I Don't Own Fnaf

Mike was... confused, waking up without a familiar weight to his side often got that response from his sleep-addled brain, as his head lifted up for a moment, as he blinked with bleary eyes as he looked around. The light streaming in from the windows showed it was well into the morning at the very least... Had Mari let him sleep in? It had been a while since he had gotten a full eight hours in and they didn't have work today, but that was a bit... Strange.

Not that he didn't think the puppet would, the cheeky animatronic would most certainly let him sleep far longer than Mike should have. It was just he was surprised that he could sleep in, it had been a while since he got the chance to do that, as he pulled himself out of bed without much of a second though, wincing a bit at the sight of the clock on his bedside table, it was nearly noon. He really hadn't been sleeping well if he nearly got fourteen hours of sleep in.

He felt groggy still, but that was just from over sleeping rather than not needing the sleep itself, as he reached up and rubbed his eyes for a few seconds, calling out towards the open door of his bedroom as he stumbled himself into the bathroom.

"You let me sleep a bit too much, I have to get to the Cove later" He waited a moment, more a pause really for the puppet to appear... Only for nothing to happen as he blinked at that, before shrugging, he hadn't been that loud, the puppet might not have heard him from down stairs, as he finished up his morning routine, blinking as he caught himself staring into the mirror for a moment.

The purple was back, he looked away before he could focus too much on it, the sight of the color on his hands had been showing up more and more the last few weeks, no doubt due to stress or something like that. He'd grab his gloves before going down to get some coffee in his system. Something he would no doubt regret later on, but he had been more or less living off the stuff the last month or so, so he'd deal with the crash in the late afternoon when it happened.

Thinking about it was already making him tired again, even as he was getting himself more and more awake, also not surprising, he doubted any amount of sleep was going to make him less exhausted at the moment, his body felt better, but his mind was about the same weight of a hundred cinder blocks as it had been for a while now.

Shaking it off before everything could crash into him before he even got breakfast, or, well, lunch in his system, Mike hurried about changing into actual closing, just a boring pair of blue jeans and a long sleeved purple shirt that he wasn't fully remember when he had gotten, along with the gloves, before heading out of the bedroom. Calling as he moved to the stairs down to the living room.

"So, you want to join me on the way? I need to talk to Evan for a minute about some stuff and question Phone Guy on whatever it is he found out last night" He kept moving, Mari wasn't in the living room, so he was probably in the kitchen or his 'bedroom' which was more or less just a code word for his toy room if they were being honest about the actual role that room served.

Moving to the kitchen, no sight of the puppet... He frowned to himself, as he glanced back to the doorway, it wasn't like Mari needed to reply right away or anything, but not responding at all was a bit worrying... Maybe he was having a nonverbal day? That would explain why he would be in his room, the place was filled with so many plushies that even Mike would find it hard to be in a foul mood, and he wasn't nearly into the cutesy kind of stuff that the puppet was.

Setting the coffee pot up quickly, he left the kitchen to let that brew while making the decision to make a quick check in on the puppet. If he was having a bad day then Mike wanted to at least make up for the fact that he hadn't done anything for the entirety of the morning.

Knocking on the door, he called out for the puppet, waiting a moment and at the very least expecting a chime of some sort if not a worded answer.

Instead there was nothing, he continued to wait for a moment, before finally calling out in a teasing tone to hide his worry.

"Hope you got your stripes on cause I'm coming in" The door wasn't barred or anything, it swung open easily as he stepped inside only to instantly feel something settle uncomfortably in his gut as the room was completely bare of any living puppets, only the plushy variants of him along with the many foxys and other stuffed toys of the other animatronics that he had managed to collect and smuggle into the room.

Mari wasn't here... R-Right, uh... Moving quickly in, and doing his best to not panic, he reached out and opened up the gift box that was still sitting in the room, opening it up to reveal just more plushies. He- Did he have another nightmare and had locked himself in a closet again? Was he still in there without Mike to help calm him down? Mike felt the feelings in his chest begin to bubble over as with an almost fervor, he quickly began rushing around, through every nook and cranny of the house, lamenting and being more than a little annoyed with how big the damn place felt all of a sudden.

