It was an unfortunate fact that pretty much since the day he was born, Mike's entire life revolved around animatronics in some way or another, especially those of the haunted and killer variety. He had spent many long nights over the years doing his best to survive while the animatronics he was supposedly guarding did their best to kill him for the simple crime of looking a bit too much like William. Mike was very familiar with what an attacking animatronic looked like and could tell easily when one was trying their best to erase him completely from the mortal world.
Which was why he knew immediately that Moondrop was not leaping at him with the intent to murder him.
He couldn't help but tense and brace himself, years of instincts told him to do so, but he reframed from preparing to shock the animatronic coming at him. Mike staggered slightly as Moondop's arms and legs enveloped him and the full weight latching onto him nearly toppled him over, but he managed to signal to Dipper to stand down.
"Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou," Moondrop's voice whispered in Mike's ear as the animatronic trembled. If Moondrop was human, Mike was sure he'd be sobbing right now. "Thank you so much…. You saved me… You got rid of the evil rabbit…"
Once Mike got over the surprise of the situation, he wrapped his own arms around the shaking robot and replied, "It's okay… I was happy to help… and I'll do my best to make sure the evil rabbit can't infect you again…"
Moondrop just clung tighter to Mike at that, though his trembling did subside significantly. It became obvious to Mike that Moondrop wasn't going to be letting go of him anytime soon, so he just resigned himself to carrying the traumatized animatronic for now and turned his attention back to the others.
"Will Moon be okay?" Freddy asked with genuine concern, though he kept his distance as Gregory was currently hiding behind him as the boy glared at Moon suspiciously. While the bear hadn't spent much time with the daycare animatronic, Moondrop especially, Freddy still considered them a friend and hated to see them so upset.
"Given time, probably," Mike replied, unsure if rubbing the animatronic's back would actually soothe it or not. "Just give him some time to process and let's keep going."
The others nodded though Gregory made it a point to keep Freddy between him and the daycare animatronic. The lift had finished descending and the group got off. With two animatronics in the group, they easily got into the main center of Parts and Service, as all animatronics had automatic access in case they needed to seek out repairs.
"Freddy, head in and take a seat," Mike instructed, tapping on the controls to open up the protective cylinder. "I'll be in in a moment to replace your battery."
Freddy nodded, staggering into the cylinder and collapsing heavily onto the chair within. As the bear animatronic settled in, Mike once more focused on the trembling robot in his arms, saying softly, "I'm going to need you to let go now, Moon… I need to fix up Freddy real quick. After that, I promise to take a deeper look into your programming to make sure the virus is gone and to add the protection programs I've been working on."
In many ways, Mike was the perfect person to be in charge of the animatronics. The company only cared about his experience and skills that he had when it came to maintaining and repairing animatronics as well as the fact that he was sturdier and more able to handle himself if something happened to go wrong. The animatronics on the other hand, while they certainly appreciated his engineering skills, cared far more about how understanding and empathetic he was to them.
The other engineers, no matter how much they praised the animatronics' marvelous AI, never truly treated the animatronics as anything other than machines built to entertain children. Mike on the other hand, while he never pretended they were anything other than machines, treated the animatronics with respect and care, encouraging them to grow and develop, even when they expressed interest in things that would never be of any use to them in their roles of child entertainers. He got Roxanne a sewing kit when the wolf wanted to design herself custom clothes. He brought Chica a music book because she truly loved playing the guitar and wanted to learn more songs than just the ones she was programmed to know. He bought Monty some grade-school-age books when he discovered the alligator was teaching himself how to read. He started teaching Freddy how to draw when the bear wanted to give back to all the children that gave drawings to him. And though Mike didn't interact with the daycare attendant as much as the Glammrocks, Mike would still swing by now and then just to give Sun unique stickers that Mabel had got for him and books of lullabies or fun ghost stories for Moon.
