A collab I whipped up with @William_Fazworth to answer a question nobody asked: What if The Return to Freddy's had a reboot in the vein of The Road That Falls, removing the ties to Freddy's, but was still a FNAF fangame? Been a while since I did a FNAF thing, so here you go.

On March 14th, 1962, local Japanese-Australian immigrant and entrepreneur, Gilbert Wilson, opened up a humble mini-mall called the Wilson Galleria. It was situated on the San Francisco outskirts, boasting shopping centers and, most importantly, mascot-themed family entertainment. At first, Gilbert’s were using mascot suits depicting three characters: Tycraz the Red Panda, Koly the Koala, and Sally the Panda. Eventually, they’d upgrade to primitive but operational animatronics. They couldn’t walk around, but were popular enough to make parents and kids happy.

Years later, in 1979, the popularity of the place drastically waned due to competition within the area, giving way to more successful entertainment and shopping venues. Desperate to recoup losses, Gilbert began to take a loan from a local “on the run” mobster group called “The Red Coat Cartel,” out of foolishness. Their leader, Alison Bairren, was an operator of several illegal rings such as unauthorized drug factories, casinos, and strip clubs, all of which were shut down, leading his cartel to constantly shift between American states. Alison was soon approached by Gilbert, who wanted to loan out money, which Alison would use his opportunity to slowly take over the business. Alison would offer to become a silent partner, supplying Gilbert with cash to keep the doors open, in return, he would use the place for illegal activities and begin moving his illegal operations into an underground basement of the building. 

With the new flow of cash, Gilbert began investing in animatronic technology, which he would find in the form of local TV entertainer Gron Takaliken. Gron, who was a children’s entertainer who used the character of “The Jester” on numerous TV specials, is also an engineer who used to work for the recently defunct Murray’s Costume Manor. He supplied the company with entertainment-related endeavors before Murray eventually began shutting everyone out and his subsequent disappearance. Gron and his best friend, Vincent Andros, had stolen several unpatented blueprints that were basically free game, and they would use these designs in their pitch meeting with Gilbert, who happily accepted. 

Gilbert would end up selling the rights of the characters away, with the animatronic versions scrapped for parts. Gron would create these new characters and to accommodate this change, Wilson Galleria would be rebranded to Frankburt Galleria. With this new name, comes revamped attractions such as the Sugar & Spice Cineplex, Buster’s Arcade, Vigo’s Crawlspace, and the one and only Frankburt’s Cafeteria. The latter would house a massive stage show featuring these new animatronics. It consists of Frankburt the Pianist, Sugar and Spice the Singing Cat Twins, Vigo the Trumpeter Snake, Buster the Businessman Bunny, Saber the Sawin’ Lumberjack Wolf, and Dug the Deputy Dog. 

Initially, this change in the business seemed relatively successful, with animatronics bringing in crowds near and far, the many activities and shops people can explore, and the illegal activities bringing in more profit. Gilbert was content with this partnership, so what if he had to look the other way? After all, it’s just gambling money and people looking to fulfill their lust, well, it was until Alison decided that with the cops off his tail, to restart his drug operation. During the drug lab’s construction, Gilbert realized that this had gone too far and if the operation is exposed, that it’s all over for the two of them. He confronts Alison, trying to reason with him not to have drugs be involved in the business at all. Alison, two steps ahead, had basically already manipulated Gilbert into signing away the company to an associate of his, Yin Koiou. Since Yin works directly for Alison, Gilbert was effectively a liability that needed to be rid of. Alison would ultimately shoot Gilbert in the face and would have his men bury him under the drug lab. 

With suspicion, folks start asking Yin about Gilbert’s whereabouts, to which Yin responds by saying Gilbert moved back to Australia. Vincent starts questioning Alison’s leadership around his business, especially with his former boss suddenly missing. The boss makes a deal with the engineer, suggesting building a security robot in case any of Alison’s premises get breached. The robot would be built in two weeks using spare endoskeletons, prototype fabric, and a chainsaw, thus christened “The Beast” by Vincent. Unfortunately, Alison would later turn on Vincent, using The Beast to murder the employee and hiding his body in that suit. Alison and Yin both use The Beast as an example to employees of what not to do and what happens to those who provoke him. 

