Dipper and Freddy entered the daycare proper just as Mike was using his wires to lower himself to the ground from the play structure.
"Mike! Are you alright?" Dipper asked as he ran over and helped Mike sit on the ground. "What happened!? I've seen you go toe-to-toe with Wendy for years, there's no way that stupid rabbit should have been able to even land a scratch on you let alone all this! Do you need a health potion? How bad is your leg? Do we need to call off the mission?"
"I'm fine," Mike assured, giving Dipper a comforting grin. "I already drank a potion and my chest is healed. I don't know about my leg yet, but I don't think it's bad enough to abort the mission yet. Just give me a minute and I'm sure I can repair it."
"So did that rabbit lady do something to you?" Dipper asked as he watched Mike roll up his pant leg and disconnected the leg from his body to more easily repair it. "From what I saw, your fighting was really off. Did she have some sort of drug in the knife?"
"No drugs as far as I am aware," Mike informed as he took out the parts he needed. "I think that device she used to escape has some sort of interference on robotic sensors. My eye didn't pick her up at all so I kept misjudging where she actually was. She was smart and caught me off guard, but she won't have it so easily next time."
"And there's going to be a next time," Dipper agreed with a grimace. "And the interference does make sense as my glasses started to glitch right as she started to get close to where I was."
"Will you be able to work around that?" Mike asked in concern as he worked on repairing his leg.
"Yeah," Dipper nodded with confidence. "I have some ideas on how to shield them and if worse comes to worst, I can just turn off the special features and use them as normal glasses."
"That's a relief at least," Mike said as he put his tools away and reattached his leg. It took a moment for his systems to reconnect with the limb, but once it did, Mike got to his feet saying, "There we go, as good as new."
"It is unsettling that there is an intruder in the Pizzaplex that I cannot see," Freddy commented in worry, drawing the attention of the others. "Is there anything you can do to repair this issue for me?"
"It's hard to say without knowing exactly how the device works and what it does," Mike replied with a thoughtful frown. "And a major of adjustment like that isn't something I can do outside of Parts and Services… and getting there probably has its own dangers at this point… I'll have to think about that… Anyway, not that I'm not glad to see you Freds, especially as you still seem like yourself, but what are you doing here?"
"Apparently he's been helping the kid," Dipper explained before Freddy could. "He says the kid's safe, but he hasn't told me where he is."
"I'm sorry about that Mr. Pines," Freddy said, sounding genuinely apologetic. "But Gregory is very wary about being trapped in here, but I think I've been able to convince him to meet with you…"
"That's understandable, if not ideal," Mike said, completely understanding being paranoid in this place. "So where is he? The sooner we can sort things out the better."
"Are you ready for that Superstar?" Freddy messaged Gregory, wanting to make sure the child truly was agreeable to this arrangement.
"Yeah," Gregory replied reluctantly. He didn't trust these adults still, but they at least seemed to be against the rabbit lady and other animatronics, so it could at least be an "enemy of my enemy" situation. "You can open your hatch so I can talk to them."
Freddy complied immediately, opening up to allow Gregory to hop out. Dipper was surprised to see Gregory emerge from inside Freddy, but accepted it pretty quickly as it was far from the weirdest thing he'd seen. Mike on the other hand had a much more severe reaction.
While Mike had never seen the Funtime's capturing protocols in person between the blueprints, Baby's story, and William's detailed notes, he had a pretty clear picture of what happens. He had not been prepared for Freddy to unintentionally reenact that gruesome scenario. Then there was the fact that Gregory looked remarkably like Evan did, something Mike hadn't grasped through the video feed and the darkness. All in all, it was the perfect storm of triggers to throw Mike back into a flashback of one of the worst days of his life.
The blood drained from Mike's face and he began to sway on his feet as his mind became convinced that the animatronic and child before him were those from that fateful day in the diner. The animatronics were the first to notice something was wrong and acted first.
"Chief Pines, are you alright?" Freddy asked in concern while Helpy jumped out of Gregory's arms and ran towards Mike. Freddy's inquiry immediately had Dipper whipping around to check on Mike, only to see that his brother looked like he was on the verge of fainting.
"Simzel," Dipper cursed, gently grabbing Mike and helping him sit on the ground. "Come on Mike… breath with me… In 1…2…3… Out… 1… 2… 3…"
"…blood… so much blood…" Mike mumbled as he stared at Gregory and Freddy in horror. "…it was just supposed to be a joke… I didn't mean… I didn't…"
"I know Mike… I know," Dipper assured calmly, slowly forcing Mike to look at him rather than Gregory. "But you can't focus on that right now… Just look at me… focus on my voice… In 1… 2… 3…"
"… my fault… my fault…" Mike kept mumbling, still lost in his memories despite Dipper's best efforts. Helpy noticed this and pressed one of his hands to his own nose, making a loud squeaky 'honk' fill the air. The sudden noise made all the humans jump in surprise and even got a startled laugh out of Mike.
"Thanks, Helpy," Dipper said before turning back to Mike, who seemed a bit more responsive now. "In 1… 2… 3… Out 1… 2… 3…"
Mike was able to focus on Dipper this time and began following Dipper's instructions. Gregory watched the scene, unable to help but fill a little guilty about unintentionally causing Mike to have a panic attack. Sure, he didn't know the guy and wasn't ready to trust him, but Gregory had had a few panic attacks himself and knew how terrible they were. For as bad as this was, Gregory found himself a little more open to these adults because of it. Seeing the two brothers in such a vulnerable state made them seem more relatable to Gregory than any other adult he had come across, and he found himself a bit more willing to team up with them.
