A/N: A couple of you guys were rather unhappy that Glamrock Bonnie won't be featured in the Pizzaplex. While I can give you my apologies as best as I can, sadly not every tragedy can be stopped. Especially if it's one that the ghost kids had no idea even existed to begin with. And I wanted to keep things simple and in somewhat familiar territory for myself since I don't have as much time nowadays.
Speaking of which, I am officially making a statement that I may no longer be able to upload a chapter every 2 weeks consistently. While I will certainly try to do so (and the occasionally weekly update may still occur if I'm feeling particularly inspired), from this point forward, do not be surprised if I end up taking 3 weeks to upload a chapter instead of 2 weeks.
And with that announcement made, let us continue on with the tour of the Pizzaplex!
FroststormFrenzy: I feel like if letting Glamrock Freddy's battery run out didn't have lethal consequences, then it wouldn't lead to a jumpscare in the actual game. With all that being said, letting the battery run out certainly won't have lethal consequences NOW…although having your only reliable (and genuinely useful) ally run out of power and be disabled probably isn't the best idea if you want to ensure your continued survival in a hostile environment.
Chapter 209 – Return to the Pizzaplex Part 4
Mike was truly shocked by the fact that his cautious optimism regarding the Mega Pizzaplex had lasted this long, and was still alive after going through this much of the Pizzaplex.
Granted, it was far from perfect. He and his kids had already identified quite a few flaws in the Pizzaplex even discounting the whole "fire exits locked behind VIP and employee access" fiasco they had identified several months earlier. But most of the flaws they had identified so far were either minor and excusable, fairly easy and straightforward to fix, or at the very least not immediately lethal to anyone who ever stepped foot into the Pizzaplex.
By Fazbear Entertainment standards, it did seem like they were genuinely trying their hardest to make sure the Pizzaplex was the best that it could possibly be…even though Mike was fairly confident that they were only trying this hard because even one more major fiasco could destroy the company for good. But overall, the Pizzaplex itself (once all the flaws they exposed were fixed) could honestly be considered passable, or dare he say it, even good…
…if it weren't for the fact that Glitchtrap and his possession victim were still out there, and Mike didn't doubt for a single second that they would try to find a way to fuck around with the place when they got the chance.
"You know," Charlie's voice telepathically interrupted his thoughts, "this place isn't quite so bad. It's a lot better than some of the other things we've seen from Fazbear Entertainment."
"Yeah," Jeremy agreed. "I know we still have quite a few more places to look at, but honestly I wouldn't mind coming here as a kid if I was still alive."
"Ehhh…we still haven't seen like half of this place yet," Liz warned. "And Fazbear Entertainment has a really great track record of screwing things up."
Cassidy facepalmed. "Don't jinx it," she mumbled.
"Allow us to show you Chica's Bakery," Mr. Raugelan announced as they left Rockstar Row and went back into the Atrium. "I should warn you, however, that the area is currently unfinished and rather…unsightly."
"How nice of you to warn us ahead of time," Mike replied dryly as the two Fazbear executives guided them. They climbed up the escalator, passing by a sign leading to Monty's Gator Golf as they did so, leaving behind the atrium and going into a side corridor until they found themselves in a large room. A short distance in front of them, they could see a portion of the wall with a large "LET'S EAT!" painted in bright yellow letters above a pair of double doors, with a towering statue of Chica's classic Mr. Cupcake situated neatly above it. The rest of the room was filled with cupcake and ice cream-themed decorations and both concession stands and tables and chairs where people who visited the bakery could enjoy eating their desserts, none of which was out of the ordinary.
"Ooh, I was wondering if we'd see the Cupcake around here," Susie commented brightly. "You know, since Chica's a member of the band and all."
"Again, I must warn you that the area is unfinished," Mr. Raugelan warned as they approached the doors to the Cakery slid open. The Schmidt family entered the Cakery…and their jaws dropped in aghast horror at the sight they witnessed.
