Apparently, Mike underestimated those kids.

It had only been a day before Mike spotted the boy Dipper following him around when he was on his early morning walk. The kid even had a video camera and was recording his every move. Mike did his best to shake the kid (he didn't want to risk leading him back to up his hotel room in case Dipper didn't know about it), but Dipper was incredibly stubborn and surprisingly patient. Dipper was willing to follow Mike through every terrain that Mike hiked through and stayed watching as Mike sat on a shadowed bench for hours, doing nothing in hopes that Dipper would leave.

Finally deciding enough was enough, Mike sharply turned down an alley and ducked behind a dumpster. It didn't take long to hear Dipper running down the alley after him and Mike leaped out as soon as Dipper passed by.

"Gotcha!" Mike shouted, grabbing Dipper by the back of his shirt and lifting him up, making the younger boy yelp in surprise.

"Hey! Let me go!" Dipper said, flailing around in an effort to get free.

"I don't really appreciate being stalked and give me that camera!" Mike replies in frustration, wrestling the camera out of Dipper's grip. Mike let Dipper drop to the ground as he turned the camera off. The two stood there glaring at each other before Mike let out an annoyed sigh.

"You really aren't going to leave me alone until you learn more about me are you?" Mike said more than asked, but Dipper still gave a firm nod. "Fine! Whatever! It's your mental health, but we are not having this discussion here. Is there someplace more private where you still feel safe that we could talk?"

Mike would have offered his room, but that would have sounded way too kidnapper-y. Dipper thought for a moment before leading the way out of the alley. They walked out of the main town to some random building called the… Mystery Hack? Dipper brought Mike through a side entrance and up a ladder to a section of roof that had been kitted out with an umbrella and a lawn chair.

"As long as we're quiet, no one should be able to make out what we're saying," Dipper explained as he relaxed at the edge of the roof. "But if you try anything funny, my friends and family could easily hear me yell. And I should warn you, my Grunkle has plenty of experience beating up zombies. And Wendy of course can take down anything."

"I'll keep that in mind," Mike chuckled, joining Dipper sitting on the edge. "And this was a really smart place to pick. So what is it you wanted to know so bad that you've been following me around all day?"

"So if you are not a zombie what are you exactly," Dipper asked, pulling out a journal and a pen. "I haven't been able to find anything else that could fit your description."

"You could argue that I'm a zombie as I am a walking corpse," Mike replied with a shrug. "But a more accurate description would be I'm a ghost possessing my own dead body."

"Huh, that's unusual," Dipper mumbled, flipping through his journal. "You're definitely not something weak like a category one or two… Do you have any other ghostly abilities to help me figure out how powerful of a ghost you are?"

"I don't know… I never really tried to do anything ghostly…" Mike said, a little lost in thought. It had never occurred to him to do anything like floating things, he assumed he was just like the possessed animatronics, only tied to his body rather than an endo-skeleton. But… those spirits did do more than just make the animatronics move… Mike could remember how they seemed to make lights flicker and cameras glitch. (Plus there was the whole thing going on with Golden Freddy.) Maybe he could do more?

"We'll have to test that out sometime…" Dipper, seemed excited by the idea. "So what's the reason you're still around! Ghosts always have a reason."

"It's not a very pleasant story considering… you know…" Mike grimaced, gesturing to his undead self. "So I'm not going to go into any details. The basic story is there was this serial killer that owned "family-friendly" restaurants. He was a great mechanic and built custom animatronics for the restaurants, unfortunately, he built some of them to kill. I was a night guard at one of the locations and one of the robots lured me away then… well…"

"So you hunt down animatronics because you were killed by one?" Dipper guessed, chewing on his pen in thought. "Did you come here because of what happened at Hoo Ha's?"

"Close," Mike agreed, leaning back a little. "I don't blame the animatronics for being what they are, I blame the one who made them that way, so he's my primary target. But I also can't let killer animatronics run around so I do try and destroy any I can find. And you right, I did come here because I had heard the animatronics at Hoo Ha's went crazy, but it didn't seem to be because of anything the killer had done."

"Yeah, it was actually because of this crazy sentient girl program from a dating game Soos was playing," Dipper explained, much to Mike's surprise. "She was obsessed with having Soos as a boyfriend and possessed the animatronics because she was mad at him for going on a date with a real girl. We destroyed her cd and she lost control of the animatronics. She's still around though as she somehow jumped to a different game. But she now has a boyfriend in that game so we're not worried about her."

