A/N: Hey, guys. Sorry for the longer wait. I'm gonna be honest…I was completely burned out for a while. I just could not get any motivation or drive to write chapters for this fic in general, and it didn't help that I was super busy in real-life and that prevented me from doing any FNaF-related research for this fic. Even when I decided to focus my attention on this fic, it took me a good long time to actually get my thoughts together and figure out what I wanted to do. But we did get there eventually, and now we can finally proceed.
Anyways, it's been a long time since we talked about the Pizzaplex, hasn't it? I think it's time for the Schmidt family to return to Fazbear Entertainment's latest and greatest project…and oh boy, are they in for a shock when they see just how drastically the restaurant has changed.
DeathClaw: The problem with the idea of Charlie being "Cassidy but better" is that she also has the mantle of leadership of the ghost kids while they're in the Pizzaplex. This sounds like a positive at first, until you realize that Charlie will need to regularly give advice and delegate important tasks to the ghost kids, and if she's too busy screwing with animatronics, there's a higher chance that she'll miss something important or make a costly mistake. She might be able to do the same job as Cassidy, but she's got many more things she needs to worry about.
ThePencilDude and Guest: I deliberately avoid making a clear depiction of Heaven since I don't think anything I could write could give the Kingdom of God proper justice. And while I think your ideas are good ones, I'm not sure I have the time or the motivation right now to write additional side chapters right as we're about to enter Security Breach.
Also, while I'm probably not going to write a dedicated chapter to it, it's probably safe to assume that the families of the ghost kids pleaded to God for mercy. And it's also probably safe to assume that this was a factor for why God chose to send the ghost kids back down to Earth and Mike to atone for their sins. Although I personally choose to believe that He was always going to give them another chance regardless.
Chapter 206 – Return to the Pizzaplex Part 1
It was about one month after the ghost kids had started training their powers when Mike finally got the call. The moment Mike saw the caller ID on his phone, he knew immediately that the time had come.
"They're finally calling us NOW?" Gabe asked incredulously. "We've been training for almost a month! I thought they'd call us way sooner than that!"
Fritz rolled his eyes. "It's Fazbear Entertainment," she pointed out. "What the hell did you expect?"
"Yeah, asking them to do things quickly and efficiently was probably too much to expect from them," Jeremy acknowledged.
"Guys, be quiet so Dad can talk to them!" Susie interrupted.
Mike gave her a grateful nod as his kids fell silent and he allowed the call to go through. "Hello?" he asked.
"Mr. Schmidt," an unfamiliar voice (decidedly not Mr. Averus) replied, "my name is Mr. Raugelan. I'm calling on behalf of Fazbear Entertainment, since I was told you were expecting a call from us regarding the Mega Pizzaplex."
"Yes, that is correct," Mike replied, keeping his voice polite but carefully neutral. No need to openly display his hatred of the company when it wasn't warranted. "How can I help you?"
"I am pleased to report that we have finally finished our furnishing and developing the Mega Pizzaplex," Mr. Raugelan explained. "According to my superiors, you made it very clear that you wanted a second tour of the Mega Pizzaplex once we finished it, shortly before we opened it to the public. "I've called to schedule the appointment."
"I'm glad to hear that your bosses remembered," Mike replied. "What times do you have available?"
"Well, Mr. Schmidt, since we are entering the final stages before the Grand Opening, we were thinking the sooner the better," Mr. Raugelan replied. "Are you able to come by either this week or next week?"
"I happen to have a completely free schedule," Mike answered calmly. "Does Friday morning work for you? Say…10 AM?"
"That should work perfectly," Mr. Raugelan affirmed. "Friday morning at 10 AM. Do you remember the address of the Pizzaplex or do you need a reminder?"
"Oh, I remember the address just fine," Mike reassured him, as though he would ever forget it. "Thank you very much for the call. I should you warn you, however, that I fully expect the fire exits to still be fully accessible to the public. If I find that they've been locked behind VIP and staff access like they used to be, there will be…consequences," he finished the word with a hint of menace.
