|
"Ge-Get ready for a surprise!"
Beware that this page may contain spoilers for related material. If you are new to anything, like if you have not played the games or read the books yet, please read at your own risk! |
- Not what you were looking for? See the book of the same name.
“Caden senses the underwater animatronics in Freddy's Fantasy Water Park have a mind of their own.” |
Submechanophobia is the first story in Tales from the Pizzaplex 4: Submechanophobia and chronologically the Tales from the Pizzaplex series' 10th story. It was written by Kelly Parra.
Characters[]
Humans[]
- Caden's Family
- Caden Wykowski
- Stella Barns (Grams)
- Cynthia Wykowski
- Mr. Wykowski
- Martin Copper
- Roy
- Dr. Marks
- Eva
- Darryl Cunningham
- Mendoza Family
- Yasmine Mendoza
- Marie Mendoze
- Peter
- Sally
- Tony
- Mrs. Thompson
- Butterfield Family
- Jason Butterfield
- Jason's Parents
- Chief Jackson
Animatronics[]
Locations[]
- Freddy's Fantasy Water Park
- Freddy's Sea Life Mechaquarium
- Freddy's Treasures and Eatery
- Bonnie's Sea Ponds
- Chica's Fairy Boats
- Foxy Island's Water Slides
- Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex
- Meadow Brook
- Roy's Fantasy Water Park
- Penguin Pizzeria
Plot[]
Caden Wykowski is a 19-year-old technician with submechanophobia, the fear of man-made objects underwater. When he was six-years-old, his parents were lost at sea during a second honeymoon. Caden went to therapy before going to live with his grandmother and returning to school with seemingly no problems. When his second grade class went on a field trip to an amusement park, Caden freaked out over seeing underwater animatronics, screaming, accidentally hitting an emergency switch while trying to get away, and peeing his pants. He spent the rest of his years in school mocked and bullied, and wanted to run away to escape it, but stayed because he couldn't bare to leave his grandmother on her own. He took hands-on mechanic courses in high school and had a summer job working on the mini animatronics at Penguin Pizzeria.
When Freddy Fazbear’s Mega Pizzaplex opened two towns over, the owner of Freddy’s Fantasy Water Park, Martin Copper, hoped to coast off of its success. The water park officially reopened a week prior, and Caden was hired for his mechanical skills and experience. Despite his fears, he works there to support his grandmother, who is now in a nursing home with Alzheimers, by making sure that all important matters are attended to on her behalf and that they don't lose her house. He mainly fixes up the water park’s center attraction, Freddy’s Sea Life Mechaquarium, which is a large aquarium full of animatronics: a sea dragon, two sea serpents, a few sharks, assorted fish, a mermaid, and a vintage scuba diver. The repairs Caden carries out are simple, but require him to dive into the Mechaquarium to make them. The first of these animatronics to need repairs is the mermaid, who's at the very bottom on some faux rocks, and on his way to her, he notices a flicker of light in one of the serpent's eyes as it stares at him. Whenever he’s underwater, an odd static noise fills his head.
His coworker, Roy, went to Freddy’s Fantasy Water Park as a kid and named all of the animatronics in Freddy’s Sea Life Mechaquarium: the sharks are Hank the Hammer, Mac the Muscle, and Sly, the sea dragon is Zeus, the mermaid is Delilah, the diver is Frank, and the serpents are Marco and Polo. Roy informs Caden that Hank has broken down, and while making his way to the Mechaquarium he runs into Darryl, one of his more notorious bullies, with Yasmine and her little sister, Marie. They have a three day weekend and decided to visit the water park, even if Darryl thinks the Mega Pizzaplexes are better. After some more mocking, Caden goes to fix Hank and, despite the power being turned off, Zeus approaches Caden, pins him to the wall without touching him, and remains in place until Caden acts. He notices a wire hanging from its bottom teeth, but he discovers it’s actually a shoelace and what he's pulled out of Zeus's mouth is a little kid’s shoe.
The next day, Caden tells Roy about the strange shoe. Caden is approached by Martin later that day, having been told about the shoe by Roy, and tells Caden that he needs to know everything that goes on in the park. He suspects that it may have been a prank done by teenagers, telling Caden about how much of an issue it was back in the day, and how it was one of the reasons he closed the park. He also informs Caden that the animatronics don't move on their own and brushes him off as being creeped out by them, just like his previous technicians. Later, Caden goes to fix Polo and notices that Frank seems to be spying on him, with the helmet glass tinted so dark that nothing could been seen inside. Once Polo's motors are reset, it thrashes in the water and breaks off a piece of the ocean scenery. Caden grabs at a strange rock that floats in front of his face, right as his air supply suddenly depletes, and quickly gets out of the Mechaquarium.
