I Don't Own Fnaf
Jeremy was on the way, apparently the man had been able to handle Mangle on his own, Mike felt strangely proud about that, or at least he would, if he wasn't currently doing his damnedest to suppress an unholy amount of rage right now to be able to keep thinking clearly. Fritz was by his side as the two of them stared at the sight of the still unmoving rabbit, as the older of the two asked.
"Are... Uh, are you sure this is the one causing it? It's not... doing anything" Mike just nodded.
"I'm sure, he just can't do anything currently, isn't that right Jeremiah?" Nothing, but Mike didn't expect it, as he leaned forwards, just a bit, to look over the broken and shattered plastic face of the blue bunny animatronic, looking for something, before- "Fritz, that's not supposed to be there right?" The man leaned in, peering to see what Mike was looking at, before spotting it with a surprised noise coming from the back of his throat.
For there was something, hidden against the small space between a portion of the animatronic that wasn't damaged, the outer casing of Toy Bonnie's lower jaw, pressed against the animatronic's endoskeleton's head. A strange oblong chip looking device that had a slow blinking red light on it, it was clearly not supposed to be there, as Fritz glanced back at Mike and asked.
"How'd you know that was there? Better yet, do you know what it does?" Mike just nodded, keeping his eyes on the animatronic, just in case, though he did know truly that there wasn't anything to worry about, as he said back to the man.
"Had to be somewhere, I just found it quickly. And it forces the spirit inside of the animatronic to not be able to interact with their body. Remember how the original four had shut offs at the base of the back of their heads? It's like that, but more... advanced if I had to guess" Fritz looked even more confused.
"I'm sorry, what? Where'd you get any of that from?" Mike just took a deep breath, feeling his annoyance and anger spiking just a bit at his friend, which was something he refused to have bubble up against Fritz of all people, but like always with his temper, it was hardly easy to direct it, so he just continued to press it down, before saying with a bit more bite to it than he meant.
"Does it matter? I can explain later, just for right now get that thing off of Bonnie, I think it's about time we have a talk about a few things" Fritz grimaced at the tone, but moved forwards easily enough, looking over the chip, before moving out for a moment, returning in the next minute with a pair of pliers, as he reached into the broken face casing, and moved his hands at an awkward angle, to reach and grab onto the chip before, with a sharp yank, managed to rip the thing out.
Mike saw it coming from a mile away, at the first twitch of movement from the aminatronic's eyes, his hand shot out, grabbing onto Fritz's shoulder, and with a powerful jerk, he pulled the man away and then pushed out of the crate the same moment the slacked and broken up jaw of Bonnie's slammed shut. Had Mike not done so, there was a strong chance that Fritz would have just lost at least a finger or two. Fritz himself let out a yelp for a moment at the sudden manhandling, but was soon watching as Mike moved as well, getting them both out of the crate in time to grab the two doors, slamming them closed and latched as the broken animatronic slammed itself into the doors, leading to a powerful thud as from it's form let out a static wail of sounds that sounded well past inhuman.
"R-WQ_F-SFA-SX_C" Mike just shouted over the noise, his anger pulling forwards before he could help it.
"Knock it off or I'm going to fucking electrify the entire bloody crate!" His voice peaked into a proper hoarse yell, making his voice sound gruffer than he wanted it to, his temper causing his accent to slip out on accent, but it seemed to have an effect all the same, as in an instant the mashing waves of sound that might have been able to be broken down into letters, silenced itself, as Mike took a deep breath, saying in a much less loud tone to the shut doors, "Right, how about we talk about this then? You got a working voice box in there? You know, one you didn't just probably shred to make an incomprehensible mess of pointless noise?"
Fritz was still giving him a look, especially at how frankly mean Mike was being, but he just continued to stare ahead at the doorway, waiting, until-
"I- will kill you" The voice came out as a mess, broken up and barely understandable, but still he could make out what was being said, as Mike just tightened his hands into fists as he said.
"Right, yeah, I kind of knew that once I figured out that you've been trying to kill me for months now. And frankly that pisses me right off for pretty obvious reasons, so how about we skip the bullshit and you tell me what the hell is your problem with me? What the hell did I do to you? I've never even met you before!" Mike got being hated, he had done a lot of messed up things in his life, but he didn't get it when he had done nothing wrong, and the idea of that somehow made something in his gut get twisted painfully hard which fueled into his anger. He was so sick of pointless problems.