It was after he thought about dragging himself up into the attic that he had to admit that Mari just wasn't here. That was... fine, completely fine! Mari could go to places without him, it wasn't like Mike was the puppet's keeper, but... But when he did go somewhere Mari at least told him. And it had been a while since Mari went anywhere without Mike, the two had practically been glued to the hips... He was freaking out over nothing, he just had to call the places Mari could be, get teased by the puppet for panicking, and then be able to relax. Easy enough.

Moving over to the phone hung up on the kitchen wall, he punched the number in for the warehouse at first, before stopping, no one was there at the moment, Evan was still staying at the Cove. He changed the number to the Cove's office number and hit the call before he could think too much about it.

The line rung for a long long moment, before finally connecting as he heard the exaggerated tone of Foxy over the line.

"Ahoy, 'tis Foxy's Pirate Cove Pizzeria, we be closed-" They really needed to get an actual answering machine at some point.

"Foxy, it's Mike, is Mari over there?"

"Ah, no?" Fuck... Right, no, it was fine.

"Okay, thanks"

"Is something going on-" Mike hung up, he'd apologize later. Instead he punched in the number of the warehouse, holding it up to his ear and waited a long moment for someone to pick it up, except that would only happen if there was someone there, which wasn't the case as before long the standard monotone voice came over the line asking him to leave a message.

Mike hung up and found himself already moving to put in the next number pushing it in barley before the dial tone had begun to play in his ear. This time it happened a bit faster, but still after a few rings, the other person picked up the phone.

"Hello?" Charlie's voice came over the line, she sounded a tad confused, Mike didn't pay attention to that, instead immediately asking his question.

"Hey, it's Mike, is your brother with you?"

"Uh... N-no? I really hope not, I'm in the middle of going to my next lecture hall right now" Right, college, Monday, should have thought of that, as Mike spoke back quickly.

"Did he come over this morning?"

"No? Wait, Michael, what's going on? You sound-"

"Nothing, not yet, just... Head to the Cove when you can, I think something might be wrong"

"With Sam? What's happening? Answer me please!" Mike gritted his teeth as he moved around to grab his keys, he was not looking to answer a bunch of questions right now, he needed to find where Mari was. Moving to the closet by the front door, to grab his jacket, he found himself freezing in place as his eyes tracked and spotted something.

"Michael? Are you there? Mike!?" He barely heard her, as he reached out and lightly touched the door, pulling on the handle lightly, as the door swung open... It hadn't been latched, it wasn't even locked... That shouldn't be possible, Mike never went to sleep without making sure every door in the house was locked, he was down right paranoid about it. Someone had been here, someone had broken in without him noticing, someone had come to his house and now his puppet was missing.

And now that someone was going to die.

It was an almost surreal kind of calm that washed over him, as he eventually found his voice as he shut the door closed properly this time, as he said quietly over the line of the phone, already moving to the garage, the jacket closet forgotten, just like the now lukewarm coffee sitting in the pot, as he moved to get himself into his car.

"He's missing" He hung up before she could ask any more questions, shifting the car into gear so by the time that the garage had opened up his car was already screeching on the road, as he floored it to the warehouse.

He had a few things to pick up before he could get his puppet back.

It wasn't long before he was at the warehouse, as he rushed inside, barely taking the time to put it in park as he rushed to the back, where the office was.

Walking into the room, he headed straight for the computer, booting it up and moving to a program that hadn't been used in a long, long time. Back during the first few months of the cove, when Bonnie had been making a mess of things and there had been suspicion of people messing with the warehouse, which had caused Evan to move into the building fully in the first place as a guard originally, they had also set up cameras on the outside. It had never caught anything, of course it wouldn't have, it was a spirit haunting the building, not any trespassers.

That didn't change the fact that those cameras hadn't ever been taken down.

It took a minute, he wasn't sure just what he was looking for, watching a few cars go by wasn't anything suspicious in of itself given there were a number of other warehouses around that were used for more commercial reasons all around the one that Mike just happened to own. But that didn't mean he didn't stare at them all with suspicion for a long moment before waiting on the next thing to show up... And show up it did.