The shop itself was, to put it mildly, a complete shitshow. The inside reminded the ghost kids of the inside of a diner (a sight they had seen a few times whenever Mike chose to eat out), with some decorations once again featuring Mr. Cupcake. But that was barely worth registering compared to how utterly trashed the place appeared. The walls were damaged, the lights were broken and showering sparks every so often, broken glass and plates were strewn across the floor, and an ATM placed inside the shop was knocked down. But the worst part was the cockroaches. For some reason, Chica's Bakery was positively infested with cockroaches that were crawling across the floor. It was an absolute shitshow that didn't look fit for basic human habitation, let alone a bakery where families could relax and enjoy a dessert.
"What the FUCK happened here?" Fritz exclaimed. A question that was running through the minds of every single member of the Schmidt family, and Mike didn't hesitate for a single second to voice out loud.
"We unfortunately are not at liberty to reveal the details," Mr. Raugelan sighed. "But needless to say, this is NOT intended to be the final state of Chica's Bakery."
"Good," Mike didn't even bother hiding his irritation. "Because if it was, I'd be giving you just as much shit about this as I did about DJ Music Man's Experimental Bouncer Mode."
"Do we even need to go into all the problems here in detail?" Gabe mumbled. "Like…it's so obvious just from taking one look at this utter mess!"
"I feel like I shouldn't need to state the obvious, but I'm going to do it anyway just to be absolutely clear," Mike declared. "Keep this place closed off from the public completely, hire an exterminator to get rid of the fucking cockroaches, fix the lights, and for the love of God, clean all of this garbage up! How is anyone supposed to eat here when you have to worry about cutting your feet on broken class and cockroaches dig into your cupcakes half the time?"
"You don't need to tell us twice," Mr. Raugelan reassured Mike, with Mr. Leelurd nodding next to him. "On this, at least, we are in full agreement."
"Great," Susie drawled, the disappointment blatantly obvious on her face and in her voice. "Can we please get out of here? And maybe find a place showing Glamrock Chica that isn't completely ruined to hell?"
Nobody needed any further encouragement, and it was a genuine relief to leave Chica's Bakery behind and return to more well-maintained areas.
"There's two locations we can visit next that are relatively close to our current location," Mr. Raugelan offered. "The first is Monty's Gator Golf, back down on the Ground floor. The second is Mazercise, located on the highest floor. Which one would you like to visit first?"
The kids glanced at each other and at Mike. "Uh…if Monty's Gator Golf is on the first floor, maybe we should've visited that first?" Jeremy ventured.
"I guess they didn't really think that one through," Charlie acknowledged, before shrugging. "It's not that big a deal, though."
"I kinda wanna see what Monty's Gator Golf looks like," Cassidy admitted. "It's an area featuring an entirely new animatronic that none of us have ever seen before. I'm kinda curious."
"Yeah, I get where Cass is coming from," Fritz agreed. "Plus it's the first time we've ever seen a golf course in a Fazbear restaurant. Let's go there first, then."
The other ghost kids voiced their agreement, some more rapidly than others, before Mike reported their consensus to their tour guides while presenting it as his decision. "Monty's Gator Golf it is, then," Mr. Raugelan nodded and he started to guide them back down to the entrance to the attraction. "Understood. As you might have presumed from the name, it is the primary attraction for Monty Gator, a new animatronic in the Fazbear lineup."
They descended down the escalator back to the main floor of the Atrium, going back the way they came until they found themselves in front of the Monty's Gator Golf sign. The sign itself showcased the name of the titular attraction, and perhaps unsurprisingly, almost the entirety of the sign was dark swamp-green except for the words "Gator Golf" and the lightning bolt next to Monty's name, which were both purple instead. There were also two golf clubs crossed together with a green golf ball immediately above them at the top of the sign, a visual showcasing of what the attraction as a whole represented.