"Y-You kno-w what you di-d!" Oh this little-
"For the love of my crumbling sanity, just spit it out!" What the hell was wrong with people like this? Did they just love making things as hard to understand and vague as possible?! Thankfully it seemed that finally broke Bonnie's vague need to be hard to understand, as with a near snarl to the static words, the animatronic shouted now, his own anger peaking and spiking past his own limit it seemed, as he screamed through the door.
"YO-U K_ILLE-D ME! YO-U KILL-ED U_S ALL AND Y_OU TWIS-TED MA-RIO-NE-TEE IN-TO TRU_STIN-G YO-U, YO_U -SICK BASTA-RD" Mike felt himself freeze in place, his breath stilling for a moment as the words washed over him, before it came, in rushing waves, wrath unlike anything he had felt in a long, long time pushing forwards so strongly it felt like being knocked off his feet with fury. Heat was blooming in his chest, before radiating out into his limbs with a shaking vibrating anger that nearly made him want to buckle over and scream.
Instead he spoke up, his voice somehow quiet and filled with that silent anger, "You think... You think I'm that monster?" Mike leaned forwards, his hands placing against the crate's metal doors, just to brace himself as he tried to calm down, and oh boy did he try, but his breath was coming out in harsh huffs, his hands were curling into fists, his nails scratching and scraping against the metal they were pressing harshly against, it was to much.
It felt like he was about to drown, or burst-
"Mike?" Fritz's voice broke him from the thundering sound of his own pulsing blood rushing through his ears as he pushed away from the crate with unnecessary force, turning away and quickly moving, saying in a half grunting voice, his gritted teeth stressing the words.
"I need a minute" Mike needed several minutes, because if he didn't cool down right this second, he was going to do something that he couldn't take back. Even as something dark and twisted and wrathful in the back of his mind itched to make that damn bunny understand what it meant to do something to piss off Michael Afton this badly. Because the last time he was this angry, he had killed someone. Stumbling away from the crate, his steps moved into a blur within his vision, he didn't know where the hell he was until after a long moment, he realized with the pressure of a wind pushing into him, that he had made it outside at some point.
He was sitting as well, he realized, as he took a deep breath before leaning back against the wall of the warehouse, he wasn't suddenly calm or anything, but he didn't trust himself to move about right now, it was like his entire body was on a hair trigger, he'd... probably explode the second anything happened, the eye of the storm of his emotions as it were... Mike just chose to sit there, focusing on his breathing, and tried to work through the thrumming rage that was rushing through his mind. He had to lock that down, he couldn't lose it, he couldn't, he refused.
No matter how vile something someone could say to him, he couldn't.
So there he sat, waiting, trying to find something to hold onto to ground his mind.
In the meantime, just because Mike had left, that didn't mean nothing had stopped in the warehouse, as Fritz found himself staring at the door where the screaming broken up voice had come from with a frown on his face. His heart had slowly returned to a more... normal level of beats per minute after handling everything and now that it seemed that no one was in danger at the moment. Of course he was incredibly confused about a lot of things at the moment, but that didn't mean that he couldn't focus on something.
That something being what the broken Bonnie had just screamed at his friend, as he found himself moving up to the door, his mouth tensing for a moment about what he was about to do, before that image of unadulterated pain flashing over his friend's face at being assumed to be the Purple Guy before it had quickly shifted into something else that had caused the man to have to leave so suddenly, and just like that he found his determination solidifying in his chest as he said out loud, to the bunny locked behind the door.
"Mike didn't kill you, he didn't do any of what you said. I don't know where you got that idea, but it's wrong"
"No, it's him! It has to be, I'd never forget that face!" Interestingly, it seemed that the voice box was slowly getting more and more accurate the longer the animatronic had spoken, Fritz didn't know quite why, but he surprisingly found himself uncaring about the strange machine quirk, and instead straight back to the bot with more heat to his voice.
"He's done nothing! He was a kid when you were killed, when all of you were killed, and he didn't twist up Marionette's trust! He's earned it, we all have! I don't know what the hell you think you know, but it's wrong" Fritz... didn't think mentioning as well the fact Mike was very much in prison for killing a child at the time of any of the killings would go over well with the bot, but still felt the need to defend his friend over something Mike clearly hadn't had any part in.
Before he could continue to defend the man, or for Bonnie to try and say something new about how he was wrong, a new voice, which was normally light and open was now stern and harsh, spoke up from behind Fritz.