At two in the morning a grey unmarked van had pulled to the front of the warehouse, and a moment later the side panel door slid open and an animatronic stepped out. It was hard to make out the image, it was frankly not a great camera, and it was in black and white, but Mike knew who it was right away, as the black bear moved towards the doors and stood there for a long moment, like it was waiting for something.

The Carnie knock off that he had seen and Charlie had gotten a better look at, it was alive apparently, and it was searching for something. Mike under normal circumstances would have been confused about why the bear didn't go inside, but, frankly, he knew at least of three animatronics that could see things that they weren't actually there to be able to see, this wouldn't have surprised him, as he watched as after nearly ten minutes of waiting, the bear simply got back into the van which quickly pulled away...

So the Rip-Off Bear had gone to the warehouse, looking for something, and when it didn't find it, it just left... It didn't take much deductive reasoning to figure out just what that bear had been looking for. A part of Mike, the part that never really got the message he was trying for self-care nowadays, that never really got over the self-hatred, blistered and burned as everything clicked together fully.

The rage that was bubbling in Mike's chest felt like it was reaching it's peak, as he took a long breath in, before standing up, right... It was time to get his puppet back, good thing he kept a few things hidden around here just in case of emergency.

Fritz was in a bit of a hectic state. He had been up for a while, mostly just enjoying the day off, it was rare to have one. Janet was visiting her family, her brother was going through town because of some business thing, and would be leaving Hurricane by tomorrow to head to Las Vegas... For why, Fritz wasn't fully sure about, but he also figured it wasn't really his business, so he was alone in the apartment, going through the motions of the hundredth or so minor system check on the funtime.

The handunit had been more and more... compliant? Lately, it didn't bug out nearly as much anymore, it was kind of nice, kind of weird, but he was making the most use out of it by just doing all the final works on the animatronic. The thing was ready to go, on a technical standpoint, but that wasn't what the checks were for, it was him going through the codes and routines and trying to find a way to sort out the murder programs and separate them from everything else. It hadn't really been going anywhere, he really wasn't a programmer, but it kept his mind busy while he waited until it was an appropriately late time in the afternoon to call Scott to see how his nightshift went.

At least that was what he had been doing, until he got a call from a concerned Goldie, and then a much more rushed call from Charlie. Now he found himself on the phone with Jeremy who was thankfully already at the Cove, apparently Mike was going to the warehouse? Fritz didn't know how the others knew that, just trusted them that they were heading there as well.

He didn't get much information, only that apparently Mike was acting weird and that Mari was missing, but that alone made something in his chest panic as well, so he was rushing more than he should. He was not driving like Mike, he wanted to make that clear to himself, that made drove like a manic person, but he was most certainly going faster than he should have, and by the time he got to the warehouse, the business van was out front and so was Mike's car, as Fritz got out and headed inside.

Maybe Goldie did that weird out of body seeing thing to know Mike was here? Made as much sense as anything.

Heading in, he was surprised to see Jeremy, Foxy, and Goldie all standing around the front, but not moving, instead all looking... up?

"Hey, what's happening? I got here as soon as I could" Goldie was the one who answered, while pointing up for some reason.

"Michael's planning on doing something stupid" Fritz just blinked

"Uh, how do you know that?" The bear finally turned around, giving Fritz an incredibly dry look as he said in a tone that implied that Fritz should know better by now.

"Experience" Fritz... Just finally nodded, as he turned to see what everyone was looking at, ready to also ask just where Mike was in the first place, only to blink in surprise as he said while watching as Mike, who was making his way down the side stair down to them.

"Oh... I kind of forgot that there was a second observatory office... What's even in there?"

"No idea, I've never been up there" Fritz glanced at the other two, but it was a matching answer, which was fair, there was never a reason to go up there, there wasn't anything up there, he remember that much at least from when he and Jeremy had gone through everything in the warehouse, it was just an empty spare office, just one high up to be able to see the floor.

Squinting a bit to try and get a better look, Fritz frowned as he realized something was off... Well, a few things, the first being that he noticed was Mike had a hand bag that was being held at the man's side, that looked like it had a few things in it, though it was hard to tell. It wasn't that big, so whatever was in it, wasn't much, but Fritz still got an uncomfortable feeling that's what Mike had been hiding up there.

