Mike was feeling sore the next morning as he hadn't adjusted yet to all his newly sewn wounds and multiple people attempting to sleep on a single armchair and dinosaur skull did not make for the most comfortable of sleeping situations. Mike wasn't sure when it had happened, but the twins had migrated from resting at his feet to being curled up at his sides, his own arms wrapped around them without his notice. Stan wasn't anywhere to be seen, but Mike could hear movement in the kitchen which meant that he was probably preparing breakfast. Ford was sitting in a chair nearby, looking exhausted and nursing a cup of coffee.

"Did you sleep at all?" Mike asked Ford, keeping his voice down to not wake the twins.

"I was keeping watch all night just to make sure the animatronics didn't return, but I managed to get about an hour's rest when Stan woke up," Ford explained, making Mike feel guilty that he hadn't been the one to keep watch. "This isn't the first time I've been forced to pull an all-nighter because the was a dangerous monster roaming around and I was happy I could look after you guys while you got the rest you clearly needed."

"Thanks," Mike replied softly. He still felt guilty about not being the one on guard duty, but he appreciated Ford taking over where he couldn't.

The room fell silent again and Mike found himself watching the twins lying on him as they slept. They were so trusting, and willing to sleep in the arms of a creature that most (including Mike himself) would consider a monster. Mike just couldn't wrap his head around how these wondrous kids had welcomed him with open arms and cared enough about him to even consider him family. Mike still didn't think he deserved their care and trust, but he would do his best not to let it be in vain. He would do everything he could to protect them. (He would not repeat the mistakes he had made before.)

Mike was taken out of his thoughts by Stan calling everyone in for breakfast and he gently woke the kids up. Even though Mike didn't need to eat, he sat between the twins because they wanted him there, sitting close enough to brush against his arms or lean on him as they talked. It wasn't hard to figure out they were still shaken up about last night and needed the reassurance that Mike was still there and that he was okay.

When everyone went their separate ways to change and freshen up, Mike pulled out some of his hidden papers, specifically three of the animatronic blueprints. He wasn't sure if his deal was still intact with Cipher or not, but he wasn't going to bring up the demon just in case. But he could educate the others on what he knew about fighting evil animatronics and give them the best chance they could just in case they did end up caught in the crossfire. Rolling up the three blueprints he needed and tucking them under his arm, Mike put the rest of the papers away and went to meet up with the others in the living room.

"So what are we going to do about the killer animatronics roaming around?" Dipper asked as Mike approached the table where all the others are sitting.

"I don't suppose there's any chance I can convince you all to just leave it to me to handle?" Mike asked, fully expecting all the scoffs and headshakes that the others gave in response. "That's what I thought… guess I have no choice but to make sure you're ready for whenever it decides to show its ugly head again."

Mike sat in the empty chair and placed the papers on the table though he didn't open them up yet. Leaning forward with steepled fingers, Mike began "The first thing to know is that haunted animatronics are always most active at night, so I don't want any of you going anywhere by yourselves once it begins to get dark."

"What about the rest of the town?" Dipper asked. "Do we need to warn them as well?"

"Normally I never did, but that's because they were usually too freaked out by me to listen to what I was saying or believe me even if I did," Mike explained. "Considering this town, they'd probably actually believe it this time, but I don't think it's actually necessary. The animatronic was very focused on me in particular and is most likely going to ignore everyone else as it hunts me. You guys are just far more likely to get attacked by close proximity and it might figure out that you are important to me."

"What's the best way to get rid of it so it's no longer a threat," Stan asked, voice low and deadly. "I don't want that monster hurting any of you kids if I can help it."

"I've found that using fire to completely destroy them is the best option," Mike replied. "The problem of course is getting them in a state where you can torch them without getting killed in the process."

"Attempting an exorcism would have the same issue," Ford commented as he thought. "I could invent a weapon strong enough to melt them from a distance…"

"As much as I would love that, it's not worth the risk," Mike said with a shake of his head. "The likelihood of missing and hurting someone is far too high. At the very least we'd risk starting forest fires… No, the better option is to use electricity to stun them, like with my taser."

"I should definitely be able to put something together to meet our needs," Ford informed. "Though I'll need your help to decide the voltage range."

"Sounds good, I'll get the specifics to you later," Mike nodded. "Now some general things to remember about these metal monsters is that they are very strong normally and their haunted status only increases their strength and deadliness. You want to avoid getting in close combat whenever possible unless you have successfully stunned it and even then you must retreat at the first sign of movement. If you don't have a way to fight back, your best chance is to run and hide, especially behind something sturdy if you can. Animatronics, for all their strength and focus on attacking, actually have pretty short attention spans. If you're out of sight or if they can't get to you immediately, they tend to leave in search of easier prey."