"He's right, Mike has done nothing, and you tried to have him... I'm... I don't know what I am feeling right now" Turning around, Fritz saw the sight of a very... conflicted looking Marionette. He felt himself let out a breath of relief before he could catch himself. The man might be ok with handling weird things, but he was under no assumption that Mike and Marionette were the ones that had better grasps on situations like this, and if he could help it, Fritz would more certainly prefer either of the two being in the lead for things like this, and given Mike was... out of it, Marionette was a sight for sore eyes, even if he was a bit late for the action, the clean up, in Fritz's opinion, was no doubt going to be somehow even more messy.
"Where's the others?" Marionette didn't quite take his attention from the crate in front of him, but he still answered Fritz's question.
"With Jeremy, they're on the way here now, I couldn't wait" The man just nodded as Marionette floated toward the door, looking at it for a moment, a fain hesitance seemingly playing on the puppet's mind and body for a second, before he reached forwards, pulling on the latch, unlocking it, before pulling the doors open. Revealing the sight of Toy Bonnie, in all his cracked and broken glory. Marionette's body let out a pained chime in spite of himself as he watched as the smaller animatronic moved slightly, the sound of creaking and groans escaping from the gears and they rusted, creaked, and groaned over each other.
The two just found themselves staring at the other, watching and observing each other. Marionette had already done so once, back when he had thought no one had been inside, but Marionette had the strong feeling that this wasn't the first time since that time that Bonnie had looked at him. Those eyes...
"You were the one in my dreams..." Toy Bonnie's head slowly creaked in an approximation of a nod, as Marionette had to ask, "Why?"
"You need to remember, you still do... What he did... He's the one who killed us" Marionette let out a short huff at that, crossing his arms over his chest as he gave the toy animatronic a very unimpressed look.
"I'm pretty sure that's not what happened"
"And how would you know! You willingly forgot, but I couldn't! I refused! I know his face, his sins can't hide from me!" Gosh, Bonnie was dramatic. Marionette was sure he used to find that amusing, right now it was just... hard to watch, as the half destroyed machine holding the spirit of an old friend wailed and screamed about things he knew nothing about. What had happened to him to make Bonnie act like this?
As much as it was painfully ironic to think about, the animatronic reminded Marionette almost of a feral animal. Lashing and forcing his new and surprising abilities onto all those around the blast radius that was his target, Mike. That thought, and the sudden realization of something else made something in his chest tighten and hurt with betrayal, as Bonnie's words caught up with him as he said more than asked.
"You were the one giving me those dreams" The animatronic continued to creak and move closer, as Marionette found himself slowly moving backwards, as he spoke.
"Of course! I- I had to make you see! I had to save you! I still need to! He's still here!" Marionette knew what was going to happen seconds before it did, that didn't stop him from wishing the other wouldn't, but in that moment, Bonnie leaped forwards, clearly looking to make a mad dash to try and get around him and the others to try and find Mike. No matter how much he couldn't handle the thoughts of what he had to do, the idea of doing nothing and risking Bonnie getting Mike was infinitely worse, as just as the bunny sprung forwards, Marionette pounced.
It felt wrong, he felt wrong, but his strings came out with ease all the same, and with an action that was to familiar to be comfortable with, he quickly shot at the rushing stumbling animatronic, his strings wrapping around the bunny's body and one onto one of his legs, and in an instant, the animatronic's own momentum had turned against him, as Bonnie crashed to the ground in a heavy cracking thud against the solid concrete floor.
Bonnie struggled and fought to try and fight his strings off, but it was pointless, as he felt the parts of him he could control with only a thought, move deeper and coil themselves around his joints, binding him in place as Marionette just found himself shake lightly in forced need to keep himself together, just a bit longer, as he held down his old friend, as bursts of static and shouts and screams raved from the animatronic.
"I'm saving you! I want to save you! He'll kill you again, he'll kill you all! I see the truth! I see his face, he can't hide from me! I'll kill him, please! Just let me go!" It was heart breaking, watching his friend beg and plead to be let go, fighting against his hold, desperate to do something unforgivable. It was clear that Bonnie's mind wasn't... all there, and that made it all the more tragic as he felt his own voice, cracking but not quite yet breaking with static say to Fritz.
"C-can... Can you shut him off?" Fritz gave the puppet a surprised look before giving a short nod, with a grimace on his face as he moved a bit closer, as Bonnie began to struggle much harder as Marionette had to fight to keep his old friend in place, as he begged, louder and louder, to be let go to kill Mike. Marionette just held on tighter, unable to do much more as he was forced to listen while Fritz leaned down. In a moment he had pushed up a back plate on Bonnie's back, and with a sharp tug, the bot suddenly stilled before going into a heavy slump, "He-... He'll be fine right?"