"I can assure you, Mr. Schmidt, that nothing has happened to the fire exits since your last visit," Mr. Raugelan assured him. "We will see you at Friday morning."
"Sounds good to me," Mike replied, before hanging up the phone and turning to the ghost kids. "I bet you can guess what that was all about?"
"Yeah," Liz answered with a nod of her head. "We're going back to the Pizzaplex on Friday, right?"
"That's right," her father confirmed. "We're finally gonna see what it really looks like now that they've finished building and decorating the place up."
"I don't know whether to be nervous or excited," Susie admitted. "I mean, I know Glitchtrap and his possession victim are probably in there and gonna try to ruin things, but the Pizzaplex itself did look kinda cool based on what we saw."
"That could be a bad thing, though," Jeremy pointed out. "Cause if there's something dangerous in there, then people might get distracted by how cool it looks and not realize something's wrong until it's too late."
"That's a good point," Mike commented, before sighing. "Unfortunately, I'm not directly involved with the Pizzaplex like I was with the Special Delivery project. If there's something very obviously wrong, like a blatant and horrible safety violation, I can put pressure on Fazbear Entertainment to fix it. But we don't have the absolute authority and influence to fix or correct something solely based on bad vibes. At least not without getting Nightmare involved."
"And I don't think we should call on the Nightmares unless we absolutely have to," Charlie added grimly. "Even if Nightmare is an honest partner and ally, we've already seen that he tends to react to the problems caused by Fazbear Entertainment with extreme solutions. And we've already seen how that can cause more problems than it solves…it's the reason why Dad had to take over the Special Delivery project in the first place, after all."
"Calling on Nightmare for help shouldn't be anything other than a last resort," Mike agreed. "Not just because he has extreme reactions, because he doesn't take kindly to having his time wasted."
"Glad we can all agree on that, at least," Gabe remarked.
"How much do you think the Pizzaplex has changed since we last saw it?" Cassidy wondered. "The building was huge but there wasn't really all that much inside it!"
Liz smiled humorlessly. "I guess the only way we're gonna find out is to show up and see what's in there, right?"
A Few Days Later…
The moment the Pizzaplex first appeared in their line of sight, the Schmidt family could immediately that it had transformed drastically from the incomplete, rather drab-looking building that they had first seen months ago.
Granted, this was to be expected. Fazbear Entertainment had had several months to furnish and develop what was supposed to be their greatest and most ambitious project yet. It would have been both extremely disappointing and an even more damning failure on Fazbear Entertainment's part if they had nothing to show for several months of work. But the Schmidts were both shocked and reluctantly impressed at how much the exterior of the building had transformed.
No longer was the building a drab, unremarkable gray structure that wouldn't have been able to be distinguished from any mall. Now, there the front of the Pizzaplex had a huge neon-light circular sign attached on the top that flashed with multiple vibrant colors like pink and blue. In the center of the circle were all four of the "mainline" animatronics that the ghost kids had seen in their espionage mission, all of them smiling and laughing as they held their instruments in their hands. The words "Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex" were blazoned proudly above and below the animatronics, with two neon lightning bolts flashing next to the latter two words.
The flashy sign wasn't the only major modification that had been made to the Pizzaplex's exterior. The entire exterior of the building had been decorated with patterns of bright pink and blue, matching the color of the sign. Multiple lights had been attached to the walls as well, hanging over and highlighting posters that showcased the different animatronics that were to make up the main cast of the Mega Pizzaplex's animatronic band. And there was now an entire new canopy in front of the building's main entrance, under which cars could drive and drop people off. While they couldn't see any more obvious modifications from the distance they were at, the Schmidt family could all easily recognize just how much the Pizzaplex had transformed in the months that had passed.
"Holy shit…" Fritz breathed. "Is this really the same building we went to before?"
"I know, it looks completely different now!" Susie gasped, clearly thinking along the same thought process as Fritz.
"Okay, I have to give Fazbear Entertainment some credit here," Jeremy reluctantly admitted. "They really made the building look a hell of a lot cooler than it looked before."
