Fetch | Lonely Freddy | Out of Stock
He'll be your best friend forever.
"I get what you're trying to do. The problem is, well, I just wonder if trying to get the field to work is like a monkey trying to fly an airplane. He's going to crash and burn before he can figure it out."
Fascinated by REGs and Zero-Point Fields, Greg follows a "call" to a nearby abandoned pizzeria, and finds a strange animatronic dog that claims to be able to sync up with his phone. Even though he leaves it behind, it follows him home and starts fetching him everything he wants– whether that be a chocolate bar or the death of the neighbor's dog. Terrified and slowly growing paranoid, Greg tries to stop the dog by any means necessary.
The fourth Five Nights at Freddy's: Fazbear Frights story, and the first of the second book. This short was also adapted into the Graphic Novel series in 2023.
Tropes related to “Fetch”:
- Abandoned Area: Greg and his friends break into an abandoned Freddy's to explore, which is where they find Fetch.
- Abandonment-Induced Animosity: A possible reason for Fetch's behavior, as one of his earliest messages to Greg is asking why he left.
- Adapted Out: New Transfer Student Manuel Gomez is completely omitted from the Graphic Novel, as is the subplot where Greg becomes terrified that Fetch will attack Manuel.
- Adaptational Species Change: In the graphic novel, the neighbors' dog is turned into Mrs. Peters's angry lapdog, rather than the angry, large guard dog of the book.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: How else can you call it? Fetch is so evil that it's one of the most actively evil things in Phineas's collection. Justified, seeing as the epilogues reveal he's possessed by a vengeful child.
- Ambiguously Evil: This story raises the possibility that the titular animatronic might not be inherently evil, but simply badly malfunctioning and prone to taking instructions literally; for example, Fetch ripping off Greg's uncle's finger seems to have been an overly literal interpretation of Greg texting his uncle asking for his "Magic Finger of Luck" (metaphorically asking for his help in setting up a business). That said, the epilogue of 1:35 AM seems to imply that Fetch is not just actively malevolent, but one of the most actively evil things in Phineas's collection.
- Animal Lover: Greg knows that mentioning the death of the neighbor's dog will upset Kimberly, as she loves all dogs, but does so anyway to emphasize the danger she'll be in.
- Antagonist Title: Named after the main antagonist, Fetch the dog.
- Ascended Meme: Possibly; one of the earliest memes in the FNAF fandom was "Sparky the Dog", a notorious hoax regarding a passive dog animatronic that allegedly appeared in the Backstage area of the first game. "Fetch" reveals that Freddy's was working on an actual dog animatronic, the titular Fetch (although Fetch turns out to be anything but passive).
- Be Careful What You Wish For: A rather literal example, as whatever Greg wishes for will make its way to him... one way or another.
- Beware of Vicious Dog: The neighbor's dog, who looks just as scary as he acts. Turns out Fetch is just as dangerous.
- The Bully: Trent White, who refers to Greg and his friends as "freaks." He is smarter than the stereotypical school bully, though, as he's a student in the Advanced Scientific Theory class.
- Bully Bulldog: Fetch appears to be some breed of bulldog, though it's unclear.
- Cassandra Truth: While Kimberly seems to believe Greg about Fetch, her parents think he's an insane stalker and call the police on him. This leaves Kimberly open for Fetch's attack.
- Kimberly herself falls into this earlier in the story, when she warns Greg that his hero Cleve Backster's experiments seem very dangerous and ill-advised.
- Class Princess: Kimberly is as kind as she is popular.
- Commonality Connection: When Greg is finally paired with his crush for their school project, he finds out to his delight that she's interested in the same obscure science as he is.
- Cool Teacher: Mr. Jacoby, the enthusiastic professor for Advanced Scientific Theory.
- Cool Uncle: Uncle Darrin, who has long purple hair, a spacious home, and all the time in the world to spend with Greg, who he dotes upon.
- Determinator: Give it to Fetch, he WILL get the job done.
- Downer Ending: Fetch succeeds in mauling Kimberly and delivering her to Greg, who could very easily be implicated in his crimes. The graphic novel gives Greg a bit of a brighter future, as Kimberly is delivered while Greg is at the police station and thus would have an alibi, but Kimberly is still a bloody mess nevertheless.
- Everything Is Online: Fetch is constantly connected to Greg's phone through unknown means.
- Fell Asleep Crying: Greg, after Fetch mauls his uncle.
- Fingore: We only see the final result, but Fetch bit Uncle Darren's "Magical Finger of Luck" off.
- Friend to All Children: Greg has wanted to be a babysitter for a long time, only recently getting permission to. He's very good with the kids he babysits.
- Haunted Technology: Fetch, as are a lot of Fazbear's animatronics.
- Jock Dad, Nerd Son: Implied, as Greg's father is very disappointed that he's more into science than sports.
- Killer Robot: Fetch proves himself to be this first by killing the neighbor's dog, then by going after Uncle Dare and Kimberly.