"Yeah, I just have to reconnect and flip a switch and he'd turn back on like nothing happened, it's just a shut off measure... He might be able to turn himself back on though, this never really worked well on the others" Marionette just slowly nodded, as he slowly lifted himself off of the animatronic, before asking quietly.
"We should put him back into the crate... Where's... Where's Mike?" Marionette didn't feel right about leaving right now, but he wasn't sure he could handle staying here right now either. Fritz grimaced for a moment, and for a second Marionette feared the worst, but the man just said quickly.
"Uh, he's cooling off... He didn't take the accusations Toy Bonnie was saying well" Marionette only nodded before leaving quickly, feeling like he could have, and better yet, should have handled that so much better than he had, but it was too much, way too much, and he just couldn't handle that by himself.
Unfortunately, as he managed to find Mike, who was sitting only a few feet away from the door, as the two turned to look at each other, it was painfully clear that neither were in a state to be able to properly help the other in just about anything. Unsure of what to say, and even more what to do now, Marionette just found himself floating there, when Mike with a deep breath stood up, moving over before gently moving him back inside of the warehouse.
The two didn't get much farther than that, just enough to be out of the view of anyone in the public, as Mike, still lightly having an arm around Marionette, just lowered himself to the floor again to sit down, as Marionette found himself going with the man, as the two just sat there, next to each other. Marionette wasn't sure what to do, his mind was a whirlwind of uncertainty, but it seemed that Mike couldn't care less, his arm tightening around the puppet, half dragging the animatronic at his side into a clear, tight, and nearly desperate, one arm hug.
Marionette would have simply leaned as much as he could into the touch, because he desperately needed it, but he was distracted from that as Mike himself let out a faint but noticeable hiss of what sounded like pain, catching the puppet's attention like little else could, as he turned, just a bit, and finally noticed it. The man's right arm was tightly wrapping up in what had once been his shirt and jacket sleeves, while what was clearly dried blood caked his skin around the sight of the wrapping.
Pulling back with a startled chime, Marionette floated around and got a proper look at the man, just staring at him, his other arm had a similar wrapping, though not nearly as much, showing it wasn't as serious of an injury, but the fact that Mike had been cut up bad enough that he had felt the need to do that at all... With the tired, exhausted look on the man's face, his hair lightly sticking to his head from sweat. He looked... He looked like a person who had just fought for his life.
The first few chords of his song came from his chest before he could help it, as Mike just slowly raised his head up to give the puppet a look, raising a tired eyebrow before asking.
"If you're about to chase me around, mind giving me another five minutes for a breather" Marionette forced the tune to end, but he couldn't help but feel the sudden overwhelmingly protective urge surge into his chest in such a vicious way that he couldn't hope to hold the emotions back. He had been told that something had happened, and when he had appeared in the warehouse, while he didn't have all the answers, he had been able to figure out the basics soon enough, that Toy Bonnie had been using the others as puppets to attack the humans.
But he hadn't thought someone had been hurt, Fritz nor Jeremy had said anything, and he knew Mike was here and could handle himself, he hadn't thought to worry, but now? Seeing Mike hurt, it suddenly made the puppet keenly aware that if something had happened, he wouldn't have known, wouldn't have been there. Mike managed to get out, but he had been hurt, clearly, and pretty badly, he could have... Any of them could have died. And the idea of that, that Mike had truly been in life threatening danger made something painful twist in his chest at the idea that he hadn't known this time.
It was like the Bounce Palace all over again, just so much worse. Before there had been small bruises that Mike had done his best to keep hidden, here one of his arms was coated with his own blood, the man looked paler than he should, and it was clear he was fighting off something happening in his head. Marionette felt a discontented pained chime exit him and a painful anger rearing its head at both himself and Bonnie. Because how could he?
He finally managed to find his own voice after another long second of Mike slowly looking a bit more worried.
"A-Are you ok?" The man tensed, his jaw tightening as he seemed to think over the worried words of the puppet, before saying.
"I'm... No, just... Can you come here?" The man slightly opened his arms, and while Marionette felt the need to continue to ask questions, his head still hurting with how much he was thinking about what all had just happened, something much more powerful in him made him move forwards, falling into the man's arms, as he felt his arms wrap around the man and hold onto his form tightly. Needing to feel the man to know he was safe, that he was still here, that he was hurt but alive.