"We have to check out the inside of the building, though," Mike pointed out as they drew closer. "There's no point in the outside of the building looking really cool if the inside still looks like shit."
"Good point," Liz acknowledged as they approached the parking lot. The lot itself was completely empty, indicating that the building itself wasn't staffed today and that the representative from Fazbear Entertainment hadn't arrived yet.
This suited Mike just fine, who had wanted a few moments alone to talk with his ghost kids anyway before anyone else arrived. "All right, we're a bit early, so let's talk strategy while we still have the chance," he decided as he parked the car, shut it off, and turned to face his kids. "Anybody remember what are goals here are today?"
"We're here to get information," Gabe answered immediately. "We're trying to get ourselves familiar with the inside of the Pizzaplex as much as possible so that we know what to expect from the environment when we fight against Glitchtrap."
"We're also here to make sure there isn't anything obviously unsafe!" Cassidy chimed in. "Like making the fire exits are still open to the public like they should be!"
"That's essentially correct," Mike affirmed. "I don't think we're going to fight Glitchtrap's possession victim today, if there's literally nobody else here in the parking lot and our tour guide's a male. But there IS a chance that we might get to see the new animatronics, and if that's the case, this would be the perfect time for us to get our first good look at them."
"We also want to look for any tools that might help us," Liz added. "Like knowing where the cameras are in each room."
"Also helpful to know," Mike agreed. "With all that being said, keep in mind that there's only a limit to so much I can do. If Fazbear Entertainment decided to be unfathomable imbeciles and lock all the fire exits behind VIP and employee access again, for example, that is something I absolutely can and will do something about. But if, say, one of you wanders off into a private employee-restricted area and finds something unsafe," he shook his head, "that's not something I can technically do anything about right now because there's no logical reason for me to know about that problem existing to begin with. If Fazbear Entertainment realizes that I know way too much about the Pizzaplex's problems without a good reason for knowing that much, they can accuse or even try to get me arrested for trespassing."
The ghost kids all shuddered at the idea of that scenario playing out. "Yeah, we can't let that happen," Charlie mumbled. "Apart from the obvious problem of Dad getting arrested, we'd be at such a huge disadvantage if that happens that it's just not worth it."
"Yep, this tour is more for reconnaissance than anything else," Mike summarized for them all. "Remember, the chances of us getting a dramatic and humongous victory here today are so ridiculously low that they're straight-up not worth considering."
The ghost kids barely had time to give their own affirmations as a car started to approach them from the entrance to the parking lot. The ghosts had just enough time to check that they were fully invisible and inaudible to anyone outside of Mike's telepathy as the door to the other car opened and two men got out. Inwardly, Mike felt a slight bit of relief, as the fact that their escorts were male meant that he couldn't be Glitchtrap's possession victim trying to lure him into a trap.
Mike got out of his own van, the ghost kids following behind him. "Good morning," he greeted the two men with the same cordial but otherwise neutral tone that he had used over the tone. "Would one of you happen to be Mr. Raugelan?"
"That would be me," one of the men raised his hands. He was a rather thin and lanky man with a bald head with a white-blond beard and mustache. "I'm Matthew Raugelan, and the man next to me is Stephen Leelurd. We're the ones who will be taking you on your personal tour through the Mega Pizzaplex today."
"Good to meet you," Mike replied, shaking hands with the two men. "Are we ready to begin?"
"Yes, let's get started right away," Mr. Raugelan agreed, gesturing towards the main entrance of the Pizzaplex. The Schmidts followed the two men towards the doors, and as they got closer they could see a mural painted over the entrance that proudly displayed pictures of all four of the main members of the animatronic band on it.
"Well, the building certainly looks a lot livelier than the last time I was here," Mike remarked.
Mr. Raugelan smiled. "But of course," he replied smoothly. "We've worked extensively on the Pizzaplex since you last graced its halls. You won't believe just how much has changed since the last time you were here."
He guided Mike into the lobby, the same room that they had entered in the first time. And everyone's eyes widened in shock as they took in the room they had just entered. The last time they had seen the atrium, the only feature worthy of note had been the golden statue of Glamrock Freddy. It had been an impressive and beautiful piece of art…in an empty room made of drab, gray stone.
