AN: I've been struggling to get chapters out every week, so I'm going to switch to updating this story every other week.
As the adrenaline drained out of him, Mike could feel all the fear and panic he had pushed aside for the fight begin to break through. Mike forced his trembling limbs to get off Monty and slumped back against the nearest railing. Tucking his head between his knees, Mike focused on taking deep breaths to keep from having another panic attack. Mike heard and felt as Dipper sat down next to him, offering his silent support and comfort, Gregory sitting down on Mike's other side after a moment's hesitation. Roxy just stood as a silent guard, watching to make sure no more threats snuck up on them while the humans recovered.
Mike felt Dipper nudge him slightly and lifted his head just enough to see Dipper offering him a health potion, the rapidly healing bruises around his brother's throat showing that Dipper had already taken one himself. Mike took the offered potion and swiftly downed it, sighing gratefully as he felt the magic already begin its work on fixing his ribs. Once his breathing was a bit easier and more under control, Mike leaned his head back against the railing, staring at nothing in particular.
"When we get out of here we're going to spend a week watching sappy romcoms and cheesy comedies with the rest of the family," Dipper declared, getting a snort from Mike and an appreciative smile. "No adventures or even horror movies until we're ready."
"I don't think I'll ever want to watch a horror movie again," Gregory replied, his face scrunching up in displeasure at the idea of watching something that would remind him of this horrible night.
"It's not what you think it is," Mike replied, wrapping his arm around the boy as he gave Gregory a knowing smile. "When you've faced real horror and monster, the fake stuff is no longer scary and it's a lot of fun to complain about the things they get wrong about ghosts or demons and how stupid most of the main characters are. Just you see, once you've come on a few more adventures with us you'll be laughing at those movies along with the rest of us."
"You'll… you'll take me with you?" Gregory asked nervously, wanting to get confirmation that Mike and Dipper truly planned to make him a part of their family.
"Only if you want to," Mike assured, picking up on Gregory's worries. "We won't force you to come with us if you have somewhere else you want to go to, but if you're willing to put up with the Pines family craziness, we'll be more than happy to welcome you in as a part of it."
"And fair warning, you are probably going to get caught on more adventures if you do join us," Dipper agreed with a mischievous grin. "Not because we'd force you to go adventure hunting with us, but adventures and mysteries are just as likely to find us just as much as we find them. It's just part of the package. Think you can handle that?"
"After tonight, I think I can handle anything!" Gregory declared with confidence, a large joyful grin on his face. Suddenly he threw himself at Mike, enveloping him in a hug. Mike laughed at the reaction, returning the hug and ruffling Gregory's hair, much to the boy's annoyance.
"Sorry it took me so long to come up here," Freddy apologized as he finally joined the group with an awake Helpy clinging to his shoulder, scanning over the scene and looking at the humans with worry. "Is everyone alright?"
"We're fine, but we better get moving," Mike replied, standing up and helping Gregory get to his feet as well. "I doubt William was bluffing about sending staff bots up here to capture us if he lost the fight and I don't want to be here to deal with them when they do. Freddy, can you and Roxy carry Monty? I'll work on clearing out his systems once we're safely in Parts and Service with the others."
"Is that really the best place to go?" Roxy asked even as she and Freddy worked together to lift the gator. He's bound to guess we've gone there to recover."
"We don't have much choice," Mike grimaced, gesturing to his limp animatronic arm. "Even without looking, I know my arm needs more parts than I have on me, and if Chica… if Chica survived her fall she'll need major repairs too. We need to be at the top of our game if we want to make it through the rest of this night and at the very least, Parts and Service are more defensible than here."
Seeing Mike's logic, Roxy nodded and focused on her task.
The group slowly made their way down from the catwalks and found Moon helping support Chica. It seemed that Mike catching her had helped reduce her fall enough that she wasn't nearly as damaged as Mike feared. There were large cracks on most of her casing and one leg seemed completely unresponsive and the other one wasn't much better. Still, she was awake and aware and was so relieved to see the others.
Finally, they managed to limp their way to Parts and Service and the shutdown gator was placed on the chair in the repair cylinder. Moon helped Chica settle down into one of the employee's chairs while Freddy and Roxy kept an eye on everything.
"I'm going to need your help getting my shirt off," Mike informed Dipper as he went to one of the work benches. "I don't think I can lift my arm over my head at the moment."
"Right," Dipper nodded, easily helping Mike remove his shirt.
Gregory could help the surprised gasp he gave at seeing all the scars littered across Mike's back and chest. There was a large wound on both the front and back of Mike's shoulder like something had been stabbed through it. There were various slashes across Mike's body that if Gregory were to guess, were claw marks from some really big animals with a few bite marks to go with them. And covering pretty much Mike's entire stomach seemed to be a single large scar that Gregory had no idea what could have caused something like that. It was also clear just how much damage the processed Monty had done to Mike's animatronic arm. Most of the connecting wires between his shoulder and arm were snapped and those that were left were severely frayed. The casing and connecting joints were twisted and wrapped and would defiantly be replaced. Honestly, Gregory was surprised Mike was able to use it all when it looked like it was about to fall off at any moment.