Doing so made the puppet suddenly aware of the light shake in his own form from his nerves and raw emotions, as well as the faint trembling in the man, whose arms were held tightly along his sides, as he seemed to hold onto the puppet like a lifeline. Clearly Mike was much more affected than he was allowing Marionette to see, but that was fine, because Marionette could recognize he was doing the same. Both knew that they couldn't afford to break down right now, not only for the other, but for the situation that had yet to resolve itself, but both also really needed this at the moment to keep going through what the rest of the day would have in store for them.
Neither moved for a long moment, though Marionette, as he stayed there, couldn't help but feel a familiar guilt and a new sense of understanding wash over him. Mike could have died, if something had happened, if something went wrong, Marionette wouldn't have been here, he wouldn't have been able to save him... He would have died without knowing... That thought stuck to the puppet's mind like glue.
While for Mike, the man was mostly just grateful Marionette was here, he needed something to anchor himself back into reality, to get the pulsing red out of his eyes, as he slowly and much more easily than before, managed to get his emotions back under control and locked back in, instead of the near overwhelming wrestling match it had been before.
But of course, now that he could think clearly again, that just meant his own thoughts and questions began to bubble back up to the surface, and he couldn't imagine what everyone else was thinking at the moment, given he was pretty sure that he was the only one that had figured everything out, or at least, as much of it as he could with what he had. So, as he listened to the sound of a familiar engine pull up to the warehouse, Mike slowly moved to stand, pulling Marionette up with him, before drifting away enough so they weren't literally hanging off of each other, though he wasn't quite willing to move too far away. Thankfully the puppet didn't seem to mind any, even if Mike internally wondered just when he had become the more touchy one of the two of them.
Still, all the same, he moved over to the door, looking around for a moment before waving to the three in his car, Jeremy had taken to getting the other two after sending Marionette ahead it seemed, as he watched as Evan and Foxy piled out of the car and quickly moved into the doorway Mike had opened up, out of the line of sight of the outside world once more, as Jeremy himself quickly pulled himself out and moved over as well, sending a look at Mike and Marionette both, grimacing at whatever mess of stuff the two were projecting.
"Who did that to you?" Mike's attention was dragged to his brother, as the almost static sounding tone from the bear's voice filled the air. He didn't sound particularly happy, Mike managed to give a shrug as he said.
"I have a really bad track record with Bonnies" He really did, Spring Bonnie, Original Bonnie who hated him, and now Toy Bonnie, it was getting almost ridiculous thinking about it. Thinking about it though, he glanced back at Marionette and asked, "Where is he by the way?" Marionette tensed, a slow and low chime coming from him, telling Mike all he needed to know about the puppet's feelings about the... reintroduction to his old friend.
"I had Fritz turn him off... He... His mind isn't all there, he was confused and I don't... I don't think he really knew what was happening, but that doesn't change the fact he shouldn't have done this, and him fighting us wouldn't get anything done when everyone wasn't here and caught up with what's happening" Mike just nodded, that much was very obvious, though as it stood he wasn't exactly all that interested in this exact moment to give any kind of sympathy to the animatronic.
"Good, we can deal with him later, as long as he doesn't take control of any more machines in the meantime" Jeremy very clearly flinched at that, before asking quietly.
"Figured that out?" Mike raised an eyebrow at that, slightly surprised Jeremy had come to that conclusion as well as he asked.
"Yeah, I had context clues, I'll explain when we get Fritz. How did you know?" He just shrugged.
"Mangle didn't... feel right, it reminded me of my last shift at Freddy's, when Spring Bonnie took over the others. I didn't know who the controller was though" Mike just nodded, right, weird supernatural senses and stuff... Actually... that explained another thing, slotting into place in his mind, before he shook the thoughts off and just nodded his head in the direction of the crate where Toy Bonnie had been moved back into. Ignoring the eyes from the others as he walked ahead, noting the way that their sight seemed stuck on his arms.
Mike did his best to hold back the very strong urge to reach over and cover his wrist with his right hand, but that wouldn't do much more but draw even more attention to the scarring on the arm itself. If he was lucky they were just looking at them because of the clear injuries he had and nothing else, but it was clear from the way that Evan slowly moved a bit closer, until he was nearly flanking him as much as Marionette was, that that wasn't the case, at least not fully.