Now, the atrium itself had undergone a similarly glamorous transformation. The boring gray stone walls had been replaced, or rather covered, with sleek black metal. Lines of neon blue and pink light also streaked through the walls and stretched from the floor to the ceiling, while the floor had been renovated to feature a checkerboard appearance with different areas of white-and-black marble, copper, and metal. As they passed through the multiple turnstiles that were now present in front of the lobby itself, they could see that to the right were electronically-made posters of Glamrock Freddy and Glamrock Chica that covered entire sections of the wall, along with a blue and pink neon sign displaying "Glamrock Gifts" hanging above a doorway. There were also now multiple palm trees flanking the statue of Glamrock Freddy, placed on the stairs leading up to the second floor. The entire lobby now had a distinctly modern if not outright futuristic appearance, properly matching the glamorous statue of Glamrock Freddy that had previously stuck out like a sore thumb.
"Okay…" Susie was the first to find her thoughts. "I hate to say it, but this actually pretty cool," she admitted.
"A hell of a lot better than what we saw the first time we came in here," Fritz agreed. "Even that golden statue of Glamrock Freddy looks a lot shinier than what I remember."
Liz took a look around the lobby. "Nothing here looks wrong so far," she reported.
"I didn't expect there to be, but keep in mind that this is only the first room in the entire building," Mike pointed out. "If they somehow managed to fuck even that up, then that would be so spectacularly incompetent it would be downright depressing." Privately, Mike also wondered if the presence of the turnstiles was strictly necessary, although he didn't have enough of a compelling argument against them to even raise the topic to begin with.
"Where would you like to begin, Mr. Schmidt?" Mr. Raugelan asked, while Mr. Leelurd looked on silently.
"Let's take a look at that huge auditorium I was in the last time," Mike suggested. "I want to see how much it's changed.
"Certainly," Mr. Raugelan replied. He guided Mike past the Glamrock Freddy statue and up the stairs, allowing him and the ghost kids to get a good look at all the changes that had been made since they the last time they had been there.
"Look, guys!" Jeremy suddenly exclaimed, pointing in the direction they had come. All the ghost kids (Mike only barely managed to avoid following the command on reflex) whirled around to see that hanging above the entrance were the heads of the four main animatronic members, made entirely out of differently colored neon lights.
"Okay, that's really cool," Cassidy admitted. "There definitely wasn't anything like that back in the old pizza restaurants."
"It feels like Fazbear Entertainment really threw everything they had into this," Charlie remarked. "I'll give them credit for that, at least. The effort really does show."
Mr. Raugelan escorted the Schmidts into the atrium. This time, everyone's (including Mike's) jaws outright dropped as they beheld the main room of the Pizzaplex, which had undergone an even more dramatic transformation than the lobby. The room itself had been recolored to be dark purple with blue accents, and the entire room was filled with different kinds of lights, the most notable being a neon star in the ceiling that most strongly illuminated the entire room. The floor of the atrium was covered in a giant purple carpet that featured the heads of different members of the animatronic bands, on which there were countless long tables covered with tabletops on which numerous party hats had been placed next to chairs with blue stars forming their backs. At the far end of the room, they could see the neon circular logo of the Pizzaplex hanging proudly above the stage, which had also been properly decorated.
It wasn't just the party room itself that had undergone a major decoration, however. There had been several entryways to the different features and playrooms of the Pizzaplex which all connected to the atrium, and these also now had their own unique signs. The entrance to Bonnie Bowl on the third floor, for example, now displayed a large wall mural depicting a smiling Glamrock Bonnie spinning a bowling ball on his finger. The entrance to Monty's Gator Golf now featured a large dark-green sign with Monty's name colored in a swampy scale-like pattern, representing the gator who was in charge of the golf course beyond the sign. And the entrance to MAZErcise was a multicolored rainbow neon sign hanging over the entryway, accompanied by the words "Chica's Delicious Path to Fitness!" right underneath it. Each attraction had been given its own unique sign and symbol, which served as a precursor to highlight the nature of the attraction that it led to. And together, the impact of the atrium's transformation was nothing less than awe-inspiring, and even outright overwhelming, for the ghost kids who had seen what the atrium had once looked like several months ago.