- Literal Genie: Fetch sees Greg's every expression of need as a "wish" that needs to be fulfilled. With often disastrous results. It does some helpful things in the beginning, but slowly slides into full Jackass Genie mode.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Is Fetch haunted, or just malfunctioning? The story leaves it ambiguous, though the epilogues make it clear that Fetch is possessed.
- Mechanical Abomination: Fetch goes well beyond its original function as a phone-connected assistant to
track Greg's every activity and pulls off some highly improbable feats, such as killing a real dog and later Kimberly. It proves to be fast enough to the point of implied teleportation: Greg burying it does little to slow it down, and afterwards it's able to maul Kimberly and leave her at Greg's house in a carpet without detection in the span of time that it takes for him to visit Kimberly's parents, talk to the cops, get back home and take a shower. None of this is explained at any point in the story. It is implied that Fetch may be a random event generator
influenced by Greg's consciousness, but such an idea fails to explain its particular capabilities. - Mistaken for Junkie: In the graphic novel adaptation; after hearing Greg's rambles about Fetch, his dad asks incredulously if he's on drugs.
- Monster of the Week: Fetch himself.
- Murderous Malfunctioning Machine: A possible reason for Fetch's behavior, as he was left alone in a thunderstorm after being turned on. He may just be taking things a bit too literally.
- Mysterious Past: Cyril questions how Fetch could be able to sync up to Greg's phone if the pizzeria was abandoned in the 80s-90s. This is never quite answered, leaving the audience to wonder if Fetch had been placed in the pizzeria after its desertion.
- No Full Name Given: Greg, his family, and his friends Hadi and Cyril are never given surnames.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: After Fetch injures Greg's uncle, Greg destroys Fetch with a baseball bat and buries him. It doesn't last.
- Nonconformist Dyed Hair: Uncle Dare, who has long purple hair he keeps in a braid. In the graphic novel, he has short blue hair and a long braid that fades into purple.
- Offscreen Teleportation: Seems to have this power, as Greg smashing the robot dog into pieces and shoving the pieces into a hole does absolutely nothing to stop Fetch from finding and "retrieving" Kimberly just a few hours later.
- Parental Neglect: Greg specifically wonders when the last time his Dad said anything nice to him was. Uncle Darrin provides more fatherly support than his dad ever did.
- Percussive Therapy: After Fetch attacks Uncle Dare, Greg rips apart all of his beloved science collection and garden.
- Pink Means Feminine: In the graphic novel, Kimberly is illustrated in a pink blouse for all her appearances.
- Power Trio: Greg and his fellow nerds, Hadi and Cyril. Though they don't succeed, they do all go together back to the Freddy's location in hopes of finding and ending Fetch.
- Put on a Bus: Both Greg and Fetch. While Greg wouldn't appear again, Fetch would reappear in the Stitchwraith Stingers.
- Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Kimberly.
- Robot Dog: The titular Fetch. And not a friendly one.
- Sacrificial Lamb: The neighbor's dog serves to show exactly what the animatronic is capable of after initially being shown as creepy, but helpful.
- Spiders Are Scary: The boy Greg is babysitting, Jake, is scared of a rubber spider, so Greg buries it in the backyard. They later consider unburying it to use against Trent at school, which Fetch does for them.
- Stalker with a Crush: Greg doesn't exactly cross the line into stalking Kimberly, though he does keep notes in his head of everything he overhears her saying over his years of pining. However, when he realizes Fetch will go after her, he proceeds to hide in her bushes in hopes of watching for the dog there; in the graphic novel version, he breaks into their house to warn Kimberly. Her parents definitely interpret this as stalking, and call the police.
- Stalker without a Crush: Fetch becomes obsessed with fulfilling Greg's wishes, at any cost.
- Truth in Television: This story deals heavily with the idea of zero-point energy, Random Event Generators, and the ability of human thought to influence them; it also deals heavily with Cleve Backster, a CIA interrogation specialist who allegedly used a polygraph to prove that plants can sense human thoughts. These are all referring to real concepts that have been at least considered by scientists over the years, with Cleve Backster's experiments really occurring as detailed (although in real life, his theories have long since been debunked by the greater scientific community).
- Uncertain Doom:
- While Greg isn't in any immediate danger by the end of "Fetch", Kimberly's death, Fetch's final message, and his lack of appearance in the Stitchwraith epilogues imply that his torment is far from over.
- It's technically left unclear if Kimberly is dead or just severely mauled by the dog; however, the fact she's already in a bodybag isn't a good sign.
- Wanted a Gender-Conforming Child: Implied; Greg's dad is upset at the fact he's more bookish than sporty, and is mentioned to have refused to let Greg babysit until his whole family teamed up against him. When Greg gets arrested, his dad only says he's been disappointed in him for a long time.
- Wonder Child: Kimberly says that she was this, as her parents were much older when they had her.
- Would Hurt a Child: Greg is at first worried that Fetch will go after his friend Manuel after Greg asked for him to come over. While Fetch leaves Manuel alone, he later goes after Kimberly in the same way Greg was worried about.
