suspicious if he faces unnatural resistance against his attempts to clear the static. Or even if the static lasts too long," Mike warned. "If you want to avoid making him suspicious, you'll want to stop messing with the static when he starts trying to actively clear it, and you probably don't want to do the static trick too frequently or too long either."

"It's all about keeping the secrecy up for as long as possible, isn't it?" Cassidy asked knowingly.

"Until you don't have any other choice," Mike answered with a confirmatory nod.

"Okay, that all makes sense," Susie acknowledged. "But this can't be all that we're gonna do, right? We can do more than just screw with the cameras in the Pizzaplex every few seconds, right?"

"Why doesn't at least one of us just hang around anybody who's caught alone in the Pizzaplex and in danger?" Liz suggested. "That way, no matter what happens, at least one of us will be around to protect them?"

"That's not a bad idea," Jeremy replied, "but I feel like we can do more than that."

"We can mess with the animatronics too!" Fritz suggested. "If one goes batshit crazy and starts going on a rampage, we can try to scramble their systems and shut them down! Or at the very least slow them down for a bit!"

"That's…" Charlie blinked. "That's actually a really good idea."

Fritz grinned proudly at the praise, but Mike was more cautious. "I like that idea, but have you guys ever actually tried to interfere with other animatronics before?" he wondered. "You've only tried to mess with simple things like cameras and doors and lights. If I'm remembering correctly, you never tried to actually mess with something really complex like a fully functioning animatronic before. Heck, even in the animatronic factory you guys mainly ran interference against the animatronics through the physical world instead of screwing with their systems."

"Only one way to find out, right?" Gabe asked.

The family relocated to the basement, where the Rockstar animatronics were currently being kept. Susie volunteered to possess Rockstar Chica while Jeremy volunteered to be the one who would attempt to run interference against her animatronic body. Susie floated into Rockstar Chica and activated her animatronic body, taking a few seconds to get fully adjusted and walk to the opposite side of the room where Mike and the rest of the family were before nodding towards Jeremy. "I'm gonna start walking now. Get ready!"

"Ready!" Jeremy affirmed.

Rockstar Chica began to move towards Mike in a faux-threatening manner, and Jeremy started channeling the same kind of disruptive power that he had been utilizing on the cameras. Rockstar Chica noticeably grimaced and began to visibly slow down, her eyes twitching oddly as she let out a groan and started forcing herself to move forward one step at a time. "Ugh…" she mumbled, "…I can feel Jeremy's power working against me. It's really slowing me down, I feel like I'm walking through Jello!"

"So it does work in theory," Charlie murmured. "But how much and for how long?"

Rockstar Chica forced herself to keep walking, and as she did so she started actively focusing her mind against Jeremy's influence. Jeremy let out a surprised yelp, having not expected the sudden resistance from Rockstar Chica, and his concentration broke. The disruptive influence he had been forcing on Rockstar Chica also shattered, and Rockstar Chica felt her mind clear and her functionality return to normal. "I didn't know I could fight against it like that!" she exclaimed. "I feel much better now!"

"Yeah, that took me by surprise," Jeremy admitted. "I didn't think it was possible for you to actually fight back against my attempts to…hack you, I guess? I dunno what else to call it."

"Well, that's not good enough," Liz commented with a frown. "Slowing an animatronic down for a few seconds doesn't really help all that much."

"We're gonna have to train ourselves to disrupt animatronics with our ghost powers," Gabe determined, before he added with a sigh, "and it's probably gonna be harder than hacking a camera or a tablet."

"Why don't you guys divide into groups?" Mike suggested. "One of you will possess an animatronic and move around, while the other one tries to disrupt and stun that animatronic."

The ghost kids obeyed their father's instructions, dividing into pairs (with Charlie as the odd one out) and half of them possessing the animatronics. Gabe's words were soon proven true, as all the ghosts on the "disruption" side quickly realized that interfering with an animatronic's functions was significantly more difficult than messing with a camera or tablet. Especially when the animatronic possessed its own separate consciousness that could "fight back" against the hack attempts. The ghosts were able to slow the Rockstar animatronics down for a few seconds, similarly to how Jeremy tried with Rockstar Chica. They had somewhat more success than Jeremy's first attempt since they were now expecting the animatronics to resist the influence, but for all the pairings, this still only translated to a few seconds of slowed movement before the animatronic was able to break free.

All, that is…except for one particular ghost.

"Holy crap!" Cassidy exclaimed as the disruptive energy she channeled into Rockstar Chica sent her systems into haywire and stopped her movements completely. "What the heck? I didn't expect the energy I sent into Rockstar Chica to be that powerful!"