"Oh my God…" Cassidy exclaimed. "Is this really the same room that we saw a few months ago? It looks completely different now!"
"I know, right?" Gabe agreed, sounding just as impressed as his sister. "This really does look like a proper party room now!"
"And look at all those signs!" Liz declared, pointing at the one in front of the Fazer Blast. "There's so much personality in them!"
"Well, I can clearly see the work you put into all this," Mike acknowledged, simultaneously giving his reluctant approval while also secretly agreeing with his invisible ghost kids. "But we're here to take care of some business. I'm not going to micromanage every single thing about this place, but if I see something blatantly wrong, I AM gonna call it out and expect it to be fixed," he warned the two men.
"We expected as much based on your previous agreements with our management," Mr. Raugelan acknowledged, sounding noticeably annoyed but not outright disagreeing.
"Start inspecting the Atrium and see if there's anything wrong here," Mike telepathically sent the ghosts his command, who began flying around the atrium and inspecting it without needing another word to be said. He also climbed down the stairs to the atrium proper and began inspecting its different parts such as the signs and tables. With all the crazy lighting being featured in the Atrium, Mike was more than a little worried that he would find a major electrical hazard.
Yet to his surprise, Mike couldn't find any oblivious safety flaws in the Atrium. No long trail of wires stretched across the floor that someone could trip across, no plugs filled with an excessive amount of cords that could easily catch on fire. The ghost kids were no more successful at finding safety flaws than their father was. They might not have had the experience or knowledge base that Mike had, but there weren't any red flags that caught their attention in the Atrium.
Mike made a big show of inspecting the different aspects of the Atrium (although the ghost kids helped save a lot of time in practice), before walking up to the stage. "This stage looks rather empty, doesn't it?" he commented idly. "I was half-hoping to see the new animatronics on here."
Mr. Raugelan smiled. "Ah, but you can, Mr. Schmidt," he declared proudly. "For you see, this stage now doubles as an elevator which can raise and lower to Parts and Services, bringing the animatronics up for the adoring crowds to cheer on. Allow me to demonstrate."
He took out a remote and pressed a button on it. Immediately, the stage floor separated into two parts that moved to the side as machinery began to whir in the distance. The heads of four animatronics began to rise from the depths, and the ghosts all gasped as they personally beheld the four members of Freddy Fazbear's newest band for the very first time.
Glamrock Freddy was the clear leader of the band as was appropriate, and he embodied the essence of a rock star in a way that Gabe's Rockstar Freddy animatronic just couldn't match. He had a punk-themed design with light blue face paint, red shoulder pauldrons, spiked bracelets, and a red earring in his left ear. The way he was painted almost gave Glamrock Freddy a jaguar or lion-like appearance, yet despite this he still seemed warm and charismatic rather than scary. There was really no other way to describe it – Glamrock Freddy looked downright cool, a descriptor that no previous version of Fazbear Freddy could truly claim.
The other animatronics were similarly impressive, each with a very distinct and unique appearance while still conforming nicely to the whole "Glamrock" theme. Glamrock Chica was a modernized, more overtly girly version of the classic Chica animatronic. Unlike the classic Chica, Glamrock Chica was a white bird with pink and purple body segments to represent a sleeved leotard, and she had purple makeup over her face and eyes. The updated and modernized version of Chica held a blue and pink guitar in her hands, giving her the role of guitarist that hadn't applied to the original.
While Freddy and Chica might have been newer incarnations of familiar animatronics, the other two band members were completely new. The ghost kids recognized one of them as Montgomery or Monty Gator, a green alligator animatronic with purple shoulder pads, a red mohawk, and star-shaped glasses over his eyes. Unlike Chica, Monty carried a larger instrument that Mike recognized as a bass in his hands, signifying his role as the bassist of the band. Mike frowned as he saw that the gator's mouth was filled with white fangs, and that he had small black claws on his hands as well.