"You back with us Mike?" Dipper asked once Mike seemed to have calmed down and his breathing returned to normal.
"Yeah…" Mike sighed, feeling a little embarrassed about his breakdown as he and Dipper both rose back onto their feet. "It's been a long time since I've had one that bad…"
"Considering everything happening right now, I'm not that surprised," Dipper replied with sympathy.
"I apologize for causing you stress Chief Pines," Freddy said. "I was unaware you suffered from panic attacks. Is there anything I can do to make sure I don't trigger another one?"
"Just warn me before you have the kid climb in or out of your chest compartment," Mike sighed. "And I told you, Freddy, it's fine if you call me Mike. Especially since it'd probably get confusing if you keep calling me and Dipper by our last name with both of us here."
"And you can call me Mason or even just Dipper," Dipper added, smiling at the animatronic. "You don't need to be formal with me."
"If that is your wish then I'll do my best to comply," Freddy agreed.
"What kind of name is 'Dipper'?" Gregory cut it, a little annoyed at being ignored.
"It's an old nickname, though mostly just my family uses it nowadays," Dipper replied easily. "You can call me that too if you want to, though I'm fine with whichever you feel most comfortable with."
"I'll stick with Dipper since it's more different from Mike than Mason is," Gregory decided, getting a chuckle from Dipper. "So what are you two doing here anyway?"
"We could ask you the same thing," Mike retorted with a snort. "But that isn't our concern right now. We just want to get you out of here, because, in case you haven't noticed, things are a lot more dangerous than they should be right now."
"I tried to leave, but the doors locked before I could," Gregory replied with a huff. "I haven't had a chance to look for another way out yet…"
"Luckily for you, I work here and happen to know where the other exits are," Mike replied with a smug grin. "So if you're willing, we can help get you out."
"Fine," Gregory grumbled, crossing his arms. "But you better not try anything funny! Or I'll sic Freddy on you!"
"Gregory, I'm sure Mike and Mason won't do anything to harm you," Freddy chided. "Though I will keep you safe when necessary."
"Noted…" Mike said, forcefully shoving away thoughts about other Freddys proving how dangerous they were. "Okay… I still need to finish clearing out Moondrop's systems, because I rather not have him coming after us if it takes us longer than expected to sneak Gregory out. Once I do that, we can leave the daycare. Here kid, take this…"
Mike pulled out one of his spare tasers and tossed it to Gregory, who fumbled it a little but managed to catch it.
"Anything on half power or lower is safe to use on humans," Mike explained as Gregory looked the device over. "Half power and up can stun animatronics for a few seconds depending on how much power you give it. Only use full power as a last resort though, otherwise, you risk melting the inner wires."
"Awesome!" Gregory grinned as he turned it on, watching electricity spark across the top. His opinion of these adults pretty much skyrocketed because of this.
"Mike, are you sure it's wise to give such a device to Gregory?" Freddy asked nervously. "It doesn't seem like something that can be safely handled by children…"
"Probably not, but he needs a way to defend himself," Mike said with a shrug, kneeling by Moondrop and picking up his tablet again.
"Hopefully he won't have to use it," Dipper added. "But it is better for him to be prepared just in case… Oh! I forgot to give you one of these earlier Freddy, it should help protect you from the virus."
Freddy took the protection charm Dipper was holding out and looked at it in confusion saying, "I'm afraid I don't understand Mason… this doesn't look like it holds any sort of computer programs or a part to upgrade my systems. How will this help me?"
"It's a protective charm as the virus has some supernatural influences to it," Dipper explained. "Just wear it around your wrist or neck and it'll help counter those forces if it tries to infect you again."
Freddy didn't understand what Dipper was talking about, but he still complied and put the charm around his neck.
"Wait… Magic is real?!" Gregory proclaimed in surprise. "I wasn't just seeing things… you can use magic!"
"It's real alright," Dipper assured with a grin. "And if you're stuck with us long enough, you'll probably be seeing me use a lot of it."
"Can you use magic too Mike?" Gregory asked, looking over at him.
"I wish, but unfortunately technology and magic are very hard to mix," Mike replied with a huff, wiggling his animatronic fingers in emphasis. "Anything more than the most basic spells starts to make my systems glitch out. There are a few ways I can get around it, but they aren't practical in most circumstances or the protection is only temporary. So magic for me is a last resort kind of thing."
"My Great Uncle Ford and I have been trying to figure it out for years, but no luck," Dipper agreed in frustration. "Considering the origins and influence behind those limbs you'd think they'd be perfectly compatible with most supernatural energy… but nnnooooo… it just makes everything even more complicated!"
"What are you-?" Gregory began, confused and curious by Dipper's unexpected rant, but was cut off by Mike.
"I've finished up clearing out Moondrop's systems and sent him into the reboot cycle," Mike announced, disconnecting his tablet. "We should store him in a recharge station just to make sure he can't be tampered with just to be safe."
"I shall assist you in carrying him," Freddy said, easily picking up the deactivated animatronic. Once they were sure the daycare attendant was secure, the group finally got ready to enter the rest of the Pizzaplex.