Up on the top floors of the main office building, Ethan was in one of the meeting rooms with along with three other fellow employees, sitting at a vertically positioned long wooden table that had a little more than enough space for all of them. There were only a few minutes till it was time for their planned meeting.
The other employees with him were just like Ethan himself.
No, no. Not in that they were Phone employees, no. That is somewhat the case but only two out of the three of them were Phone employees. They were like him in that they were the top five in management of Fazbender Entertainment. Including Ethan himself makes it four and Abel completes the set.
"I'm not sure what it exactly it is that Abel wants, but I'm sure this spells no good news considering he wants us all here," said a black-phone headed guy who was the same one from the portraits of the lobby, being one of the founding managers of Freddy's, who was none other than Harry.
He sat across from Ethan on the other side, the left of the table, on the front-most side at the end. Naturally, among all of them, he is a veteran and as such holds the most experience and power, being only second to Abel, being his right hand-man.
"That's exactly what I was thinking, Harry. Maybe it has something to do with what he saw on the news? But it didn't seem that bad, the message he gave them to use came across as he wanted," said a Phone Gal who sat next to Harry on his right. And this the same one from earlier in the lobby, the receptionist.
The Phone Gal was Scottie, real name Rebecca but is called Scottie anyway as she is, so far, the only Phone Gal that the company has produced, so she was unique. Scottie served as the head of Communications for Fazbender Entertainment, being the main connection between Abel, the staff of HQ and the other Phone Guy managers of the pizzerias located across the states. Calls, news, and reports that needed to passed would first come to her and then then she would relay it to HQ.
"Apart from how the reporter told the news, I'd say it's fine. I believe it must be about the new locations Abel's been planning on opening. That was his goal for a while now," added the employee, a normal-looking guy who sat next to Ethan, on his left.
The guy was Nolan. He was a normal guy, meaning he was the only non-phone-headed employee in the room and of course, the only normal-looking employee out of the five of them. He had short, fading black hair, a long sleeved blue shirt with buttons on his body, which had a badge that shows that he was a part of the Factory. He also had the appearance of a man a past middle-age but still was fit.
Nolan was the head of the Factory section of HQ and was a robotics engineer himself. He knew the ins and outs of the animatronics, the machinery, and even the special but dangerously desgined springlock suits that most employees dread. He is the one brought in for the difficult jobs. Also, among the other four, he was the one that Ethan was the closest with.
The two had about a 10-year-difference in age with Nolan being the older one but they actually had been with the company for the same amount of time. They even had a common sight in robotics because Ethan himself actually was one before he had his springlock failure.
"I'd say that's the likely case," agreed Ethan with his friend, "But we can't open any locations unless the new robots are done." The three agreed with him.
Now as for Ethan himself. Where did he fit in this group? Abel was the leader, Harry was is his second-in-command, Scottie was the head of Communications, and Nolan was the boss of the Factory...
Simply put, Ethan was pretty much the 'middle man' of them. He held a similar position to Harry, although was the third in place. He was the Phone that would probably take charge of Freddy's should something happen to the remaining two original managers...
Something I much prefer to never happen...
Ethan had been with the company since 1973, but he wasn't around like Harry or Abel. And when he did join, he wasn't a manager but instead a engineer and also a dayshift worker, much like Nolan. He had only become a Phone Guy and a manager after his springlock failure in 1983. But all that he did, the knowledge before it all carried over. He could do what Nolan did even if he wanted, though his position doesn't exactly give him the time to.
Ethan was only able to come and work here at Fazbender HQ due to the Company seeing his performance, (probably) surprised to the fact that he had a good work ethic, and wanted to stay after his failure. If that wasn't the case, then why would he have been promoted to manager with the position he has now?
So, yes he got the recognition, the potential skill and even time. But even with that all said... Ethan still wouldn't want that job.
Being the Phone Boss of a Freddy's joint (especially like the one he stayed at the most in Wyoming) isn't easy, believe it or not. Some kids are crap, sometimes the robots are crap and most of the time, employees that come to work there are crap.
So imagine how it would be to be the boss of this company that has over 50 locations that are more likely than not, going to have some bad thing happen there?
Have to really give some props to Abel...
Sure, being a part of the main management team isn't much easier than being a Phone Manager (though he still at times, still had to go help out a pizzeria), but being the head of the company itself is too much.
Being the second-in-command or third in place is more up what he'd be comfortable with. Being the man behind the man really is what he wants to be. As long he's got an input, or an ear to lend that could benifit him and the whole company then he's got no issue...