Not only did Mike care about the Glammrocks and other animatronics in a way the others didn't, but as a cyborg, he could understand some of their fears in a way most humans struggled to grasp. He understood the vulnerability felt when one was shut down while others worked on them. He understood to fear that someone can just rewrite everything that makes you you, whether for malicious purposes or simply because the higher up's decided that the current you weren't what they wanted to make money. And Mike understood more than anyone the relief that comes when someone you trust does everything they can to make sure you are safe from those that would only use you as the tool they see you as.
"Can you wait until Sun takes over?" Moon asked quietly. "I'm not… I can't…"
"Yeah… I can wait…" Mike agreed easily, feeling to robot relax a little under his words. After about a minute, the shift began to take place. While watching the transition was both an interesting and surreal experience, it was even stranger for Mike to have it happen in his arms. He could feel the parts move quickly and efficiently as they inverted the clothes and had to move his head to the side to avoid getting jabbed when the sun rays popped out.
"Thank you so much for fixing Moon!" Sunrise said, squeezing Mike to show his appreciation. "He's finally himself again!"
"Happy to help…" Mike wheezed slightly, having the air squeezed out of him. "And once I'm done with Freddy, I'm going to do all I can to make sure it doesn't happen again."
"Thank you!" Sun said once more before he finally let go of Mike and stepped back. Sun flinched a little when he caught Dipper and Gregory, making sure he stood on the opposite side of the room as them as he waited for his turn to be repaired.
"Okay, Fred's, let's get you fixed up," Mike said as he entered the cylinder, the door sealing shut behind him. "Do you want to be awake or unconscious while I do the repairs?"
If the repairs didn't require the animatronics to be unconscious for them to happen, Mike always gave them a choice whether or not to be awake. Roxanne always preferred to be unconscious, even for simple surface cosmetic touch-ups. Chica preferred to be awake for most things but chose to be unconscious for anything more invasive than an arm or leg repair. Monty liked being awake and having Mike explain what he was doing as he was repaired, listening with interest even if he struggled to grasp the complex engineering knowledge. Freddy used to be unconscious for everything, saying that he trusted Mike and the other engineers to take care of everything, but after Bonnie… Freddy chose to stay awake more often than not so Mike was unsurprised that the bear animatronic chose to stay awake this time.
"This should only take a moment," Mike said, stepping back as the machine removed the casing around where the battery was stored. Normally Mike never used the robotic assistant even for simple things, trusting in his own hands more than the machine. But time was of the essence and it was faster to let the machine deal with the casing while he took care of the main repairs himself. It was a fairly simple repair and it wasn't long before the new battery was installed and Freddy's casing back in place.
"Thank you Mike," Freddy said, standing up once the repairs were complete. "I feel much better."
"Freddy!" Gregory cried in relief, escaping from Dipper's side and giving the bear animatronic a hug. "I'm glad you're better, but don't do that again! I get that you want to keep me safe, but you can't do that if you're shutting down everywhere!"
"I appreciate your concern Superstar," Freddy chuckled, patting Gregory on the head. "I'll do my best to make sure I keep functioning properly."
"Yeah, I really don't want to have all my hard work undone so carelessly," Mike said sternly, though he was obviously fighting to keep back a smile. "Now take this touching reunion out of here! I still need to work on Sun and Moon."
Freddy and Gregory complied, going to wait with Dipper while the daycare animatronic shuffled into the cylinder and sat down.
"To do the really deep scan, you'll have to be unconscious," Mike warned as he opened up the panel on the back of the animatronic head. "I know that's a scary prospect after everything, but it's the only way I can fully install the antivirus software I've been working on. I haven't had time to perfect it, but it already kept Freddy from hurting anyone because of the virus and it should do the same for you."
"What do you mean Chief Pines?" Freddy asked in worry, breaking off his conversation with Gregory when he heard his name. Did the virus attempt to make me… do something bad?"
"Yeah," Mike replied slowly, realizing Freddy hadn't known about the close call he had. "It's why you glitched out during the big show. The virus attempted to take control of you and my program tried to fight it, causing your systems to crash and shut down instead."
"I… thank you Mike…" Freddy said, his voice thick with concern and fear. "I'm glad you were able to stop the virus… I hate to think about what would have happened if it was still active in me when I discovered Gregory…"
"Don't worry… you didn't hurt me," Gregory assured, taking the bear's hand in his own. "And I know you never will."
