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“Reed sees an opportunity to teach the school bully not to mess with him, but ends up mangling the lesson.” |
The Breaking Wheel is the second story in Fazbear Frights 7: The Cliffs and chronologically the Fazbear Frights series' 20th story. It's also the first story in the fourth graphic novel collection and chronologically the graphic novel series' 10th story. It was written by Andrea Waggener, with illustrations done by Diana Camero and colors done by Judy Lai.
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Humans[]
Creatures[]
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Plot[]
Julius' exoskeleton syncing with Pickle's little robot.
Reed is a high school freshman who is tired of being bullied by Julius, a jock he's known for six years. Reed, his friends Shelly and Pickle, and Julius are all in a robotics class together. They’re currently working on a spring semester project. While Reed is struggling with his doll-size exoskeleton, Shelly makes a small canine robot dog, Pickle makes a tiny humanoid robot controlled by an RF remote, and Julius has managed to create a life-size exoskeleton suit that can make him stronger and faster. Julius complains that Pickle’s remote accidentally controls his suit by connecting to a specific frequency. Pickle, however, argues multiple ways for Julius to fix the problem, embarrassing him. Reed zones out and Shelly throws a note on his desk inviting him to their house to study after school.
Today is a half day, so when the bell rings everyone packs up and heads home. As Pickle packs up his equipment, Julius trips him and causes his nose to bleed. Reed stays behind to confront Julius but is frozen in fear. Julius begins to brag about his suit and puts it on to show it off, claiming that he doesn’t need to be stronger and faster, and he threatens to lock Reed in the suit to control him. However a power surge sparks the exosuit and Julius is paralyzed temporarily. Eventually he tips over and catches himself on a desk, then sits down to rest. Reed takes the opportunity to get some revenge, manually clicking in the clamps around the arms and legs to lock Julius inside, intending to leave him there for the night to teach him a lesson. Julius wakes up and yells at Reed, threatening to rip him to shreds as Reed quickly runs to the bus.
When Reed makes it to the bus, he asks Pickle about his nose and Pickle tells him he can just ignore the pain since it’s not the first time it’s happened. Shelly, who loves to read and share the information, tells Reed and Pickle about how torture was used as punishment in her book. One of the most commonly used forms of torture was the Wheel, also known as the Breaking Wheel; a torture device that was used to hold people in place so others could beat their limbs with clubs or cudgels, crushing their bones and distorting the human’s body. Reed begins to feel guilty about what he’s done to Julius, as trapping him in the suit seems like a modern torture device. He thinks about when and how he’ll let Julius go, but brushes it off by telling himself that Julius deserves it.
At the Girard’s house, Mrs. Girard treats Pickle’s injured nose and makes them snacks as they study. A rainstorm starts as she heads out, leaving Reed, Shelly, Pickle, and the youngest of the Girard siblings, Ory, to themselves. Reed is frustrated by his lack of progress on his own robot, so he looks over to Ory, who is playing with Pickle’s tiny RF controlled robot. Reed thinks back what Julius was talking about before about the robot and the exosuit being linked, and fears that Pickle’s remote is still connected to Julius’s exoskeleton. He asks Pickle about the remote's range, wondering how far it could reach outside. Pickle says that it might reach a few feet outside but probably doesn’t reach beyond the house.
Ory then begins to slam the little robot into Shelly's miniature model of their house, upsetting her and causing her to chase him and the robot around the room. Pickle steps in and shows Shelly that the robot isn't harming the house, and as Shelly returns to her studying, Pickle decides to make the robot more fun for Ory by turning off the joint restrictions. The sight of the tiny robot doing sick turns and distorting its limbs makes Reed extremely worried for Julius's safety. He jumps up to run to the school and free Julius, remembering that a Senior said that there’s a key to the back door hidden in a rock, but Pickle stops him and Reed struggles to come up with an excuse as to where he's going.
That's when Ory begins to slam the robot into the miniature house again. Outside, Reed hears something slam into the house. He quickly begins to note that the sounds outside the house correspond with Pickle's robot, and he begins to worry that Julius is now outside the house. Sherry and Pickle, however, believe it is just the wind or a branch beating against the house. Eventually, Ory makes the robot climb up the side of the miniature house, and Reed hears something crawl up against the real house, so he runs upstairs, claiming to be looking for a book in Pickle's room. He searches every room upstairs, but only sees the flood lights in the backyard turn on. In one window he sees a branch beating against the house and assumes his friends were right.
Julius dropping down to attack Reed.
The Girards announce that they're heading out to get soda, leaving Reed alone. Reed looks for the little robot, finding it hiding behind a mini house within the miniature house, but when he goes to grab it the robot stands up. From behind the model house, Julius stands up. Reed screams in horror at the sight of Julius's fleshy, mutilated body attached to the exoskeleton and the bones sticking out of it. He runs to the front door, but Julius beats him there. Reed, however, doesn’t stop running as he turns and heads upstairs, hearing Julius jump to the stairs and continue its pursuit. Reed runs into Pickle's room, as his window leads to the roof of the porch and could possibly help him escape. He grabs a microscope and swings, but doesn't see Julius. Then, he looks up and Julius drops down on him. He attempts to fight back and breaks free, but Julius recovers and throws Reed onto Pickle's bed, pinning him.
Reed attempts to apologize to Julius, but stops, believing that Julius is dead and his body is only being dragged around by the exosuit. This is proven false, however, when Julius quickly covers Reed's mouth as the Girard siblings return home. Reed is rendered silent, but is given a small chance to escape when Julius's grip loosens for a bit. He breaks free but is quickly grabbed by Julius, who begins to wrap his limbs around Reed's tightly. Julius's head is pushed against Reed's throat, preventing him from calling out for help as he hears Ory ask to play with the remote some more. Downstairs, Ory picks up the remote and discovers the robot is in the miniature house. He slowly maneuvers it out, not wanting to hit anything. Once the robot is out, he smashes all the buttons on the remote, which causes the robot to to spin and thrash uncontrollably in delightful ways.
Graphic Novel Differences[]
- Julius uses the wires of the exoskeleton suit to wrap around Reed instead of using his limbs.
- Multiple times throughout the story, the story confuses Reed and Julius' names with each others.
Trivia[]
- The Breaking Wheel was intended to be the titular name of the seventh book, but was replaced with The Cliffs.
- It was revealed by Scott Cawthon that it wasn't because of the story's gruesome nature, but rather the cover art that depicted it that was deemed too scary.[1]
- This story appears to parallel to William Afton's death and transformation into Springtrap.
- This is the second story with no connection to Five Nights at Freddy's or Fazbear Entertainment, the first being The Real Jake.
- This is the fourth story with an ambiguous ending that's left up to interpretation. The other three are Count the Ways, Fetch, and Dance with Me.
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