He ignored that, as the group all met up fully and properly now, as the group all caught each other up on everything. Mike nearly had to leave again for another breather when Jeremy mentioned how Mangle had trashed the diner, the man himself wincing at the flaring unholy rage that washed over and out of the man. But he managed to control himself, and managed to just nod, while Foxy did the exploding for him, the fox went on a not so subtle long rant, it was almost inspired, Mike was only half listening, but he had the feeling Foxy, once everything was repaired, would be telling more than a few stories about ho stupid and ridiculous 'Sea Bonnies' were. Whatever the hell that meant.
Still, no one felt like stopping the fox, honestly, in Mike's opinion, it helped to hear someone be so open about how much this sucked without feeling like the one who was throwing the 'tantrum'. Plus it was a great break from the tension that he was sure all of them were still feeling, the break helped get the rest of any nerves out of them so they could handle it without the last dredges of adrenaline from the life or death situation they had just been in affecting their judgment. But that's what Foxy was the best at, keeping them from dwelling or getting bogged down, he was straight to the point, and Mike couldn't help but appreciate that about the kid right now more than ever.
Because he really needed that, and he was sure the others would agree if they ever would bring it up, which he wasn't planning on, as instead just turned his attention to Fritz as the man turned to him in turn and asked.
"So... How the hell did you know it was Bonnie? Or about the device on him, or that he was the one messing with the Cove, or... anything really" Mike just shrugged.
"I have no idea how to explain this in a quick and easy way, but I guess in a summary... A few months ago I found the records on the Toy Animatronics, all of them stated that they had been 'Decommissioned' except Toy Bonnie, nothing had been written there for his file. Of course then we found the toys and he was as lifeless as the others, confirmed by our resident experts, so I let the matter rest, haven't thought about it sense really. But, over the last few months I've learned a few more things about animatronics, at least the haunted kind" He glanced at the animatronics in question, Evan and marionette had been the two biggest sources of information here, but Foxy had played something of a role in it as well, as he continued to explain.
"I learned that animatronics only learn supernatural abilities through their need for them. Marionette floats because he can't walk with the legs he has for example, or how my brother learned to use visions to interact with the world because he couldn't do anything else. And most importantly, haunting a business or people or anyone really isn't something any animatronic can do by themselves when bound by their forms, but... when they aren't bound... We know what the original Chica, Bonnie, and Freddy did" Evan spoke up next, a faint questioning tone to his voice.
"Yes, but they couldn't do it for long, they were barely holding onto this side long enough to help with Miller before they moved on" Mike nodded, saying quickly.
"Exactly, because they were destroyed beyond a point where their body's could hold onto their souls, forcing them out with nowhere to go-" Fritz suddenly spoke up.
"But an animatronic had a body, but just couldn't access it for whatever reason, then they could learn to project themselves outside of it to interact with things around them, because they needed to do that, just like Goldie can, just... in another way" Mike nodded, but Jeremy spoke up before he could continue, his own insights coming to a head.
"And we wouldn't notice because if the host of the animatronic wasn't there at all, being forced out of it's shell, then we wouldn't be able to tell anything was wrong at all. I hadn't been able to sense any of the three that had been destroyed by Miller at all, even though they were still around, which was how we hadn't noticed" Mike nodded again, having been ready to explain it, but it was clear the other two were quickly piecing together what he had himself done with the clues that he had been able to pick up over the last few months. Foxy asked a question next however.
"But how could he effect the things at the Cove if he was here the whole time" Mike just kept his mouth shut, and instead turned to look at Evan, who noticed his look right away, as the bear's eyes widened just a tad as he realized the same thing that Mike did as he said suddenly.
"Because of Marionette" The puppet let out a surprised chime at that, pointing to himself as he asked.
"Me?" The bear just nodded, saying quickly to explain.
"I can also see what's happening at the Cove, if I was desperate enough I could even send visions to the people there as well with a fair bit of effort, it's how I was able to do my part at the previous locations when we were still under the assumption that the night guards were the killer" Everyone did their best to ignore the casual mention of killing night guards, as Marionette asked still.
"But what does that have to do with me?"