Repurposing spare MCM tech provided by Vincent, Alison develops a supercomputer to wirelessly run the animatronics called “The Machine.”, This supercomputer would also be used by Alison as the main tool to keep Frankburt’s Galleria operating, containing every piece of information the venue has, acting as the main control hub for him. With this, Alison would monitor the building very thoroughly, using it to keep employees and mob members in line, with those he believes are talking out of turn killed. 

At some point, he realized that the Galleria’s chief engineer, Gron Takaliken, has been asking around about Vincent’s sudden disappearance, not helping Alison is Gron’s wife and Vincent’s sister in law, Lynda Andros - Takaliken, who started posting missing flyers at the venue’s parking lot. In order to get rid of this problem, Alison hired a hitman to take out the Takalikens by any means necessary, this would lead to a car accident where Gron’s car brakes were tampered, resulting in an accident with a gasoline truck that exploded and killed Lynda. Gron miraculously survived but was filled with survivor’s guilt, blaming himself up until he learned the truth during a drunken stuber, discovering Alison’s elevator to the underground criminal empire that laid beneath Frankburt’s.

In a hurry to call the police, Gron chews out Alison on the phone, explaining his misdeeds. Unfortunately, Alison catches wind of this. Gron hides in the Frankburt suit to fight off Alison like armor. In the tussle, the springlocks accidentally go off on Gron,  leaving him limp on the break room’s ground. Despite this, the damage was already done, and the police began to raid the place en masse hours later. Amidst the commotion, a young kid who snuck onto the premises after hours as part of a dare, named James Calfron, was found during the raid. Being a witness, stuttering as he saw Alison kill Gron. Heeding his warning, Alison decides to head downstairs as the secret basement is discovered. Unfortunately for him, he gets gunned down by the police, but is able to hide away in his safe room, which is also where The Machine is located. While his body would never be found, Alison bled out and died, his soul somehow able to manifest as two different beings, his rational mind possessing the supercomputer, while his agonizing silhouette roams as a ghostly shadow. Following the raid and expose of The Red Coat Cartel’s operations, Frankburt’s Galleria would be shut down permanently, the site remaining abandoned for decades. 

30 years later on December 7th, 2014, a building committee in San Francisco agreed to permit the mall’s demolition. Three men, Blake Robinson, John Chun, and Will Hall, led the scheduled teardown of the rotting facility to be held on the 13th. In the meantime, they hire a security guard to watch over the place. By chance of fate, it was a now grown-up James Calfron. Now, a retired patrol officer is looking for one last gig for a quick check, but also a last-ditch effort to solve his childhood trauma and mystery. 

For five nights, he realizes the animatronics still function strangely, acting hostile towards him for seemingly no reason. However, on the day planned for demolition, Blake mysteriously goes missing. James gets scheduled to investigate on the final night, but discovers the mysterious underground facility once led by the cartel. Heading down below, he hears strange noises coming from one of the abandoned areas, discovering Blake’s dead body stuffed inside the Spice animatronic by Frankburt and The Beast. Now spotted by the deadly machines, he makes a quick escape into Alison’s office, accidentally finding his safe room. Inside, he would see what appears at first to be Alison sitting in a chair, only to realize that it was his decaying corpse that would then fall to the floor. 

Thoroughly freaked out, it isn’t helped by the sight of demolition crews arriving being spotted on the Machine’s old camera systems. One of the demolition explosions led to a collapse of the hidden elevator, sealing James inside for the night as demolition is halted once again due to the discovery. Now, James is forced to survive a night in one of the old offices down below, he would go up against four animatronics, two of which he recognized. A now more obviously zombie like Frankburt and Spice would be part of the roster, the corpses within the respective machines now more visible. Joining them are two new machines, The Beast, which was the security robot he had spotted earlier, and the Tortured Device, Alison’s new vessel comprising of an old Endoskeleton, his Trenchcoat, and a Deer Skull. 

The characters would continue to try and attack him for several hours until James realized the true source of this entire dilemma, the Machine. Running out, he would lure the Tortured Device to Alison’s safe room, angering him before dodging out of the way as the robot ran into the old supercomputer, destroying it. With Alison’s mind purged from the systems, the souls would end up freed, the robots would be deactivated, and best of all James was found by an excavation team that investigated the hidden elevator.