Snapping out of her thoughts and finding that the others were squabbling, Charlie metaphorically took a deep breath, "Enough!"
Nearly as one, the other children quietened down for several moments, their arguing stopping. Until, that was, Fritz spoke up, "But, Charlie, I..."
Just raising a hand, Charlie gave him her version of a gentle look, "I know, Fritz. I understand that you believe that this is William. Believe me on that matter that I am not calling you a liar or anything. But, you must admit, that it is rather hard to believe that it could possibly be him considering everything else."
Looking down, Fritz mumbled a bit as he kicked some with his floating feet, "I mean... I know, but... he looks just like him..."
Very slowly, the Marionette gave a nod, "And I understand that, Fritz. But, too many have died due to us mistaking them for William."
Suzie then spoke up a little bit, "Um... Charlie? Maybe he used that Poryjuice thing you told us about and controlled them?"
Pausing briefly, Charlie considered the question even as Fritz gave a thankful look towards Suzie. Then, slowly the animatronic nodded, "That... is unfortunately a possibility as William did make use of both polyjuice and imperius before. Though I doubt that greatly in the case of the one we killed." Then, she shook her head a little bit, "However, that said? We should make sure first." Getting nods from the others, the witch turned towards Fritz, "Did you see his scars? Or maybe get a name?"
Frown on his face, Fritz grimaced a bit, "I mean... he was wearing this sweater and a coat. Couldn't really see any scars... but then, he could be hiding them somehow. As for a name?" His frown deepening, he thought back some and crossed his arms, "It was... Mike... something... Smith! That was it, Mike Smith!"
None of the noticed how the eldest among them paused at hearing that for several moments, her eye lights disappearing. Then, they returned back with a curious tone to her voice, "Mike Smith? That..." Suddenly, she frowned a little bit and looked down, "Hmm..."
An odd look, Jeremy then frowned himself, "Sounds like that one night guard we had. You know, the one that we had for more than a week before he got fired because he was messing with our AIs?"
Blinking, Charlie snapped out of her thoughts and turned towards him, "I... don't remember that..."
With a shrug, Gabe shook his head, "You were already gone by then, Charlie. But, I remember him, his name was Mike Schmidt." Then, he frowned a bit as he thought back with a grimace, "He looked a lot like him, William, I mean. Though... he also kind of looked like an older Fritz Smith too."
Upon hearing that, the Marionette jerked a little bit as she felt a little bit of fear go up her spine, 'No... it couldn't be...'
This time, her reaction was not missed by the others, with Jeremy frowning at her, "Charlie? What's wrong?"
Snapping out of her thoughts, Charlie shook her head, "It is just... William's mother-in-law was originally from Germany, and her last name was Schmidt. Which... I think she got changed to Smith when her parents immigrated to England just after the Second World War. And Mike... is short for Michael."
Rapidly blinking, Gabe blinked at that, "Wait, Michael? As in that guy you were friends with and was Evan's brother? Who, um..."
Voice quiet, the Marionette nodded, "Yes."
Each of the other ghosts glanced at one another before Suzie spoke up, tone unsure, "Um... I remember that Evan and Cassidy were really active in trying to get him. That was why we thought that it was William, especially as he looked a lot like him."
If she could have, Charlie would have chewed her lip a little bit, '... Please, Mike... do not have involved yourself in this...'
Unknown to her, elsewhere in the building, the man she was thinking of had just finished signing some paperwork that he then handed to the storage building's owner, "Here you go."
Flipping through the pages, the older man grunted a bit, "Looks good on my end, all that's left is the payment."
His eyebrow raised, Michael frowned a bit, "Okay, you want it by card or cash?"
Only shrugging, the other man shrugged, "Either or, don't rightfully care as long as it doesn't bounce."
With a nod, Michael reached into his wallet and pulled out a number of bills, "Here you go, five thousand straight up. I'll give the last two thousand once I confirm the contents of the storage unit being there."
Counting the bills given, the owner of the business gave a nod, "That's fine, as long as I get my money and you get that sh*t as far away from me as possible and as soon as possible."
Simply nodding, the FBI Agent hummed a bit as he put his wallet back, "Got to admit, I am surprised that you were so willing to part with it like this. Would have thought that you'd have one of those auctions for it, like you see on television."
A scoff escaping from him, the other man shook his head, "I'll level with you... practically no one with any sense in the area would buy any of what was in there knowing where it came from. Even before the whole sh*t about magic being real happened." Rolling his eyes, he shrugged some, "Was seriously considering just tossing it out into the trash considering everything. Only reason that I didn't, was that I heard through the grapevine about you. Better than that one dumb teen anyways."
Rather curious, Michael raised an eyebrow, "A teen? What teen?"
Disgusted look on his face, the owner sneered, "Dumb local teen wanted to make some sort of haunted house based off Freddy's. Only sixteen or something, so I told him to go and take a damn hike. f*cking sick."