"… if you're sure then…" Mike said, processing that information. For some reason, the thought of an evil sentient program filled Mike with a sense of foreboding, but the probably because the Funtime Animatronics were pretty close to that.

"So, you fought off an evil program and I helped with what I'm pretty sure was a cult," Mike began, returning his focus to Dipper. "What other crazy adventures have you been on?"

"Oh, I've been on plenty! Like when we…" Dipper trailed off, suddenly looking nervous. "Are you sure you want to hear about it? Not a whole lot of people that I've mentioned them to are interested or even believe me. And those that would be interested usually already went on the adventure with me already…"

"Kid, I'm a ghost in its own corpse that chases after evil animatronics, I'm pretty open to anything," Mike replied with a smirk and a friendly nudge. "Between your sister calling yourselves the Mystery Twins and your determination to track me down, it's pretty clear these types of adventures are important to you, so if you want to share them with me feel free to."

"Okay, so when we first got here at the start of the summer, I was pretty sure Mabel was dating a zombie…" Dipper began, gaining confidence as Mike paid attention to what he was saying. They were like that for a while, Dipper talking enthusiastically about his various adventures with Mike listening calmly with the occasional comment or joke. And while the stories were certainly interesting, what Mike enjoyed the most was the way Dipper lit up as he told them, especially when he went off on tangents about all his theories or observations. (Mike wished he had done this with his brother, encouraged him rather than mocked him…) Mabel joined them at some point as well, adding her own side to the stories and teasing Dipper playfully about some of the things that happened. (Her energy reminded Mike of his other sibling, though she had worn bows rather than headbands.)

"Hey, maybe you can join us on our next adventure," Dipper suggested once he ran out of stories. "Since you've gone up against evil animatronics, I think you can handle the things we go up against."

"I'm glad you have such faith in my abilities," Mike snorted. "Sure, if I'm still around when you go on your next adventure I can go with you."

"Are you leaving already?" Mabel gasped. "But we just met you! We have to have a fun adventure to solidify our friendship!"

"Where were you even going anyway?" Dipper wondered.

"I don't know yet, but there are still animatronics I'm trying to hunt down," Mike informed with a small shrug. "If I get word of where they might be… I'll need to try and stop them. Besides... I don't think I can stay for that long in the hotel anyway."

"Why do you even need a hotel?" Dipper asked. "Do ghosts need sleep?"

"Sort of," Mike said with a so-so gesture. "I don't need to sleep often, but I do have to occasionally. Mostly I use the room to store my stuff when I'm not using it and as a place to hide out most days so I don't freak out the locals."

"I don't think you have to worry too much about that here," Dipper said with an eye roll. "People here tend to be pretty oblivious."

"And if you're only worried about a place to stay and hideout, you can stay here!" Mabel suggests with enthusiasm. "You can easily store your stuff here and hide out in our room when we're not adventuring and you can sleep in Soos' break room when you need to! I mean, I once hid a whole boy band in the house for like a week so it shouldn't be a problem to hide just one person!"

"Wait! When did you do that?" Dipper exclaimed, looking at Mabel in surprise and confusion.

"Later Dipper!" Mabel hushed her brother before turning back to Mike. "So what do you think?"

"I appreciate the offer, but you only just meant me," Mike protested gently. "I mean, I could be lying to you and actually be a killer. Besides, I don't think you're… Grunkle?… I don't think he'd want me living in the house with you guys…"

"Considering you saved us the first time we met and you insisted we talk in a place where I would be safe, I'm pretty sure you're not a killer," Dipper reasoned with confidence.

"And while Grunkle Stan may act all tough, he's secretly a big softy," Mabel assured. "I'm sure we could convince him no problem!"

"Alright fine," Mike shook his head in exasperation. "If you somehow convince your Grunkle to let me stay, I will for as long as I'm in town. But if he doesn't, you just leave the issue alone. Deal?"

"Deal!" Mabel and Dipper agreed.

Both sides shook on it, both confident that they'll get their way.

AN: Hey, I actually drew something from this chapter and it can be found on my Tumblr if you're interested in seeing it. (Same account name as this one.)