Fritz frowned as he looked more closely at Monty. "Uhh…are those safe?" the former Foxy inhabitant asked, pointing a finger at Monty's claws and fangs. "Those things look like they can tear an entire freaking wall down!"
It was a good point, and Mike didn't hesitate to point out Monty's claws and fangs to Mr. Raugelan and Mr. Leelurd on Fritz's behalf. "Excuse me. Don't those fangs and claws on Monty pose a major safety hazard to kids if they get close enough? I distinctly remember the Bite of 1983 being caused by a kid getting his head shoved into an animatronic's mouth, and this looks even worse!"
"Not to worry, Mr. Schmidt," Mr. Raugelan was quick to reassure him. "There will be strict rules in place to ensure that such a tragic accident can never happen again. Any touching of the four band members will be strictly prohibited, as is getting too close to them while they're on the stage. We have hired both security personnel and created multiple advanced security bots to roam the Pizzaplex and ensure that nobody can violate the rules and risk any tragic and horrible accidents."
Mike raised an eyebrow briefly at the mention of advanced security bots, but he still wasn't convinced, and crossed his arms to prove it. "And what if a security bot isn't around, or doesn't catch the problem in time?" he argued. "That gator's design is a disaster waiting to happen!"
"I see your point, Mr. Schmidt, but we've also taken measures with regards to the animatronics themselves," Mr. Leelurd spoke for the first time. "For one, we've designed Monty Gator's mouth structure so that he is physically incapable of stretching his mouth wider than a child's head," he explained. "We reviewed the designs for Fredbear from all the way back in 1983, and that animatronic was so large in scale that it's no wonder that a child could fit his head inside that old bear's mouth. Monty doesn't have that problem. And we have also softened up Monty's fangs so that the points aren't nearly as sharp as they look. The same is also true with Monty's claws, which we have already adjusted to be less sharp. The only real danger is if a child places their hand directly in Monty's mouth. Which shouldn't even be occurring in the first place, since children are strictly forbidden from touching them."
The man spoke with such confidence that Mike wished he could believe him. Part of him wanted to argue even further, but he would reserve final judgment until the Grand Opening of the Pizzaplex itself, when the place was actually full of kids and families. Mike turned his attention to the final Glamrock animatronic, Roxanne Wolf, who thankfully was much less hazardous in design compared to Monty Gator. The final animatronic was a gray female wolf with a long flowing mane of hair behind her head, with black makeup on her face and pink lipstick on her mouth. She had parts resembling a red crop top and pants, as well as purple arm and leg warmers. In sharp contrast to Glamrock Chica, Roxanne displayed a punk rock aesthetic and a tomboyish appearance, giving Mike the impression of being proud of who she was and what she was capable of. Roxanne also had a mouth filled with fangs, but thankfully her mouth and the fangs themselves were much smaller than Monty's, so Mike was much less concerned about her being dangerous compared to Monty, even if she did have green claws on her hands.
"Are we able to see these animatronics in action?" Mike asked. Part of him was genuinely curious about what they could do, but the larger and more cynical part of him was wondering if they could catch a possible malfunction or corruption in their programming early.
Mr. Raugelan shook his head. "Unfortunately, no, Mr. Schmidt," he replied apologetically. He sounded genuinely disappointed too, as though he were just as eager to show off the Glamrocks as Mike had been to see them. "They are still undergoing maintenance and programming optimizations. I will say, however, that one of the most important programming features for the Glamrock animatronics is that they have been specifically been programmed not to harm human beings, whether children or adults, in any way. This is a core aspect that will be incorporated into their personalities, and something new that we implemented to minimize the chances of any horrible accidents in the future."
"If they actually did that and did it right, then that's huge!" Susie exclaimed. "Fazbear Entertainment never cared enough to program something like that before!"
"Don't get too enthusiastic about it, though," Jeremy cautioned. "They probably only did it because they'd get into a lot of trouble if they didn't and a tragic accident happened. If they hadn't gone through all the scandals we put them through in the past couple of months, I doubt they'd have bothered."