"...Even if the man I'm working with is someone like Abel..." said Ethan out loud instead of just thinking it. He glanced at the other three but they didn't seem to hear him, so he didn't speak that loud, thankfully.
...The knob of the entrance door to the meeting room was heard twisting and then of course, the door opening. Everyone had instantly turned quiet just as the sound of knob was heard.
And that was because it was none other than Abel...who walked into the room, closing the door behind him. It was so silent in the room, apart from the air conditioner in the corner. Possibly, even the sound of a pin being dropped could be heard...
Abel stood in front of the door, wordlessly, scanning the room and looking at all four of them, and he also had a yellow file folder in his grasp. Despite how abnormal, or goofy, he looked with his candle-thin sized phone-head compared to the other three Phones in the room, Abel gave off an intimidating aura. He literally looked as similar as any other Phone apart from his head, but he felt just that different.
Why? Because he was and has been different than most Phones, or better yet, Scott Cawthons; especially the original true Scott Cawthon. The one he took after as company boss.
And it wasn't just the other four in the room that felt this way towards him, pretty much every other employee at Fazbender HQ felt like this. Those anywhere else would definitely see another view, a likely more positive kind.
It was a good thing that he had that candlestick as a phone-head because if he had his flesh-faced head, then...Well, he was already intimidating with his phone-head, which meant he had no expressions to show.
So... How would he be now if he didn't have it on?
"Good. You're all here," he said that and only that and began making his way over to the front middle part of the table where his seat was. He didn't take a seat, however and instead just remained standing.
Abel had came in without giving a proper greeting to them despite having been gone for the whole morning. But that was fine, for all of them. This was all expected, anyway; the atmosphere, the attitude that he with his own staff. This apparently how he had been since taking over the company in '73 and no one was expecting him to change his attitude.
Ever.
"This here is what I called this meeting for," Abel placed down the folder on the table. He opened it, taking out a small stack of papers stapled together and handed it to Harry.
"Was this why you were gone all morning?" Harry asks him as he looked through the papers.
"Yes."
"Okay... I see,"
Harry handed it over Scottie. After Scottie looked through it, she handed it to Ethan, and then after him, Nolan got it. The papers then went back to Abel after all eyes looked through it.
The set of papers that was just sent around was a notice from the FBI. A report written directly to Abel, mentioning Freddy Fazbender's as a company as well and the kind of infamous attention they're having. The crimes, murders and incidents they've been having also recieved a mention, as well as their plan to open more new locations...
And the most daunting of all about it, was the warning that if one more incident happens, mainly a murder scandel, every location will go down...
The whole company will go down.
"You all saw it, yes?" Abel asked. None of them responded, "Because I don't have to explain something as simple as this."
"So what got on our backs is a domino effect," Scottie mentions and shook her head.
"It sure is..." Harry responds to her and then faces Abel, "So what are we going to do?"
"That's what this meeting is for. Better to discuss it now then later."
Ethan raised a hand slightly, "With this now on our shoulders, it's just going to make work even harder, especially our attempts in trying to bring our Faz-rating up. It's just been fruitless. And I think even the Ideas Department is burnt out."
"Well, do you think can happen when you have a set of people sit in a room that is forced to think of ideas on how to improve Freddy's? It's real hard." answered Harry who was being slightly snarky, jabbing at the mere idea of on how a set of people can somehow just improve Freddy's just by sitting in a room and talking. "...Wait," he looked around, saying that.
Harry noticed that they pretty much were doing just that right now, much like the Ideas Department. Well, at least on the bright side, they weren't stuck in this room and nothing but this room for hours before going home. And it wasn't just simple ideas like a new food idea, or new placemats that they were going to discuss. At least it must not be, because that isn't going to help them out at all.
"Bringing back the company to its roots and easier said than done," added Nolan, "Especially with our situation currently."
"Forget about the ratings, all of you." Abel asserted, almost raising his voice, and scanning over everyone's faces (or lack thereof, apart from Nolan).
"What customers think about the pizza, plates or the flooring isn't going aid us in any way. We need to focus on keeping this company up and running. No company makes our attempts on improving our reputation to be useless."
"Not that I'm disagreeing, but who wants a company with a bad rep to stay up?" Scottie mentions and then leads back into her seat, seeming done already with all this, "I say we look for a potential buyer while we still got something for us going."
"Do we even have anyone interested?" asked Ethan. Everyone turned to her, curious.