While Gregory comforted Freddy, Mike turned back to Sun and asked, "are you ready?"
"Can you also restore our ability to manually switch between me and Moonie?" Sun requested.
"It's been disabled?" Mike asked in surprise.
Sun and Moon had only been working in the daycare for a few months when they had requested that they'd have a way to manually switch themselves back and forth, saying that since certain children bonded with one side or the other, it'd be easier to handle those kids if they could switch when necessary. The higher-ups, being the cheapskates they were, didn't consider it worth it to get the programming figured out. It was only when Mike offered to make the program off the clock that they approved it. Sun and Moon had been ecstatic when Mike had finally been able to get it installed, so to hear it had been disabled was a surprise.
"Moonie turned it off," Sun explained, messing with the bells on his wrists. "When he realized he was getting really bad he turned it off and made me promise to keep the lights . ! But now that he's better… we can…"
"Don't worry, I'll fix that too," Mike assured. Sun's plastered smile became a lot more real and they relaxed as Mike finally shut them down. Mike immediately went to work, checking the animatronic's systems for any lingering traces of the virus, installing his antivirus software, and restoring the animatronic's ability to switch at will. Thankfully the process didn't take too long as Mike had already done most of the work when he had been clearing out Moon's systems in the daycare.
"How are feeling Sun?" Mike asked once the robot finished powering up.
"Good! All good!" Sun replied, his sun rays dancing a bit. "Moonie's still quieter than normal, but he says he's doing better."
"Can you guys switch for me?" Mike asked as he put the various equipment away. "I want to make sure you can once more and I need to talk with Moon about the virus."
"Let me check with Moonie," Sun said, tilting his head slightly as if he were listening to something only he could hear. "He says it's fine. See you later Mikey!"
"See you soon Sun," Mike replied, watching patiently as the robot once more transitioned between its two sides. "Are you okay Moon?"
"Yeah," Moon replied, pulling his knees up to his chest. "The virus is gone… you sure it won't come back?"
"Between the antivirus software and the protection charm, you should be fine," Mike assured, pointing out the charm wrapped around the animatronic's wrist. "How… how much do you remember of the virus's influence?"
"Most of it…" Moon replied, refusing to look Mike in the eye. "I didn't even realize something was wrong at first… I thought the increased priority to count kids and watch them was just some sort of security update from my last maintenance check. It wasn't until the program reported one of the kids… a boy that often got left in the daycare longer than they should be and whose parents seemed to be constantly arguing… and he never came back… seemed to have just vanished within the Pizzaplex, that I started to think something was wrong."
"Moon…" Mike said softly, putting a comforting hand on the animatronic as it began to shake once more with dry sobs.
"I tried to warn people… especially Sunny," Moon pressed on. "But he stopped me… taking more direct control of me, messing with my programming… I couldn't stop myself when I delivered the next kid directly to the white rabbit… There was nothing I could do for her… but having that girl distracted him enough that I was able to limit my access and give Sunny a warning. He wasn't happy about it… made me start terrorizing the kids during naptime as punishment… I couldn't stop counting and giving the reports… but I was able to slow him down… at least a little…"
"It's okay… it's okay…" Mike assured, pulling Moon into another hug. "You did everything you could to stop him and that's all anyone can ask. I know cutting yourself off like that saved kids and now we'll make sure that monster will never hurt anyone else. Do you want to hide somewhere safe? Or do you want to help us stop him?"
"Stop him," Moon hissed with determination. "I won't let him use me or any others to hurt kids again. I-I need to make up for what I did…"
"I thought you might say that," Mike replied, knowing the feeling well. "I know you won't believe me when I say what happened wasn't your fault, not yet anyway, but just remember that William is the true monster and I'm sure you'll be a lot of help in taking him down…"
"Whatever it takes…" Moon promised darkly.
With renewed determination, Moon hopped off the chair and followed Mike out of the protective cylinder to join the rest of the group.