The man noticed them, obviously, no way he couldn't have, but he didn't seem to really register them either, the second his feet had left the stairs, he was moving in their direction, and soon it was very clear he was about to just go straight past them, as Fritz opened his mouth to try and think of something to say when Goldie managed to get in front of the man, holding an arm out and keeping Mike from plowing straight through.

"What are you doing?" The man barely paused, his eyes shifting from straight ahead to down, staring into his brother's eyes. Fritz wasn't sure if he wanted to know what was held in that gaze by the way Goldie's entire body tensed up.

"Freddy's took Mari, I'm going to get him back" The tone was rough, coarse in a way Fritz didn't know Mike's voice could make, like there was so much emotion behind his voice that was being held behind a wall that it was hitting his voice without actually slipping through. Strained and tight was the best way to describe the tone, Goldie didn't seem ready to back down though, saying carefully, like he was the one talking to a bear.

"Not like this you aren't, you need to calm down"

"Evan. Move." Fritz was very uncomfortable, as he watched as a faint tremble went through the bear's body, as he shot an uncomfortable glance over to the other two, Foxy looked down right concerned, his hand tightening into an almost audible clench, while Jeremy looked vaguely ill. Fritz gritted his teeth and found himself speaking before he could help it, stepping in closer.

"Mike, look, you need to explain what's happening, we can sort something out, how do you know-" Mike's head whipped over to look at Fritz and for a single moment it was like he forgot how to breath as the black inky voids of nothing in Mike's eyes meet his own, two beads of white in place of pupils meeting his gaze. The last time he had seen that on a human had been when Jeremy was being hurt by Spring Bonnie, this was somehow nearly as terrifying as he took a step back as the man in front of him gritted out the words.

"They came to my house, they took him from me, and I am going to go get him back, if you try and stop me, I'll stop you" Fritz... had the very distinct impression that the man wasn't kidding, as he gulped, taking a solid step back, his heart hammering more than it should, he tried to say something, but Mike was already moving again, turning to just brush past the bear only to be stopped in his tracks as Goldie spoke up in a much softer voice.

"Mikey... You're scaring me" Mike froze in place, standing there, almost like he was suddenly stuck there, before his hands, tightened into fists, trembled before he finally said.

"I-... It's him, Evan, I-"

"I know. But if you rush in then you're going to get yourself and everyone in there hurt or worse" Mike's entire frame was shaking now, as he slowly tilted before basically falling against the bear, who stumbled for a second before pressing back to hold him up, letting the man lean on him, as everything went quiet for a long, long second, before Mike said quietly, almost to quietly for Fritz, who was still pretty close by, to hear.

"I'm sorry for scaring you" The bear murmured something back that Fritz couldn't catch, before Mike leaned away, seemingly taking a moment to compose himself before turning around, Fritz was very glad to see the blue and white of his eyes this time instead of the nightmare they had been before, as Mike said sharply.

"Someone call Phone Guy, we need him to get here now, and we need to start working on a plan for how we're going to break into Freddy's"

"You're what now?" Everyone turned back to look at the entrance where Charlie now was standing, as Fritz winced a bit at the poor timing, while Mike just sighed, his entire frame was still wracked with tension, but he seemed back to his normal self... Mostly.

"Hey Charlie..." Mike paused, before finally, with gritted teeth, went into it, about how someone had broken into his place, about the black bear animatronic that had been outside of the warehouse, and then his own home. How Mari was missing. Charlie didn't take that last part well, Fritz only listened long enough that it was his business, moving out of the conversation, more being guided by Jeremy, when Charlie had started shouting about Mike letting her brother getting taken.

Fritz pretended to not notice how the massive man flinched at and under every accusation until Goldie had moved in to stop her.

Finally though, the three seemed to settle down with Charlie needing to take a seat before she started to freak out again, while the other two rejoined the group fully. Goldie speaking up.

"I think it's about time you told us what's happening over there Michael... And for us to make a plan to get the others back" The man looked tense, glancing around at everyone present for a long moment, before just sighing, reaching up and rubbing his forehead for a second, and finally beginning to speak.