When they entered the attraction proper, the Schmidt family quickly discovered that the sign drastically understated just how deeply Fazbear Entertainment had invested into the whole "swamp" theme for Monty's Gator Golf. The entire area was covered a deep dark green, with artificial plants growing across the walls to make it look like they had entered into a swamp out of nowhere. Right in front of them was a tree-like statue with multiple giant golf balls cut in half, pointing towards the ceiling like some kind of reverse chandelier. In front of them was a small circular hallway leading to an elevator door with the same sign that they had seen outside, with cut-outs of the Glamrock animatronics immediately to its right. To the right was a lounge-like waiting area with multiple comfortable chairs and a ticket booth where visitors could buy tickets for Monty's Gator Golf.
"Wow…" Charlie whistled, clearly impressed. "This really does feel like a place where Monty Gator would live."
"I really wanna see the golf course now, if the lobby looks this cool," Cassidy agreed.
"Do we see anything wrong here, though?" Gabe asked. "Any obvious safety violations?"
The ghosts took another look around, but they couldn't find anything particularly dangerous to passersby. With no obvious problems identified, the Schmidt family followed Mr. Raugelan and Mr. Leelurd into the elevator, which had multiple plants and posters featuring plants to maintain the swamp aesthetic.
"Welcome to Monty's Gator Golf!" a rough and gravelly voice that could only be Monty's greeted them. "Home of the Hurricane Hole-in-One! We're currently closed for the night. Come back soon!"
"Well," Fritz drawled. "Guess we know what Monty sounds like, at least."
The elevator doors slid open after a few moments, and as the Schmidt family left the elevator and entered the golf course proper, their jaws dropped in stunned disbelief.
Monty's Gator Golf truly felt like it was its own little world within the Pizzaplex to a degree that was beyond even the other attractions that they had seen so far. The room itself was not only huge, but it was extensively decorated and designed to fully fit the swamp aesthetic. Everything was colored in the same forest green color they had seen in the lobby, and the entire room was filled with artificial trees that made the room look like it had been consumed by nature. Even the lighting itself gave the impression that one was entering the depths of a swamp, for the room was dimly lit with neon lights compared to some of the other rooms. Instead, much of the illumination came from small, orb-like golden lights attached to vines and plants that hung from the ceiling, looking almost like fireflies.
As Mike climbed down the stairs with the ghost kids following around, they realized that a river had been created around the golf course itself to really complete the picture of a swamp. Susie and Cassidy both shrieked when two huge animatronic gator heads popped out of the river on either side of the bridge, both of them letting out guttural roars before sinking back into the waters only to pop out again a few seconds later.
"Okay, that was pretty clever," Charlie admitted as Fritz snickered at his sisters' expense, only to get lightly whacked with a slap in the back of the head from Liz. "Those gator heads are a nice touch."
"Umm…is it just me, or those safety rails look like they aren't enough?" Gabe pointed at the rails in question which were the only barrier between the ground and the river. "I could easily see a world where some kid or baby climbs underneath the rails and falls into the river…and God forbid they climb into one of those alligators' mouths!"
"Holy crap, you're right!" Jeremy agreed with wide eyes. "That's such a big safety hazard!"
Mike pointed the hazard out to Mr. Raugelan. "I want another bar halfway between the top of the rail and the ground, at minimum," he ordered. "And if there's a rules list around here, I want it made abundantly clear that NOBODY should be climbing over the rails, swimming in the river, or going anywhere near those gators' mouths."
"We do have a rules list forbidding all three of those," Mr. Leelurd reassured him.
Mike raised an eyebrow. "Really? Cause I don't remember seeing one on the way here. You should really put one at the entrance either right outside or inside the elevator itself, cause otherwise kids might think they can do whatever the hell they want."
"…I see your point," Mr. Raugelan acknowledged as Mr. Leelurd wrote down Mike's criticisms. "Now allow me to show you the golf course proper."