"That programming also isn't nearly as reliable as you might think," Charlie added warily. "Even if we assume that Fazbear Entertainment got it completely right with no mistakes whatsoever, Glitchtrap's possession victim can screw it up anyway by taking that safety programming and either screwing with it or getting rid of it outright. And then we're back to having killer animatronics running around murdering people all over again."
Liz peered curiously at Roxanne Wolf. "I don't really sense anything…supernatural about these animatronics," she observed. "No faint ghost aura or anything. At the very least, I don't think the Glamrocks are possessed by anything."
"That's good to know," Mike replied telepathically. "We won't have to deal with animatronics being possessed by vengeful ghosts this time around, at least for the time being."
"Do you have any more questions or concerns, Mr. Schmidt?" Mr. Raugelan asked.
"Yeah, I've got one!" Gabe pointed at the stage. "That stage! Kids can just climb onto it, and there isn't anything to stop them! Not even a warning sign or anything! A kid could get close to an animatronic, or straight-up fall into the hole created on the stage when the doors open! What the hell?"
Mike scowled as he recognized the validity in his son's words, and verbalized them to the two Fazbear Entertainment representatives. "I could maybe let Monty Gator slide," he declared, "but this? Hell no."
"I see the problem," Mr. Raugelan acknowledged. "Do you have any suggestions?"
"Yeah, a few simple ones," Mike retorted immediately. "Put up a border made up of plexiglass around the edge of the stage. It doesn't have to be super big, just big enough that kids physically can't climb onto the stage. Hell, you could make it a part of the decorations by painting it pink and blue or some shit. And for the love of God, put up a list of rules on the stage or something! I haven't seen a single list of rules in this entire room!"
Mr. Raugelan and Mr. Leelurd looked at each other and nodded, with the latter taking a few notes on his phone. "We will pass on your suggestions to the board," Mr. Leelurd promised. "I agree with your assessment, Mr. Schmidt. It should be fairly straightforward and cheap to implement a plexiglass barrier to prevent children from climbing onto the stage.
Once again, Mike felt a strange combination of annoyance at how little Fazbear Entertainment cared about doing the right thing, and relief at the fact that they were more likely to actually do what they promised since they were being honest about their motivations. Meanwhile, the ghost kids were busy giving Gabe high-fives for pointing out the flaws with the stage.
"Great job, bro!" Fritz cheered. "I completely missed that."
"Yeah, nice job!" Cassidy agreed, before adding with a shudder. "Can you imagine what would've happened if somebody had climbed onto the stage and fallen in the hole that opened up?"
"Thanks, guys," Gabe sheepishly shrugged off the praise. "I'm just doing my part in making sure this place is as safe as possible."
"Good work indeed," Mike praised him through their mental link, "but don't get cocky or complacent. We only figured out and addressed one major problem so far. We've got a whole entire Pizzaplex to go through," he reminded them with a cautious tone, before adding grimly, "and the stage probably won't be the only major flaw that we find."
/
A/N: And there you have it, everyone. The first chapter of the Schmidt family's return inspection of the now-completed Pizzaplex. Glitchtrap and Vanny might not have gotten their hands on the place yet (as far as anyone knows), but there's still plenty of safety issues to be sorted out and carefully examined even without Glitchtrap's corruption in play.
The Schmidts also got their first glimpse of the Glamrock animatronics! Sadly they weren't able to actually see any of them in action, but even knowing what they look like in their (mostly) final forms is important. They were also able to recognize that Monty Gator is physically the most potentially dangerous animatronic…even though they have no clue just how dangerous Monty can actually be. I have certain plans for Monty…and I'll say is that they might not be what you expect.
Next chapter will continue with the Schmidts touring the Pizzaplex and pointing out any major flaws they can find. They absolutely don't want the Pizzaplex to already be dangerous enough BEFORE Glitchtrap shows up and starts screwing around with everything even further.
Please let me know what you think, and I hope you guys enjoyed!