"Urrrgggghhhhh…" Rockstar Chica mumbled, gripping her head as she slowly came back to life after several seconds of inactivity. "What just happened? I felt Cassidy sent her magic at me and now I feel like my head is exploding!"

"Wait, WHAT?" Fritz exclaimed. "None of us did anything like that!"

"Yeah, how was Cassidy able to get a result that good that fast?" Gabe wondered. "She wasn't practicing any more or less than the rest of us."

"I think I know why," Charlie hypothesized. "I think Cassidy has the most innate magical power out of all of us except for me. She's the only one here who can teleport, and she's always had a great amount of power over hallucinations that the rest of you guys don't have." She shrugged. "I guess this also means she's better at disrupting animatronics too, considering that she made Rockstar Chica go completely haywire and shut her down almost instantly."

Cassidy grinned. "So I'm the most powerful ghost here besides Charlie! Sweet!" At the rather annoyed looks some of the others gave him, she reined in her enthusiasm a little and tried to phrase her next words so that they didn't sound pretentious. "I can really help out at the Pizzaplex then! I can teleport around and freeze animatronics to help people escape. I might be able to help out in a big way!"

"Hey, anything that helps us save people will be a big help," Rockstar Chica agreed, the ghost inside coming to the defense of her closest sister. "We shouldn't be jealous of each other!"

"You're right," Gabe acknowledged. "This isn't supposed to be a competition."

"And I don't think Cassidy's powers are as OP as you guys think," Mike chimed in, immediately attracting everyone's attention. "At least, not without some downsides you guys haven't thought about."

"What kind of downsides?" Jeremy asked.

"Well, for one, Cassidy might burn herself out too quickly if she tries to use her powers too much at once," Mike answered sagely. "If using magical powers is anything like a physical person doing exercise, you can't keep doing it without getting tired. And using up all your energy without a good reason is a bad idea, because a situation might come up where you might need to use your powers but can't because you wasted your energy earlier."

"That's…a good point…" Cassidy reluctantly admitted, some of her initial enthusiasm fading. "I don't feel super tired after messing with Rockstar Chica, but I do feel like I used up a little energy. I don't really know how long I can keep going, but I don't think I can do it for super long."

"And there's another problem," Mike continued. "If you want to communicate with me to give me updates or ask me for help, I can't just hang around right outside the Pizzaplex doing nothing. I'll look incredibly suspicious at best, or get arrested for trespassing at worst. I'll have to stay at a nearby hotel or motel or something, which means that the only ghost here who could maybe get to me to talk to me quickly is Cassidy. Which is a problem, since she's also the only ghost who's really strong at disabling animatronics besides Charlie. If she's off to my motel room to update me, then that means she won't be around to disrupt animatronics quickly. And if she's needed to quickly disable animatronics, then she won't be able to teleport away to my location to update me." He grimaced. "You might have more power, Cass, but there's a lot of responsibility that comes with it that belongs to you and you alone."

Cassidy slowly sank back onto the sofa as the full implications of the responsibility that came with her powers hit her. "Geez…I'm gonna have a lot to do when we get there, don't I?" she mumbled. Liz gave her an assuring pat on the shoulder.

"Then we're gonna have to pick up the slack so that we depend on her too much," Fritz declared. "It's not fair for one person to have more to do than the rest of us!"

"I'm pretty sure that since I'm the most magically powerful ghost here period, I should be able to disable animatronics like Cassidy did without any issues," Charlie volunteered. "Heck, I can probably do it faster and without using as much energy because I'm more powerful than her."

"And we'll do the best we can to completely disrupt animatronics like she can," Gabe added, before frowning. "We're not all magically powerful like her, though. I doubt we'll be able to do it as easily as she can, but that's not an excuse to avoid trying!"

The rest of his brothers and sisters agreed, and they would spend the next few days shifting their focus from disabling and interfering with cameras (which by now, all of them could do relatively easily and consistently) to disrupting animatronics. Unsurprisingly for everyone who wasn't Cassidy or Charlie, disabling animatronics was much more difficult than disabling a simple camera. For one, animatronics were more fundamentally complicated and much larger than cameras were, which would have already made it difficult to affect them in and of itself. What made the task even harder was the fact that unlike the cameras, there was a separate consciousness that was actively resisting the efforts to disable them. And while the separate consciousness in their training sessions was another ghost kid of roughly equal will to the one going on the offensive, from what they had seen from the blueprints of the Pizzaplex animatronics, it sounded like the newest additions to the Freddy Fazbear franchise would (inconceivably) actually have their own minds and personalities, meaning that they would theoretically be able to resist interference and disruption just like the Rockstars could.