Upon Michael's own face was a similarly disgusted expression, "You're joking... why the f*ck would someone do that?! Even if you discount all the urban legends, a bunch of kids went missing!" His expression only because more disgruntled, "You know what kid it was so that I can go and punch him?"
Only nodding, the older man pointed at him, "Nah, but I get where you're coming from. Had to hold back from slugging him myself." Then, he shrugged as he turned and grabbed a bunch of keys, "Anyways, might as well show you the place and what you just bought. Just remember, no buyer's remorse."
Amused, Michael chuckled a little as he followed behind, "No worries here." After a minute or two of silence as they continued to walk, however, he cleared his throat, "So, out of curiosity... what happened to the owner of the unit?"
Blinking due to not having expected the question, it took the other man a few seconds to reply, "Honestly? Don't know. Was owned by Henry Emily, who owned Fazbear's. Heard that his own daughter died and such." Frown on his face, he scratched his chin some, "Used to come by every few weeks muttering to himself and dragging this trunk with him, then leaving after a few hours all rumpled and such, like he had been doing some heavy work. Don't know what though." Then, the older man shook his head, "Anyways, stopped paying about two or so months ago, and hasn't been answering his mails."
Frown on his own face, Michael murmured some at that, "I see..." Internally, he continued, 'Hopefully, Uncle Henry is okay...' Suddenly, as they got close, he paused and looked around, "... Are you sure that there's no children here?"
Now pausing himself, the building owner glanced around as he felt the hairs on his arms prickle, "… I'm sure, there shouldn't be any children anywhere in the building today. Why?"
If anything, he broke out in a sweat as Michael frowned as he looked around, "I swear that I can hear kids somewhere nearby."
Only swallowing at that, the older man shook his head, "Can't hear anything myself. Might be a window open or something."
Considering that, Michael slowly nodded, "Makes sense, I guess…"
Meanwhile, at the same time, Jeremy flew into the giftbox with a hiss, "Guys! He can hear us!"
That caused the others to look at him with more than a little surprise on their faces. For her part, Charlie's eye lights dimmed in her version of a hooded gaze, "… That should not be possible. But if he can hear us… he might be able to see us." She then gave a small nod, "In that case, you all need to be careful and stay out of sight, understood."
Each of them nodded, though Jeremy had an odd look on his face, "He also made mention of knowing about magic? Both of them, this Michael guy and the building owner-"
Practically jumping, the others winced as Charlie's head hit the top of her gift box, causing the items above them to shift before she hit the ground, "What?!"
Rapidly blinking, the rabbit-earred ghost nodded, "Er, yeah? The old guy was making mention of how magic is known and stuff?"
Shaking her head, Charlie mumbled a bit, "But… how? What is going on out there…?"
With a shrug, Gabe shook his head, "Not a clue, Charlie. I mean… we heard mutters of some sort of war a few years back, just before the pizzeria closed down for good. Not many people showed up afterwards, and they blamed it on some war, but…"
A groan escaping from her, the Marionette rubbed her face, "Great… something's changed…" Just moments later, however, they all froze as they heard voices right outside the storage room that they were in. That was followed by the sound of keys and a lock being jiggled with the door soon opening up. Quietly whispering, Charlie gave them all a look, "Hide in the units next to ours, now!"
Once the others had quickly exited through the sides, she leaned back and her eyes went dim as she waited for whatever might come next.
It turned out that she did not need to wait that long as there was the sound of shuffling. Outside, Michael slowly made his way along past the various boxes and the like on the floor with a penlight shining as he checked some of the containers, "Hmm… some parts for various things… tools, looks like paperwork…"
Pausing at a filing cabinet, he noted looked around for a moment or two for a key. When he looked back at the owner, said man shook his head as he rubbed his arms, "Don't got any keys for that. You'll just have to find a way to open it yourself."
Simply shrugging at that, Michael grunted a bit, "No worries, I'll get someone in to take a look at the lock."
Upon spotting the gift box, he paused for a moment before making his way over as he examined it. The top of said gift box was covered in various heavy items, and there seemed to be clamps all along the top keeping it closed. Each clamp being held in place by a heavy duty lock, which made Michael frown some in thought. It was obvious that whoever made it wanted what was inside to stay inside.
Within said gift box, Charlie felt herself stiffen up as she heard the oh so familiar British accent. There were only really two people she knew of who had that accent with one other having a lighter version. One of those who had it was her murderer, and the other was her best friend.
Quickly, when a light shone in, she did the spirit version of squinting one's eyes closed, which caused the lights in her eyes to disappear. In reality, she could still see, somewhat, and thus it took everything for her to not react at the face she saw on the other side of the hole. A face that looked rather familiar, greatly resembling her killer's face. Yet…
Yet…
It was also different in many ways, such as the amount of stubble it had, the lack of scarring from a past springlock familiar, and the mop of brown hair. Also, the person had startling blue eyes that carried some warmth, not the cold, steel grey eyes of her killer. She continued to watch as the man examined her through the hole, light playing over her form. Then, he smiled and disappeared as she could hear footsteps, "Well, you definitely have it, the Puppet. So, as agreed, here is the other two thousand, I'll be taking everything."