"Now… though we need to talk about the specific monster that attacked last night… who I've been calling Molten Freddy in my head," Mike said, unrolling the blueprints for the others to see. "It's actually a conglomeration of these three different animatronics. And these ones are even more dangerous than your average animatronics because this line was intentionally created with the goal of killing children."

"Wait…" Dipper said, his eyes widening in realization. "You told me that the animatronic that killed you was designed to do that…"

"That means..!" Mabel gasped as she and the others caught on to what Dipper was saying. "This monster… Is it the one that..?"

"…Yeah…" Mike confirmed with a grimace, absentmindedly dropping his hand to his stomach. "…Yeah it did…"

The Pines family looked angry at the realization and even more determined to take the animatronic down.

"As I was saying… these ones were created to kill people and as such has features and abilities that help them with that," Mike said, getting back on topic and tapping the blueprints. "It's got a lot of different types of tracking sensors so if you're in its general area it's best to assume it knows where you are and act accordingly. It has a scent lure so don't go investigating anything that smells good or unusual. The one I'm most concerned about though is its ability to mimic voices and lure with them. It can copy voices perfectly and can easily be mistaken for the real thing, especially in a stressful or frightening situation."

"Maybe we can have some code words or phrases?" Dipper suggested, thinking it over. "That way we can tell who is who."

"Oh! I know! We can use what I was going to use against Gideon but never got the chance to," Mabel said excitedly. "We can ask each other 'what number are we thinking of' and then the other person can answer 'negative eight' because no one ever guesses negative numbers."

"That's actually not a bad idea…" Mike smiled at Mabel, getting a big grin in return. "We'd need to change the question if we do end up using this one against the animatronic, but it should work. We should all have different answers just to be safe."

"I'll still be -8," Mabel decided.

"I'll be -3, I guess," Dipper added, automatically touching the journal he always carried.

"I was thinking about doing a number or formula famous in math, but that would probably get too complicated," Ford began, before holding up his hand a wriggling his fingers. "I'll stick to -6 for simplicity's sake."

"I chose -31," Stan replied.

"I'll be -83 then," Mike said. "Make sure you don't forget your number or the others, okay, or it makes this whole thing pointless."

Mike gave a few more tips about all he learned about surviving animatronics before they wrapped up and the group split up. Dipper and Mabel went to fill Wendy and Soos in on everything while Stan got the Mystery Shack open. Mike and Ford went downstairs to work on making tasers for everyone.

There wasn't any sign of the animatronic over the next few days, but that didn't mean the Pines family wasted it. They kept an eye out and did their best to fortify the Shack, even adding all the magical protection they could. Mabel even volunteered to get unicorn hair with her friends when Ford mentioned the barrier spell. She was even able to get some and showed it off to the others just as Mike and Ford finished up the tasers.

"These are a bit more sophisticated than mine had been and a lot more powerful," Mike explained, instructing the twins as he handed them their tasers. "This slider here will let you control how much of a shock the taser produces. Everything up to the halfway mark is safe to use on humans, ranging from a mild shock to possibly knocking someone unconscious. The halfway mark should be enough to stun an animatronic for a few seconds with the time increasing the more power you give it. Ford and I even believe that at max power we should be able to shut down an animatronic for a few hours."

"The only problem is that to make a device this compact, it gets a little unstable to use that much power," Ford added with a grimace. "It won't hurt you as I made failsafes to prevent that, but there's about a 40% chance the inner circuits will burn out as soon as you turn it up to maximum power with that likelihood increasing the longer it stays at max power. It's only a matter of about 30 seconds before it's almost guaranteed to become unusable."

"Which would only leave you defenseless," Mike concluded. "So only use full power if you're absolutely sure you have a clear shot or if you have no other option. Is that clear?"

Dipper and Mabel gave a firm nod to show they understood before they started shocking each other with the lowest setting, much to Mike's dismay (though not surprise). Once the twins had gotten that out of their system, the group got to work setting up the barrier.

"And we're sure this won't affect me?" Mike couldn't help but ask as the others started applying the last of the unicorn hair.

"It should just keep out only truly evil beings," Ford replied, not noticing Mike's slight grimace. "And magic is as much about the caster as it is the spell itself. None of us sees you as evil and are even considered family, so it shouldn't keep you out regardless."

"Right…" Mike said. He couldn't help but feel a little skeptical (while he didn't see himself as evil, he didn't think he was a good person), but he just had to wait and see what the barrier would do.

Finally, the last hair was in place and a colorful barrier sprang up before vanishing from sight. Mike took a breath he didn't need and passed through where he had seen the barrier. He could definitely feel a warm ticklish sensation as he passed through, but that was it. Mike grinned along with the others, all of them feeling a lot safer than they had been.

All their preparations were in place and now they just had to wait. And when Molten Freddy showed up again, they'd be ready.