Caden decides to take the rest of the day off and visit his grandmother at the nursing home. He tells her about his new job at Freddy’s Fantasy Water Park and she says she remembers a strange event happened there. She goes quiet when he asks about it, and instead asks to go to bed because she's tired. Returning to his car, Caden examines the rock and realizes it’s not a rock, it's a small bone. That night, he has a nightmare about a horde of kids jumping into the Mechaquarium and being attacked and torn apart by the animatronics while everyone watches happily. His dead parents shock him out of the nightmare. The next morning, he gets a call informing him that his grandmother needs a ton of verification papers sending to the medical insurance company to maintain her coverage. While looking for them, he finds old articles from years ago about a bear attack, triplets being born on St. Patrick’s Day, his parents being lost at sea, and a missing local boy. He learns that a five-year-old boy, Jason Butterfield, disappeared from his home over twenty years ago. His family had visited the park earlier that day, and his bedroom window was left open. He was last seen wearing a blue sweatshirt, blue jeans, and white tennis shoes.
Caden goes to the library and learns that the bone is a finger bone. At work, Caden is approached by Martin who warns him that he’ll be fired if he gets into any more accidents. He’s then approached by Roy, and Caden asks him about Jason. Roy informs him that they used to go to the same school and he thinks he ran away, but ultimately knows nothing else about his disappearance. Later, while trying to fix a broken squid animatronic, the lights in the workshop go out. Caden hears a noise and tries to investigate, but he left his phone on the worktable. When he goes back to get it, he hears a crash and spots someone leaving. The light from the door reveals that a heavy metal shelf fell right where he was standing before, and had he not forgotten his phone, it would have surely killed him.
Martin threatens to fire him, but Roy defends him and prevents that from happening. Caden informs Martin of what he saw and Martin begins to suspect that the pranks are starting up again. Caden doesn’t know if it’s truly kids playing pranks or if someone is trying to prevent him from finding out the truth. After fixing everything up, he goes to take a break and is pranked by Darryl and Marie. Caden suspects Darryl was responsible for the incident in the workshop, and stands up to him, telling him to grow up and set a better example for Marie. The next day, Caden goes to the police station but doesn’t enter. He questions if the police would even believe him, and worries that Martin will fire him, causing him to lose his grandmother's house, so he instead decides to gather more evidence.
As the park closes, Caden waits until everyone else has left and security guard Roy is in the front office, before he dives back into the Mechaquarium. He looks around, noticing that all the animatronics have turned to look at him and Frank the Diver was moving closer. Caden searches the ocean scenery and unearths a human skull, but the tarp closes above him and seals him in the tank. He turns back to see Frank the Diver chasing him, and the static in his ears gets louder as it catches him and attempts to strangle him. Caden uses his screwdriver to force the driver’s helmet off, revealing Martin is in the suit instead of an animatronic. Suddenly, Zeus swims around them and wraps its tail around Martin’s leg, causing him to let go of Caden. The other animatronics join Zeus and prevent Martin's escape until he drowns. As they swim away, the static in Caden’s head stops.
A week later, Caden enters the closed Freddy’s Fantasy Water Park to collect his last paycheck. The police had sent professional divers to break apart the aquarium scenery, where they found skeletal human remains confirmed to be Jason Butterfield's via dental records. Somehow, Jason had drowned inside the Mechaquarium and Martin covered it up by hiding his body under the rocks. Once he found out about the shoe Caden found, Martin caused freak accidents to hurt him, and to scare him into stopping his investigation. Caden’s story was all over the local news and was picked up by big news circuits. The entire town is giving him gifts and thanking him for finding Jason, and his grandmother had called him to visit so she could hear the whole story from him herself. Roy walks up to Caden and reveals that he bought the water park, is changing the name to Roy’s Fantasy Water Park and is going to make it better than ever. He asks Caden if he wants to continue working here with him, and when Caden doesn’t respond he asks again, sounding like he believes it'll be an obvious yes.
Trivia[]
- Submechanophobia is the first story in the series to include any kind of description or other words on the page of its story title.
- This is the first story in the Tales from the Pizzaplex series to have a happy, uplifting ending.
- This story shares a similar premise to the canceled Fazbear Frights story, The Scoop because it sees our main protagonist finding something unusual and wanting to find more.
- Both stories also have a dead child's remains found where they are suspected to be.