"I can see the Cove not because of what the place is, it's because of who is there, Foxy. Because of how much time we spent in those early years, I learned how to keep my eye on the original four to make sure I couldn't lose them given just how much they had been moved around over time. So I can see wherever Foxy is and the things around him if I want to. Toy Bonnie wouldn't have ever had that kind of connection with Foxy or me, but-"
"But he would have that with me... That's how he was sending me those nightmares, he always knew where I was, whether it was at the Cove, home, or even in some random motel" Mike was suddenly fighting down another somehow bigger wave of anger at the sudden casual mention of the animatronic inflicting his puppet with nightmares. He hadn't pieced that together, he had just thought they had been normal nightmares, he knew enough about those as it was, but to hear it had been caused... Well, as the one who helped Marionette deal with them, hearing someone had been causing them on purpose wasn't something that left a good Evan nodded, saying as well.
"And here, I can see more of my surroundings than I should be able to if I really try, spiritual projection isn't the hardest thing I've done" Mike... slowly glanced at his brother, before deciding that he wasn't sure just what the hell he was suppose to think about that fact, but it certainly explained the, whole, seeing shadow figures when he was running for his life, it's why he called the bonnie Shadow Bonnie in the first place. Anyways, from there he continued to explain.
"Beyond that, he had months of time with access to three animatronics to learn how to possess and move them around like Spring Bonnie had been able to do, heck, I bet it was even easier given the suits didn't have anyone inside of them that would have fought back against the possession" Now they were back to the main topic of just how the bunny had nearly killed them, as Fritz asked suddenly.
"How did you know they were just all still around and we just missed something?" Mike just shrugged.
"It confused me for a moment, and I thought that maybe they all were still here, but when I was running and was thinking of everything, I noticed something that put everything in order for me to figure out just who was doing it all. Not only where the springlocks somehow moving around as well, which I knew for a fact no one was in as well, but none of the animatronics were nearly as agile or capable as they should be, it only took a single strong hit to knock the control out of them, Chica went down by a shelf falling on her, and Freddy was so uncoordinated, I managed to both run in and out of a crate without it being able to get me. Everything was nearly fully in place, but then Jeremy called me, telling me Mangle was there at the Cove, and given that meant every single non-sentient animatronic we had on hand was somewhere they shouldn't be and therefore accountable, expect for one, that's when everything fully clicked into place and I realized Bonnie must be behind everything, and that something must be wrong with their suit that made them use such extremes to interact and attack us"
"And that's how you knew there had to be a device of some sort that was causing it..." Fritz just sounded beyond bewildered, as, after a moment he continued to speak, "Just... to clarify, you figured all of this out from random bits of information and happenstances you learned months ago and a rushed, panicked thirty second phone call, while you were actively running and fighting for your life" Mike just nodded, not quite sure just what it was that the older man was trying to get at. Fritz opened his mouth, closed it, stayed silent for a moment, before just sighing.
"I- Yeah, sure" Mike was fairly confused, while Jeremy just said to the group.
"Right... Well, now that we're all caught up on just what the last few months have had actually been like without us noticing... What do we do now?" Mike grimaced, yeah, that was the question wasn't it? His grimace turned into a much more pained frown as he realized that everyone's eyes had turned to look at him, like he had any idea of just what the hell they were supposed to do here. but he couldn't just say nothing, so he took a second to try and scramble for anything, before finally coming up with something to spit out as an idea.
"What is there to do? We check the damages at the Cove, probably have to close our doors for a week or two to get everything fixed up, but after that business as usual. While for..." Mike's eyes moved to stare at the crate holding the actual issue in the room, directing everyone's focus on it as well, he just frowned. He already knew he was going to regret what he was about to ask, but he asked anyway, turning to the puppet, "Mari? How... How old is this Bonnie?" Marionette let out a small surprised chime, having gone silent in thought for a while, before tilting his head to the side to try and do the math quickly in his mind, before his face shifted into a pained look.
"He was on the younger side, and he died at our location, back in '87... At most he'd be sixteen, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was younger" Mike shared a matching look between him, Fritz, and Jeremy, all three already knowing exactly what was being thought of by the other two. Toy Bonnie was just a kid, a tortured and broken down child. One that tried to kill all three of them sure, but... well, Marionette had said it best, there was clearly something going on that had heavily affected the animatronic. They already had plenty of experience of ghosts getting lost within their own minds because of how poor their condition was. And comparing how broken down Toy Bonnie was to the originals who had faced the same problem, but were realistically in much better shape than the toy himself... It was probably a miracle he could think for himself at all for the shape he was in.
That however just made some dark and twisted in Mike's gut rear its head again, with the knowledge that no doubt Dave Miller had known all of this, and had left Bonnie in such a state for who knows how long. With that in mind, Mike found himself speaking before he could second guess himself.