With these two factors working against them, the ghost kids couldn't accomplish anything more than temporarily slowing down other animatronics for the first few days. Yet right as they were about to give up and accept the fact that they wouldn't be able to do more than briefly stall against animatronics who could pose a major threat to people trapped within the Pizzaplex, Gabe suddenly felt a spark of power flicker to life within him on the third day. A boost in magical power that had laid dormant within his core, suddenly triggered by his dedicated training in the interference of medical devices. "I think something happened!" he reported to his family. "I feel…stronger somehow. Not by a crazy amount, but I just have this gut feeling that I'm suddenly better at messing with technology than I used to be."

"Hold on, let me possess Circus Baby and you can try to disrupt me!" Liz offered, before possessing her animatronic and allowing her to come to life. Circus Baby lumbered towards Gabe, who lifted his hands and channeled his energy into disrupting her just like he had done countless times in the past few days. The effect of the power boost was immediately apparent, as Circus Baby noticeably slowed down a lot more than normal despite Liz resisting Gabe's power from within. Gabe gritted his teeth and channeled more power, and although it took a lot of effort on his part, for the first time since they had started practicing, Circus Baby stopped moving completely and her eyes started twitching uncontrollably as Gabe's attack fully disabled her. She didn't move again for several seconds until Liz was able to reassert control of Baby from within, but even this was a massive improvement compared to what Gabe had been capable of beforehand.

"Uggghhhhh…I have such a huge headache now," Circus Baby complained as she gripped her head with a metal hand. "Is this what Susie felt when Cassidy messed with Rockstar Chica that first time?"

"Holy crap, I actually did it!" Gabe exclaimed happily. "It took a lot out of me to actually disable Baby completely with Liz fighting from inside, but I actually fully disabled her for the first time ever!"

"Even that's huge progress compared to before," Mike praised. "Great work, Gabe!"

"If Gabe can do it, then so can I!" Fritz declared with renewed excitement.

"Me too! I wanna mess with animatronics just like Cass and Gabe can!" Susie piped in.

"Don't forget me!" Jeremy added.

With renewed enthusiasm and fervor, the ghost kids redoubled their efforts to learn how to fully disrupt animatronics and unlock the same innate power boost that Gabe had. They didn't all unlock it at the same time, or even in the same day. Liz was the first to unlock this power, which wasn't all that surprising given the innate strength she already had thanks to her Scrap Baby transformation, while Susie ended up being the last one to unlock it a few days later. But with no one left behind, all of them started being able to fully disrupt and disable animatronics by channeling their power into them, at least temporarily. The only ones who didn't unlock this power boost were (both ironically and unsurprisingly) Cassidy and Charlie since they already had fully developed magical powers, although they were still able to disrupt animatronics more easily and more reliably than their siblings by a noticeable margin.

The feelings of success and triumph that the ghost kids felt from being able to fully disable other animatronics was compounded by a completely accidental discovery that Fritz made during a prank, of all things. During one of their breaks, Jeremy had been playing a video game on his computer while possessing Rockstar Bonnie (for no particular reason other than he felt like it), and Fritz had snuck up on him while he had been fixated on the game. Because he had been so distracted, Rockstar Bonnie had been completely taken by surprise when Fritz blasted him with a pulse of disruptive energy from behind as a joke. To both Jeremy's and Fritz's surprise, Fritz's prank attack fully disabled Rockstar Bonnie almost instantly in a manner comparative to Cassidy's very first attack on Rockstar Chica, even though Fritz wasn't nearly as inherently powerful as Cassidy was.

"What the hell, man?" Jeremy angrily shouted as he popped out of Rockstar Bonnie's disabled body. "I was just about to win and your fucking prank forced me to Game Over!"

Fritz, in the meantime, was doubled over in laughter. "Oh man, Jeremy, you should've seen the look on Rockstar Bonnie's face when I zapped you!" he chortled, completely unapologetic at the chaos he had just caused.

Jeremy had spent nearly 10 seconds furiously chasing Fritz around the room for causing him to Game Over, before both of them realized the implications of what had just happened and immediately let the rest of the family know.

"So you're telling me that, because Rockstar Bonnie was so distracted with his video game, that Fritz was able to sneak up on him and fully disable him almost immediately despite not being inherently powerful like Cassidy or Charlie," Mike summarized, earning nods of confirmation from Jeremy and Fritz. "Okay…" he suddenly smiled. "That's actually really helpful information."

"What do you mean?" Fritz wondered.

"It means that if an animatronic with a sentient mind is taken by surprise, then that means they can't properly resist your attempts to disrupt them," Charlie explained. "In other words, if they don't see you coming, then you might be able to fully disable an animatronic despite not being as powerful as me or Cassidy."