"Interestingly and surprisingly enough, there is someone. It's Bono. Apparently he wanted to purchase Fredbear's as well but we ended up buying it first..."
"Forget about that as well." Abel took the center of attention yet again, "We don't need to take action such as that because the company is going to stay open. And I will make sure that it does. But since it seems that none of you have an input, I very well will just say what I have in mind."
"Which is?" Harry spoke, but it surely is for everyone as well who didn't speak.
"From this day forward, I'm ordering a strict running of every location that is still up. Every Phone manager out there will know about this, but I don't make it a PSA. I want them privately messaged, is that clear?"
"What for?" wondered Scottie.
"Because there are those that must not hear of this. Mainly those that we need bring down, those that are giving us the issues that Freddy Fazbender's the rep it has now. The ones causing mayhem, yiffing the robots, stealing and robbing the pizzerias, they must not hear of this otherwise we can't easily take them down."
"And what do you expect to be done with those delinquents?" Harry now asked.
"Anything, as long as you they don't cause me issues. Or better yet bring them here to HQ," Abel said that and then began walking over to the windows on the side. He looked over at the Old Building that can be seen not so far from where they were, "And we'll keep them here so they can suffer for what they've done. Perhaps, we'll even send them out to the Feds."
"Was that why you wanted the building retrofited with security?" Nolan questions, his eyes slightly widened, "I thought it was just for the animatronics..."
"Yes. That is why," Abel answers him and then turns to face Nolan himself, "Speaking of security. Nolan, I want the new Toy Animatronics sent out to replace the old animatronics. Recall the old ones back here we'll just reuse them for parts. And the new facial-recognition software plans have been installed, hasn't it?"
"Yes, they have been installed on a couple, but we're still working on tinkering it some more. It seems a bit faultly during some tests," Nolan explains, not being as confident as he could, and for good reason.
"Fix it up up soon on any of the Toys we have ready. Double time, given the situation, got it?"
"Yes..."
"But before you send them out, we need to have the criminal database installed in them as I planned."
"Oh that. It's a work in-progress as well. We did get a good amount of names in there..." Nolan responds but his eyes drooped slightly, "I know it's nothing compared to the amount of potential criminals that Freddy's has garnered over the years."
"Well, get the Factory to working on the Toys, then. Harry, Ethan and I will work on gathering names for the database."
"...Understood. I'll get to it," Nolan got up from his chair and went towards the room exit, taking out a walkie-talkie as he did, "Greg, it's Nolan..." and his conversation carried on with his voice getting more distant as he walked away and as the door closed.
"Now, Scottie. Go inform every location's manager about the order and the incoming arrival of the Toys."
"Okay, sir..." and with that weak reply, Scottie left the meeting room as well.
Now all that was left were the other two phone-headed leaders in the room. There was a brief moment of silence before Abel started to speak again.
"You two. We have someone more direct we need bring in as soon as we can. He's the most dangerous one of all," Abel went over to the front of the meeting table and reached into his folder he laid aside. He took out out a few set of papers and and placed it in front of this two Phone underlings, "I'm sure this cryptid needs no introduction."
Harry and Ethan exchanged nods. Indeed, an explanation would be pointless. As the someone on the papers was someone that most of the company knew of. Those that didn't were either just new or must've been living in a rock.
"The infamous Dave Miller, huh?" Ethan read the name of the literal purple man that had a profile picture on the document, "Not surprising that you want him in."
"Mhm," agreed Harry, "This thing's been responsible for countless crimes, petty to serious, in and out of Freddy Fazbender's property. He was even the one responsible for Location #32's closure."
"The one with the forklift and spilling gravy over the paperwork, was it?" responded Ethan. Harry nods to him.
Abel started speaking again, "So, he's the main one we must bring in which is why we must make sure he doesn't hear of this new order. Should he somehow hear of this, getting him by surprise won't be much of an option. A search for him must be put out as soon as possible."
"Honestly, even if there was no surprise involved, Dave's a slippery one..." said Harry, "But it's do or die here."
"I'll be messaging the Feds personally about this. Now go," and with that order, the two Phone men left.
Now, Abel was by himself. He began to move the rotary dials on his phone-head, at its base to a specific set of numbers he had never done until now. After a few rings, a voice answered and he began to speak, and he responded with: "This is Scott Cawthon, the head of Fazbender Entertainment. About the warning you have given us. I'm hoping we can come to a deal even with the conditions you have presented to us..."
Author's Note.
Leave a like and or comment if you've enjoyed this. It all helps depsite how small and simple the action is.