"Yeah, it's a lot," Mike acknowledged, glancing over at the stunned boy. "But this is over ten years of adventures and I don't regret any of them."
"Most of them is because he's self-sacrificing maunder," Dipper grumbled as he examined Mike's arm and began the process of disconnecting it. "He tends to throw himself in front of me and Mabel to keep us safe. Even though we are both more than capable of handling ourselves and even when were kids."
"But it's my job as a big brother to keep you two safe," Mike grinned at Dipper and got an eye roll in return, making it clear this was a very familiar topic for both of them. "And I've gotten better at not getting hurt while keeping you safe."
"Only because we finally managed to get it through your thick skull that we don't like seeing you hurt because of us," Dipper scoffed as finally got the arm off and placed it on the workbench. "Will you be able to repair your arm? This is a lot more than the usual field damages."
"I won't be able to do anything about the casing until we get back to Gravity Falls," Mike informed, beginning to remove the damaged parts one-handed with Helpy keeping the arm steady. "But I should have everything I need to make it completely functional."
The two brothers got to work repairing the arm, with Gregory watching with a mix of worry and fascination. While Mike by necessity had extensive knowledge of his animatronic limbs and how to maintain and repair them, Dipper had picked up a lot over the years that he could do most of the common repairs as well. Between the two of them, it wasn't long before Mike's arm was as repaired as they could get it and reattached to Mike's shoulder. With that taken care of, Mike got to work on clearing Monty's systems, Gregory sitting next to him while Dipper checked the cameras.
"What… what would William do to you if he did catch you?" Gregory asked, voicing a worry he had been thinking about for a while. It didn't take a genius to know that William was evil and willing to do whatever it took to get what he wanted including threatening Gregory's life or hurting Mike as this last conflict clearly demonstrated. Gregory knew Mike would probably get hurt pretty badly if William got his hands on him, but a gut instinct told the boy he was missing something big.
"Nothing good," Mike grimaced, still tapping away at his tablet. "Firstly, why do you think William wants me so badly?"
"Because you're his son and he wants you to join his side," Gregory said immediately, only to frown when he realized that didn't make complete sense now that he said it out loud. Sure, he had seen that kind of thing play out in movies when he had snuck into theaters, but even with how crazy this night had been it wasn't a movie. Mike wasn't naïve and wouldn't be manipulated into doing what William wants easily. Even using Gregory's life as leverage like they had wouldn't be a long-term solution.
"Yes that is what he wants," Mike confirmed, much to Gregory's surprise. "Even though I've spent years doing everything I could to erase his legacy and undo his life work. While some sort of twisted sense of "love" might have kept him from wanting me permanently dead, he hasn't truly tried to capture me until now."
"Something's changed," Gregory concluded from Mike's hints, face scrunching up in thought. "Something that makes him think he can actually force you to his side. But what…"
Gregory trailed off as he really took in the sight before him, of the cyborg working to clear a supernatural computer virus from an infected animatronic.
"The virus!" Gregory concluded in fear, getting shocked gasps and worried exclamations from the eavesdropping animatronics. "He plans to infect you with the virus to make join him."
"Yeah, that's what I think his plan is," Mike confirmed, unable to hide how tense he was. "And while my family and I have done all we could to make sure my systems are secure from everything, it might not be enough. My father might be insane, but he's also a genius and he's the one that created the original programming for my animatronic half. If he were to get his hands on me, it'd only be a matter of time before he'd take complete control."
"Which is why we won't let that happen," Dipper said in determination, the animatronics nodding in agreement. "We've got all the Glam rocks on our side now and we won't let him get you."
Mike nodded in appreciation, but couldn't completely banish his fears. So he just focused on his work, finishing clearing Monty's systems and beginning to do repairs on Chica while the gator rebooted. He managed to finish her repairs just as Monty was about to wake up. The Gator didn't freak out like the others once he realized what happened, just going completely silent as was unusual for the normally loud animatronic.
"Monty," Mike said gently, placing a comforting hand on the gator even as the animatronic refused to look at him. "I don't blame you, I know you would never choose to hurt me or anyone. It was William's fault and we're going to stop him. Will you help us?"
Monty nodded, looking a bit relieved but unable to bring himself to say anything yet. Knowing that was the best he was going to get at the moment, Mike patted the gator on the shoulder and turned to the rest of the group.
"Alright, we've got pretty much everyone on our side and less than an hour left before the front doors open," Mike announced, a vicious grin spreading on his face. "I say it's time we rig this place to turn to ashes."