From within the box, Charlie could hear the owner of the building grumble, "You don't need any help, right? Because I am not getting anywhere near that thing in there."
Lightly chuckling, the British accented voice then spoke up, "No, like I said, I already got a forklift that I can use to get this out of here."
Grunts came from the older man before he answered back, "Good. I'll leave you to it then."
Moments later, there was the sound of footsteps fading into the distance before the man mumbled a little, "Well… a lot more than I thought. Might as well get to it if I want to get home at a decent hour."
With that, another group of footsteps faded into the distance as well.
Of course, not long afterwards, Fritz reappeared in the giftbox followed by the others, "What the hell, Charlie! Did he… did that bastard just buy you!?"
Still stunned at that, Charlie slowly nodded, "… Apparently so?"
Arms crossed, Gabe scowled, "Fritz is right, he looks a lot like William."
Quickly snapping out of her thoughts, the Marionette looked around, "Look, I know how you all feel right now. But we're not going to do anything until we confirm things one way or the other."
Various scowls met her, but in the end they all nodded in agreement.
Not long afterwards, Michael returned with a reach truck that he had a pallet upon which he began placing the various lighter items, including the filing cabinets he found. Bit by bit, he took the various items out of the storage unit and transported them down to his cube van. One of the last things he took down was the gift box with the Puppet inside of it.
Finally done, he closed the door to the cube van and secured it before leaving.
________________________________________________________________________________
Poking his head through the roof of the storage area of the cube van, Fritz was looking around as it drove onwards. The ghost was looking around curiously at everything that he could see around them. Sure, they had seen some things through the windows of the pizzeria, and as well when they poked their heads out of the storage building that they had been in. But this was the first time that he really got to see the outside in the longest time.
Then, he spotted something and poked his head back down, "Guys! There's a bunch of tanks out here!"
Surprised, the other two boys soon joined him as well and, sure enough, there were damaged tanks being transported on flatbeds going in the opposite direction. Wincing at one tank, which was missing much of the back end, Jeremy pointed at it, "What do you think did that now?"
Frown on his face, Gabe shook his head some and shrugged, "No idea. And there's a lot of them." Then, he pointed at something else, "They're being escorted too by… I think that those are tanks too?"
Each of the boys curiously observed the IFVs that were moving along the road alongside the trucks before looking at each other in confusion as they wondered what was going on.
Upon feeling a tug, they ducked back down into the cube van's storage area where Suzie was sitting on Charlie's gift box while patting Sweetie, "Um, guys? What's going on up there?"
Inside of her box, Charlie also spoke up, "I'm wondering much the same myself. You said that there's actual tanks out there?"
Nodding as he floated down, Gabe had an odd look on his face, "Yeah, there was a number of them on trucks and they all looked damaged, some really badly. And there were other tanks, with wheels, moving alongside them on the roads."
Within the box, the Marionette's spirit blinked her eye lights, "Tanks? Damaged ones? What the heck is going on out there?"
Only shrugging, Jeremy shook his head some, "No clue at all."
Crossing his arms, Fritz furrowed his eyebrows, "Not even the first military stuff that I've seen. One of the train stops had a bunch of helicopters and planes on a train going by."
The ghosts there each gave each other confused and lost looks as they wondered what was going on. None of what they had just seen made any sense whatsoever. Poking his head into the cube van's cabin and keeping it behind Michael's seat, Gabe listened to the radio for a time before re-entering the storage area, "Uh… guys? There's news of some battle that happened just a few days ago north of Savannah in Georgia."
Staring for a moment, Jeremy looked at his long time friend in disbelief, "A… battle? In Georgia? Are you sure that you heard right?"
Just shaking his head, Gabe had a lost look on his face, "I know, but they were talking about it and… I don't know, they were mentioning some kind of battles in the Philippines and how the Caribbean is nearly secured from something called 'Abyssals'… No clue what those are."
Nervous looks were exchanged with one another as the spirit who once inhabited Freddy Fazbear continued. At one point, Charlie spoke up with a serious tone, "Gabe, go back… did you just say that the radio was talking about wizards and witches? And a dragon?"
Unsure look on his face, Gabe gave a nod, "Yeah, they were saying something about the dissolution of something called MACUSA and how they're sorting out merging the two governments."
Her voice quiet, Charlie had a tone of disbelief, "MACUSA is the magical government… there should be nothing on the radio, yet everyone knows of magic? What the heck did we even miss?"
Yet again, looks of confusion and befuddlement, as well as concern on the part of the lone witch of the group, were exchanged at what they were finding out. Wars? Battles? Magic being known?
Just what was going on out there in the world that they had missed while stuck in both the pizzeria and later in that storage facility?