"You're right... It's complicated, and I need to go back for a second to really explain it all... Everyone remembers the mess that was that bounce palace place right? The one with Balloon Boy as the mascot? Well, Balloon Boy had shut itself off and moved on after Purple Guy was dealt with, it's why the owner of that place replaced him with a frankly horrific replacement, and... Sold the body off to a 'collector' I got the guy's number after... some extra investigating, but the number was disconnected. I kind of just forgot about it to be honest, but when Phone Guy brought up the fact that the new Freddy's asked and then bought that Balloon Boy, and along with what he said Circus Baby mentioned about how she got lured there and what we suspected about the animatronics being trapped there...

I think Freddy's has been going around and collecting animatronics for a while now, ones they suspect are possessed, this 'Collector' heard about the bounce palace's weird balloon boy and got it, but the soul in there had already left so it was just a broken bot, but then they were told of another one and got that one to, yet from what Phone Guy said, they weren't interested in any of the other ones, like a new animatronic that wouldn't have had the chance of having a soul in it, those 'rockstars'.

Of course I don't know the end result of it all, but they managed to attract Circus Baby to the location, and we know this happened a while ago, so they probably suspected that AR had more, hence them going there and picking up the other two animatronics that were present, that bellora, and Ennard hiding in the freddy... I bet they've been waiting on raiding our place last. I was looking over the footage, that black bear, it came here first, did... something, I bet it's something like what we were talking about, some program activation that leads an animatronic to it. Because no one was here, nothing happened... I don't know if they came over to the Cove or not and if they did why it didn't work on you two, the cameras were taken down and if someone showed up you would have mentioned it by now... Maybe because the both of your codes have been pretty much broken or just minimal enough there wasn't enough to trigger anything. Mari though... He's still filled with sound based response code"

The man trailed off at that point, the silence filling everyone with dread, as Fritz was struck with more than a little horror at what he was being told, from the sounds of things, if Mike was even partially right about all of this, this whole mess had been in the works for a long time now, Freddy's had been on it's way back to haunt them for months and months now without them ever knowing. Plotting this all...

"How would they know Sam was at your house though?" That was a good question from Charlie, even though it took Fritz a second to remember who Sam was in this context, the poor teen was not taking any of this well, not that Fritz could say he was doing much better, missing the way that the two animatronics shot the girl a look over the name used, even as Mike explained it.

"We were too complacent to think that just because we were looking into Freddy's, Freddy's wouldn't be looking into us. We've tried our best to be careful, but I've had the whole cast here at the Cove rotate in and out of my living room more than a few times over the last few months, it wouldn't be a hard thing to guess that I might have someone with me" The man looked angry again, his fists clenched into tight, shaking fists, but he seemed to be keeping a cap on it for the time being. Jeremy was the one with the next question.

"What about the others then? I mean, well, Bonnie in this case? Do you think...?" Mike grimaced.

"You should take the van and move him over to the Cove or here in the warehouse. He's a lot newer and we haven't done anything to turn down or remove any extra code in him from my knowledge, if Foxy and Evan aren't affected by the code for the reason they just are too old to be affected by it, they'll be the best to keep an eye on him and make sure nothing goes wrong. We don't even know how big of a signal it is, if it slowly got Circus Baby from across the entire town. Better to not risk it. Now, we need to think of a plan"

The sudden switch of gears wasn't wholly unexpected, but Mike seemed to have already gotten his plan sorted, as he just kept talking, bulldozing over any other person who might have had a thought about bringing something up as an idea.

"Jeremy, there's a tarp around here, find it before you get Bonnie, we're waiting until the place is empty, so nightfall. From there put that tarp over the van so the decals are hidden, we're going to use that to move the animatronics. We'll go, I'll get Phone Guy to bring me inside, I find them and get them all out into the van, and then we bring them back here. Simple enough, you call me though if anything goes wrong or if someone else shows up" His tone didn't exactly broker much room for argument, but Fritz slowly had to ask after a moment of silence.

"Are you sure that's a good idea? I mean, it kind of sounds too simple" Mike just shook his head.