"We'll have to repair him, and see if we can get him in a more... lucid state where we can talk him down from trying to kill me in the future... Would you be ok with doing that Marionette?" The puppet jumped a bit at the sound of his full name, but that was because Mike needed the animatronic to realize just how serious he was about whatever it was the puppet would say. If he didn't feel comfortable after months of nightmares, then that was it, one of the others could handle it, but if not... Marionette came to his answer faster than Mike would have been able to.
"Of course, he's... Bonnie wasn't himself, he always was a bit dramatic, but to do something like this... I- I want to make sure he gets to come back as well as any of us had the chance to" Mike just nodded, while Foxy let out an annoyed grunt and Evan looked none too pleased with that answer, the bear letting his thoughts being known the second he realized Mike's eyes were on him.
"You shouldn't risk giving him another chance, he spent months instead of actually reaching out and seeking help, actively trying to hurt both the Cove but you and Marionette. That's not just a twisted mind, that's just madness"
"And he broke my ship! We should just leave him shut down and locked up in there!" Mike glanced between the two, as the faint tension he felt once more returned to the group, as Marionette seemed almost ready to jump in for his old friend's defense, and Fritz and Jeremy both shared a glance, unsure what to do with the suddenly, slightly aggressive tones the two were taking, as Mike sound himself speaking in a voice he didn't often use.
"Not happening, he needs help, so we're going to help him out, end of story" The two both seemed ready to continue their own points, Evan's being a bit more reasonable than the mostly pouting and petty Foxy's, but that didn't stop him from saying before the two could get a word in, "I said no. If he's still trying to threaten us or cause problems or it was revealed that he knew exactly what he was doing, then we can talk about this more later, but until then he's a kid who has gone through something horrible and lashed out in the only way he could. If anyone could understand that, I'd assume you two would be able"
That seemed to hit both, as Foxy fidgeted just for a second, before his head lowered, looking down in something that was clearly shame, quickly realizing just how much of a hypocrite he was acting like at the thought of not giving this animatronic another chance. Evan took a slightly longer time to react, but eventually just looked away, his hands tightly clenching together, but after a moment the bear said quietly.
"You're too nice" Mike just shook his head.
"No, I'm really not, just... He's a kid that needs help" The bear slowly turned his head back, as the two continued to share a long glance, before Evan finally just nodded his head.
"Alright, fine" Mike took a deep breath, feeling a faint sense of relief at knowing at least no one here would be fighting against the idea, as he turned back to the group as a whole, saying to them all.
"Right, well, I doubt we're going to jump into the therapy sessions right away with Bonnie, it's too recent. Let's work on getting the Cove fixed up and us all more comfortable with what we should be doing before we jump into it, and see if we can get him repaired before turning him back online" Everyone seemed to be in agreement with that idea, as Mike slowly let out a sigh of both relief and dread. It seemed things were about to get a bit more complicated soon weren't they?
Tomorrow was another day he supposed.
I really enjoy the fact this Michael is a hyper intuitive and clever guy, even if he's not the most book smart, it let's me have that end of the movie, wrap up scene where all the pieces have come together to finally make one picture built out of foreshadowing of dozens and dozens of chapters of small bits and pieces of information being shared over time. It's nice, of course in this case that picture is incredibly messed up, like, really really messed up, Shadow Bonnie, while the antagonist of this section of the story, is most certainty not the villain, he's a kid who has gone through trauma, is half aware of what's happening, and half insane.
I mentioned before that there wasn't really big threat in this section, it was mostly just to keep things establish and in mind for future stuff, among other things, and to have a background mystery to have a through line for this section of the story, with some kind of pay off. In this case, getting to use Shadow Bonnie and being able to introduce a new character... Kind of, given Bonnie's kind of deactivated for the time being. BTW, had anyone put together the weird shadow eye thing to when Shadow Freddy made his appearance?
Actually, does anyone remember that Shadow Freddy actually, like, showed up in this story? It was literally for, like, thirty-some odd chapters ago and was just Goldie spying on Mike for I think only a single scene, but that's how long that this has been technically building up from, because the two are basically using the same ability, hence the shadowed form. I just like mentioning all the continuity that I'm keeping sure is in line with each other, given here explained basically how Shadow Bonnie learned to do everything through examples from characters that all have the same abilities, just used slightly differently. Anyways, I don't really have more to add, cause I don't really want to get into all the character stuff going on in everyone's heads, so, See ya!