Everyone grinned at this revelation. "Holy crap, that's amazing!" Susie exclaimed. "We could be just as good at disrupting animatronics without needing to be as magically powerful as Cassidy or Charlie!"

"It is good news," Mike agreed with a nod, before adding a warning, "but it doesn't come without some caveats. The surprise factor is good news for us, but it's something you can only have for so long. The first few times you do it to an animatronic, they won't have any clue about what's going on and you'll probably be able to disable them scot-free. But the more times you do it, the more likely the animatronic will realize something's wrong and try to resist, especially if you try to disable them in a predictable way. If you don't want an animatronic to be constantly on-guard and fighting off your attempts to mess with them, you've gotta be unpredictable with your attacks and you can't do try them too frequently either. Does all that make sense?"

"Yep!" the ghosts all chorused.

"And I'm gonna guess we can't try this on Glitchtrap period, right?" Liz guessed. It was a question that was meant more as a formality than anything else, since she could already guess the answer. "I'm guessing trying to mess with him is doomed to fail?"

"Don't even think about it," Mike replied curtly. "We don't even know if your powers will work on him at all, since as far as we know he's possessing a human instead of an animatronic right now. And even if he was possessing an animatronic, there's a very good chance his fucked-up nature makes him stronger against you, and you'll probably give yourselves away right away if you even try. Unless you literally see him or his possession victim about to kill someone, just don't even bother trying your tricks on him. I highly doubt they're gonna work."

"Yeah, I didn't think they would," Gabe admitted. "That would be way too easy."

"So when SHOULD we reveal ourselves to Glitchtrap, Dad?" Susie asked curiously. "Is there even a time when we should?"

"If you can get away with it, keep your existences a secret to him as much as possible," Mike answered without hesitation. "I'd only deliberately reveal yourselves to him in an emergency situation, like if you see him or his possession victim seconds away from killing someone and the only way to save them is an extreme direct intervention that will force you to give yourself away. But if he does find out about your existences, whether it's because you slipped up or because you were forced to, then use yourselves as a distraction. He'll know there's a ghost kid around, but he won't know how many. He might get fixated on any ghost kids he DOES know about, and if that happens then he'll forget about living victims and make it easier for any ghost kids he still doesn't know about to blindside him."

The ghost kids nodded in understanding and vocalized agreement with his strategy. Secrecy was the best tool they could use in their upcoming struggle against Glitchtrap, but they weren't naïve enough to think that it alone would be able to carry them all the way to victory. They all knew how just dangerous and powerful Glitchtrap could be based on their previous interactions with William Afton. If the ghostly Schmidts wanted to make sure that his schemes ended at the Pizzaplex once and for all, they would need a cohesive, effective, and flexible strategy.

After all…there was only so much that Mike could help them with, this time around.

/

A/N: After writing this chapter, I'm actually glad that I wrote this instead of going straight to the Tour 2.0 of the Pizzaplex. The ghost kids needed some time to properly develop and practice their powers before they could properly deal with the Pizzaplex. They don't exactly know what they're gonna be dealing with once their trial in the Pizzaplex begins, but it's fairly safe to assume that there's gonna be animatronics they'll be opposing and that Glitchtrap will be there in some way, shape, or form. And while this chapter might feel a little rushed to some, I didn't want to spend multiple chapters dedicated to training powers when one single chapter gets the point across just fine.

I think it's entirely reasonable for the ghost kids' powers to center around disrupting cameras and disabling animatronics. After all, they were entirely capable of messing with electronics even back in the 1980s-1990s. They're just actively practicing and training their powers in that regard, so now they're capable of messing with both cameras and animatronics, both of which are going to be rather useful in dealing with Security Breach when we finally get that particular party started.

And if you're wondering about why Cassidy seems more OP compared to the rest of the ghosts, she's always been more magically powerful on a fundamental level than any of the ghosts except Charlie. If you think she's the Vengeful Spirit in Ultimate Custom Night, then she has an OBSCENE level of power, power enough to trap William Afton and possibly the other ghost kids in eternal pursuit of her revenge. She obviously isn't nearly as powerful here (and Charlie is firmly the most powerful ghost, period), but I wanted to set her apart from the others in the sense that her abilities are more inherently powerful and more naturally come to her, whereas the other ghost kids had to work for it a bit more. Of course, this also means she has a lot more responsibility unique to her compared to the others…I already explained why in the chapter itself.

Anyways, that's all I have for now. Next chapter will (probably) feature the return of the Schmidt family to the now (almost)-completed Pizzaplex. Hope you guys enjoyed!