"No, crime is very simple, complicating it never goes anywhere good. The only reason we weren't doing something before now was because it wasn't worth it to draw any suspicion on us while we didn't know what Freddy's was up to, now we know they're going around collecting sentient animatronics and no matter what the reason for it is, it's not going to be a good one. The rules have changed, they're ready to do something, that's the only reason they would risk stealing my puppet from me all of a sudden" Fritz... was sure he wasn't the only one who heard that word slip on that last part, but before he could point it out or even really think about it, Foxy was speaking up.

"So you're just going to handle it yourself then? I should go along!"

"I'll have Jeremy and Phone Guy with me, and just because it might not be as effective on you as the others, doesn't mean it might not still do something, it's not worth the risk" Charlie was the next to speak, her tone rough from being onslaught with so much information that she didn't know how what tone to use. Fritz could relate.

"I should be there though! He's my brother!" Mike just shut that down, saying back quickly.

"I'm not going to let anything happen to Mari, to any of them" He said it with confidence, like there was no other answer he was willing to accept, and at the end of the day, Fritz was sure that's all Mike would strive for, nothing less. It didn't change the hurt look in harlie's eyes, nor the sharp, scathing, and pain words that came from her.

"You're the one who let my brother get kidnapped!" It was like Mike had been punched, the stoney exterior, the no nonsense look and almost too forceful personality he had slapped on as he basically decided on his own what they were going to do vanished into a look of genuine pain… A look that sharply flashed into something much more volatile.

"I-" Whatever Mike as about to say to Charlie was clearly something that shouldn't be said as he visibly controlled himself at the last possible second, backing down, and reminding them all just how close to the edge Mike was, making Fritz himself wonder just how good of an idea it was for the man to be doing this, "I'll get him back, trust me, I care about him just as much as you do"

Jeremy spoke up, interrupting whatever harsh remark Charlie could have had planned, instead asking much more concerned.

"Are you sure you're the best for this Mike?" Mike just nodded.

"I'm the only one all three in there know" Jeremy brought up another point that Fritz had completely missed, and hastily spoke up about to add to the list of things they already needed to think about.

"What if there's more animatronics in there? One's we don't know about"

"Then I'm the one who knows how to handle enraged animatronics the best" Fritz couldn't say anything about that, the man had a point, which made him think of something else, as his eyes drifted down to the bag in the man's hand still, asking.

"Is that what's in the bag?" The man sighed, looking down at the item still in his hand as well, before nodding.

"If I have to, I'll be able to defend myself. Besides, I'm, like, fifty-fifty on if I can even die or not anymore, it's frankly less risky for me than the rest of you" Fritz wasn't overly sure he agreed with that idea, and it was clear no one else was overly happy with that, but he couldn't bring himself to volunteer at the moment either. Even as he watched as Charlie getting ready to say something else when Foxy, surprisingly spoke up.

"Follow me lass, we should talk" Everyone watched as while Charlie didn't particularly follow, more being dragged off as she yelped in surprise, as the two walked off to another area, Goldie shifted a bit, clearly wondering if he should follow after them, before shifting back to look at Mike.

"Are you sure this is the best idea? It's Marionette, he could get himself out if he thought he needed to"

"If he could, he'd have been there when I woke up, I bet whoever it is knows about his shutdown code. This is to planned for them to be sloppy about it, the people at Freddy's knew about what songs kept him asleep, one of them could have been asked"

"You didn't answer my first question" Mike let out a small, painfully short huff lacking any sort of humor, as he said back plainly.

"I don't really care if it's a good idea or not Evan, I'm not leaving him in there, not for a second longer than I need to. This plan will work if nothing goes wrong and I'll make it work anyways if it does" Fritz got the distinct impression that the bear was the only reason that the man had been convinced at all to not charge in there right this second. Something that Mike clearly was struggling still to hold himself back on. Fritz felt the need to chime in quickly, before Mike got a bit to wound up.

"It'll work out, it's just a few hours until it's dark, listen, I'll call Scott and get him caught up on the plan, I, uh, think you should probably sit down or something in the meantime. All this stress isn't going to help anything" The man let out a harsh bitter huffing sound, saying something before he seemed to realize he was speaking.