He guided the Schmidt family through the golf course…which, once you looked past all of the swamp-themed decorations, turned out to be your fairly standard 18-hole mini-golf course. The holes were each labeled with a wooden sign featuring a number surrounded by a border of neon lights, and the holes themselves were pretty much exactly what one would expect from a kids' mini-golf course.
"You guys see anything crazy?" Susie asked her siblings.
"Not…really…" Liz replied with a frown. "It's just a golf course. I don't really have anything to say about it."
"That's probably a good thing in this case," Cassidy commented.
Apart from the golf course itself, there were a few other locations and features the ghost kids took note of. There was a Gift Shop which interestingly featured both souvenirs from past generations of Fazbear animatronics as well as the newest generation, and a snack bar called Monty Gator's Grub with a few chairs and tables near it where guests could relax and enjoy a snack. When some of the ghosts flew behind the door, they found a small kitchen and a rather cramped hallway that led to a few closets and a security office. The last point of interest was a small hut that looked like a tiny office of some kind, but when the ghost kids looked inside it they didn't find much beyond a small Jack-in-the-Box gift box sitting innocuously in the corner.
"I think we're done here," Gabe declared once the Fazbear representatives had finished showing them around. "I didn't see anything super suspicious around here, did you?"
His brothers and sisters shook their head. "Nothing apart from the safety hazard with the river that we already talked about," Charlie spoke for all of them.
"I think the only think I could say is add a couple of signs to make the emergency exit around here easier to find and get to," Jeremy suggested. "Cause I couldn't find it at all."
"Then let's get out of here," Fritz declared as Mike relayed her suggestion. "No point wasting time for no good reason, right?"
They made their way back to the Atrium, leaving Monty's Gator Golf behind them. As they did so, Mike took another look around at the different concession booths and mini-restaurants surrounding the ground floor of the Atrium. "You know…" Liz mumbled, "Maybe we should take a look at all these restaurants around here. I didn't think about it before, but after seeing just how utterly messed up the Cupcake Bakery was…I think we should be super safe and make sure none of the other cooking areas are as thoroughly messed up as that was."
"The Monty's Gator Grub place looked fine to me. But yeah, you're right," Susie agreed with a scowl. "If the other restaurants are as filthy and trashed as the Cupcake Eatery, this place is completely screwed."
Mike vocalized his request to the tour guides, who looked visibly annoyed at the fact that the tour was now going to feature a restaurant check but didn't argue. They spent the next several minutes checking each concession area one by one, from the Drinks and Burgers all the way down to the Salads and Sides. Mercifully, each and every single one of the main concession areas was clean and looked no different than any other standard fast food service area. There was nothing obviously wrong with any of them, although none of the Schmidts regretted spending the few minutes needed to ensure that none of the other food places were as filthy and dilapidated as the Cupcake Bakery.
They did, however, find another major problem towards the end of the room near the Salads and Sides concession stand. "Excuse me?" Mike exclaimed. "Why the fuck is there a huge vent passageway that's just wide open right here? It's huge enough that a kid, or hell, I could easily climb through it!"
"That vent isn't meant for kids to go through, right?" Gabe asked. "It's not supposed to go to any location that a kid is supposed to be in, right?"
"No, that vent is not meant for public access," Mr. Raugelan answered as Mike reiterated the question. "It's meant for our staff only."
"Then put a goddamn vent covering in front of it!" Mike exclaimed, gesturing towards the painfully open vent entrance. "Cause this? This is straight-up unacceptable. You don't even have a sign above or next to the vent entrance forbidding kids to climb into the vent. And I'm not gonna accept having just a sign as an acceptable solution to this blatant problem when like 20% of kids will just ignore it and climb through the vent anyway."
"I presume that this is going to be one of your more…forceful instructions?" Mr. Leelurd presumed, visibly looking as though he was resisting the urge to sigh.