"Oh shut the hell up" Everyone seemed stunned by that, even Mike himself as Fritz felt sort of like he had been punched in the gut, that dismissive and frankly hurtful string of words hadn't been expected and somehow made them hit a lot harder as he just stared at Mike who after a second just grimaced, looking away, uncomfortably before saying tersely, "Sorry... I'm... I'll be back"

He stalked off right after that as Fritz still just stood there, mouth gaping a bit in shock still as Goldie rushed off after the man, while Jeremy said awkwardly at Fritz's side.

"He, uh, didn't mean that, it's just... Well, imagine if it was Janet that got taken," Fritz highly doubted his girlfriend and the man's roommate being taken would have gotten the same level of response, no matter how close of friends they were... Right?, "Not to mention everything with Ennard and his sister... I think this is what broke the camel's back... I- I don't have a good feeling about this"

Fritz... hadn't really forgotten about the apparent sister situation, and he could certainly understand just why that would be weighing on Mike's mind, but something knotted up in his chest anyways, as he said with a bit of a more huffy bordering on snide tone.

"As long as he can keep himself under control" He didn't really mean that, but... He had seen Mike on that verge before, more than once, more than most of the others here, known what that rush of mess and getting himself in trouble had nearly led them all to the last time they got involved with Freddy's. It made something twist and bubble with nerves in his stomach, an ugly feeling he couldn't shake.

It didn't help that it felt like he was powerless to do anything, Goldie had convinced the man to hold off until nightfall, but the man also clearly didn't care about repercussions at the moment, and nothing Fritz had said even seemed to register to the man. That blind single minded drive to do something that been as big of a boon as a curse, it had gotten Mike killed once already, and dragged the rest of them through hell without any of them really knowing what they were signing up for before, and it felt a lot like that again now, a year later.

It made him very uncertain on if this was a good idea at all... But Fritz also knew more than anything it didn't matter what he thought, Mike was going to do this anyways, Goldie only managed to hold him off from an instant action, and the only other person who could convince him wasn't here, because of Freddy's. Fritz had no ability to convince Mike to do anything else. The only thing he could do was get out of the way.

That sense of powerlessness really didn't help, but if this was the only thing he could do... He glanced over to Jeremy before saying in a hint of apprehension.

"You should go get Bonnie, I need to call Janet, let her know what's happening, and then tell Scott the plan he just got roped into" Jeremy had a grime look on his face, but nodded quickly enough, turning away and heading out to the van parked outside, as Fritz rallied his nerves for a moment, before hitting call.

He still wasn't even the one taking the risks, he had no right to feel like this... That just made the feelings even worse.

A reaction chapter to the events of the last one as well as getting the audience and other characters on track as to what is happening, but a very important one, before all the excitement happens, because oh boy the next chapter... It's gonna be good.

Still, this one was a fun one, because Mike has finally snapped and entered into what I lovingly refer to as 'Done with everyone's bullshit' mode. All it took was his father's body going missing, his sister's identity reveal, Freddy's coming back, and his boyfriend being kidnapped... Well when you put it like that it kind of makes sense about why he's ready to just break everything in his path to get this over with and the people he wants safe.

Not to say he's being healthy about it, he's barely holding on right now from just swinging at whatever's closest, he's snapping at his friends, barley holding back on just rushing out the door and finding the closest Freddy's employee to beat the hell out of, and literally almost gave Evan a panic attack from tone of voice alone.

Mike, and I genuinely believe this, is a good person, that does not mean his anger has not been the biggest source of problems in his life. And right now... Well, if we're looking at the track record of what happens when Mike's temper blows, whatever happens next is certainly going to be a sight isn't it?

Also, that weird eye thing... Eh, I'm sure it's nothing, bet there hasn't been minor details and mentions of weirdness there for the last forty chapters or so. Who do you think I am? Someone who foreshadows things? Nah, couldn't be...

Also, also, I have to say, while I am dedicated at this point to the Bit of not mentioning a certain someone by name until their actual reveal, I loved the comments on last chapter over a freaking eye twitch. How are they a favorite when they haven't even had a line yet? I suppose the same can be said about canon for them as well, but still, it's really funny. Anyways, next time, all the trauma as we shift into gear for the big hurrah, but for right now... See ya!