"You bet it is," Mike declared, his children nodding their heads invisibly next to him. "Just put a fucking vent cover over this and any other oversized vents you have around here like any sane or reasonable person!"
"We'll bring this up with the board," Mr. Raugelan promised as he wrote it down. "Now then, now that you've inspected our concession stands, where would you like to go to next?"
"Is there another attraction in this Pizzaplex based on Chica?" Susie asked with more than a hint of frustration in her tone. "I'm still not over just how completely screwed up the cupcake bakery does!"
"We do indeed have another Chica-based attraction," Mr. Raugelan was pleased to report once Mike relayed the question. "I mentioned it before. It is the Mazercise, a fitness-themed attraction, all the way up on the highest floor. Allow me to guide you there."
Nobody had any reasons to suggest otherwise, and the Schmidt family followed Mr. Raugelan all the way up two escalators to the highest floor. On their way there, however, they passed by an attraction called "El Chip's", which compared to some of the other signs had a rather simple and humble red sign that featured the restaurant's name in yellow letters.
But it was still an attraction large enough to cover its own section in the wall, so Gabe decided to bring it to everyone's attention. "Hold on, guys…what is this El Chip's place?" he asked.
Mike stopped Mr. Raugelan and Mr. Leelurd and inquired about it. "That is one of the larger and more unique restaurants in this facility," Mr. Raugelan explained. "El Chip's is a Mexican restaurant, for those children and families who are not interested in trying American Fast Food, for whatever reason."
"Another restaurant, huh?" Jeremy mused. "Maybe we should check it out first like we did with the concession stands, just to make sure it isn't messed up like the cupcake bakery."
"Good idea," Fritz agreed.
Mike asked the Fazbear tour guides to show them El Chip's first, and they opened the metal door to El Chip's. Fitting for a Mexican restaurant, almost all of the decorations revolved around a theme of either Mexico or a desert environment. There were multiple cactuses with sombreros made of neon lights (because at this point, the ghost kids had pretty much accepted that basically everything about the Pizzaplex was neon as hell) as well as multiple posters featuring the titular El Chip, a brown beaver animatronic with red circle cheeks wearing a similarly colored sombrero with lights dangling from its rim. There were even multiple garbage canisters and an oven shaped in the likeness of El Chip's face which was pretty amusing, but strangely enough the animatronic himself was nowhere to be found. The closest thing the ghost kids could find to El Chip was a statue on the opposite wall from where they had come in, its arms stretched open as if it wanted to give someone a hug but otherwise decidedly lifeless. The drink machines were past the statue and around the corner, and they could see a S.T.A.F.F. bot cleaning the red-and-black checkered floor with a mop.
"You know what to do," Mike telepathically informed the ghost kids, who wasted no time searching the area for any concerning problems. But apart from a drink machine that was knocked down on the floor for some bizarre reason, the ghost kids couldn't find any obvious problems. The kitchen, while looking rather empty, was clean as far as they could tell and didn't have any broken pieces scattered across the ground or cockroaches skittering across the floor. There was another set of metal doors, that led to a small green-lit hallway with more neon cactus lights and couches lining the walls, but when he floated through the opposite metal door he realized that he wasn't in El Chip's anymore and quickly turned back to join up with his family.
"Anything?" Charlie asked once they had all regrouped.
"Nothing," Gabe shook his head. "I mean, obviously there's a drink machine knocked down on the ground for some reason, but other than that I didn't see any major issues."
"Why IS that drink machine knocked down anyway?" Susie wondered.
When Mike asked the question to the Fazbear tour guides, they shrugged. "We were originally going to have that drink machine lining the wall alongside the others, but we decided that six was enough," Mr. Raugelan explained. "We dislodged that machine from the wall and were going to have it removed entirely, but transport for that one is still pending. Obviously it must've gotten knocked down somehow, maybe through a careless S.T.A.F.F. bot or something. If you're concerned about the drink machines falling down on an unfortunate child, I can assure that the rest of them are firmly attached to the wall and completely safe."
"Demonstrate for me, please," Mike replied in a polite tone, but it was abundantly clear that the request wasn't optional. Mr. Leelurd proceeded to do so, pulling and trying to shake the machines with his strength. None of them moved from their positions.
"Is that satisfactory for you, Mr. Schmidt?" Mr. Raugelan asked.
"Yeah, it is," Mike replied.
"Excellent!" Mr. Raugelan smiled. "Now, if you were to pass through that metal door, you would find a passageway leading to the Superstar-cade, the East Arcade of the PIzzaplex. I can show it to you if you'd like, or we can return to our original plan of exploring the Mazercise. I leave the decision up to you."
"Mazercise!" Susie immediately declared.
"Yeah, let's just get the Mazercise out of the way," Gabe agreed. "Susie's waited long enough to see it, and we've already gone through two other locations first."
"Anybody wanna argue?" Fritz asked. Not a single ghost kid challenged, and Mike requested that they go back to the Mazercise first before visiting the Superstar-cade.
As they followed the Fazbear executives out of El Chip's and back to the Atrium, the ghost kids started talking amongst themselves.
"You know, I'm kinda surprised by how well things are going," Cassidy commented optimistically. "I mean, obviously, the Cupcake Bakery was a complete and utter disaster."
"Thanks for reminding me," Susie deadpanned with a visible roll of her eyes.
"But Monty's Gator Golf seemed safe enough minus those handrails, none of the other concession stands looked messed up like the cupcake bakery, and El Chip's looks fine to me," Cassidy continued. "For once, Fazbear Entertainment actually looks like they're doing some things right for a change."
"Don't get ahead of yourself, Susie," Liz warned. "Yeah, this might be a hell of a lot better than anything Fazbear Entertainment's done in the past. But let's not forget, we've already found quite a few screw-ups already. That experimental bouncer mode in DJ Music Man, that vent on the Ground Floor that's just wide open for literally no good reason."
"There's still a good chunk of the Pizzaplex we haven't seen yet," Jeremy cautioned, clearly thinking along the same lines as his sister. "Plenty of places where Fazbear Entertainment might've screwed up SOMETHING. And don't forget, just because Fazbear Entertainment did something right, doesn't mean that Glitchtrap and his possession victim might find a way to ruin things anyway."
"We can't call this inspection complete until we've seen major area in the Pizzaplex," Charlie insisted. "If we're lucky, Fazbear Entertainment will keep up the good streak, and we won't have to report any more problems before we're done here. I wish I could trust Fazbear Entertainment. I really wish I could."
The former Marionette inhabitant took a deep breath and sighed. "But I can't. Because when it comes to a business this corrupt, this greedy, and this apathetic…the only thing I can trust about Fazbear Entertainment is that they'll find a way to disappoint me for the umpteenth time in a row."
/
A/N: And there you have it, everyone. The next section of the Schmidt family's inspection of the (near-)completed Pizzaplex done and dusted.
Surprisingly, this chapter wasn't too bad as far as the Pizzaplex was concerned. Yeah, the Cupcake Shoppe was an absolute clusterfuck with a state that is just completely inexcusable, but the rest of the locations inspected here weren't that bad. Monty's Gator Golf was mostly fine (although keep in mind the Schmidt family are NOT aware of the catwalks high above the golf course…yet), the other concession stands in the Atrium looked like they were in passable condition, and so did El Chip's. No major complaints or screw-ups on the level of DJ Music Man's experimental bouncer mode in this section.
Of course, there's still a decent chunk of the Pizzaplex left to explore (at least one more chapter's worth). And considering the fact that the Schmidt family haven't seen Sun/Moon yet…yeah, they're gonna have some VERY STRONG words about the shitshow that is the Daycare.
Anyways, that's all I have for now. Hope you guys enjoyed, and don't forget to like and bookmark this fic on AOx3 too in case completely dies for good.