The path to the server room was surprisingly quiet and calm, suspiciously so. Mike and his robotic companions weren't the most stealthy group so they hadn't even bothered to try and hide their movements. But despite walking through open areas where they had probably been easily spotted and narrow hallways that would have been perfect to set up an ambush, there was nothing. The staff bots, which had been a constant presence the whole night, were nowhere to be seen. The only sign of movement other than themselves were the wet floor bots.
"The staff bots are still here," Roxy informed, using her enhanced eyes to look around for threats. "But they're keeping their distance. They're moving out of our way, but they are also following us. There aren't a lot of them, but I don't like this."
"Neither do I," Mike agreed with a grimace, marching determinedly ahead. "But all we can do is be prepared for when they inevitably make their move."
Knowing the staff bots were keeping their distance did little to ease the tension they were all feeling, but they had no choice but to continue to their goal. They arrived at the server room without any attempt to stop them and Mike immediately sat down and got to work hacking the systems. Even that though was going far smoother than it should be. William had been working to take over every part of the Pizzaplex's mainframe and yet Mike didn't encounter any sign of him as he set up the electrical grid to overload. Mike thought maybe William had created some sort of useless copy server that he had redirected Mike to, but that didn't seem to be the case.
Either William wasn't worried about what Mike was doing or William was gearing up for something really big.
"I just a message from Gregory," Freddy informed just as Mike was finishing syncing the system to his Fazwatch so he'd be able to remotely trigger the overload. "He and others were successful in attaching the devices to the fuse boxes, though they had run into a bit of trouble with DJ Music Man. They've managed to escape unscathed and are about to head towards the exit."
"I guess we know where William's been focusing his attention then," Mike frowned, thinking it over. "But why go after them? Unless… he wanted to get rid of my allies."
"Dipper and Gregory were the reason I… the reason you escaped when he was using me to capture you," Monty agreed, shuddering at how close he had been to being the one to give Mike to William. "He must have wanted to make sure something like that couldn't happen again."
"Well, he underestimated what my family is capable of," Mike replied as he stood up, automatically grouping Gregory in with his family. "Come on. Let's get out of here so we can burn this place to the ground."
"It's not going to be easy," Roxy warned, looking up at the ceiling. "I'm seeing a lot of movement. I think he's getting ready to throw everything he's got at us."
"Yeah, I figured," Mike acknowledge, leading the group to the elevator that would take them to the main atrium. "Just get ready to fight our way to the exit."
The animatronics just nodded and held themselves ready as the elevator's doors closed behind them. As the elevator began to ascend the speaker cackled before a hauntingly familiar voice came through.
"You've put up quite the fight Michael, but you have to agree that it's gone on too long," William said, sounding like the tolerant parent he thought himself to be. "You have to know what's waiting for you and you have to know no matter how much you and the others struggled, you're not getting out this time. I've been overly lenient about your little rebellion against me over the years, but I'm not going to tolerate it any longer. I'm giving you the chance to finally end this peacefully. Surrender yourself to me, come back to your real family, and I'll let the boy and you're so-called-brother go without issue. They can even take the Glamrocks you seem so concerned about."
"Yeah right, like I'd trust you to keep up that deal," Mike scoffed, glaring at the security camera. Mike knew that William was too smart to think that Dipper wouldn't attempt to rescue him so there was no way. "I'm not the same child that you could terrorize into obedience. I've burnt your slimy ass before and will do it again and again until there's nothing left for you to cling onto anymore!"
"I knew you'd react like that," William sighed, sounding so disappointed that Mike had to force himself not to wince and apologize. "No matter… the hard way it is then."
The speaker crackled again before cutting off and the elevator jolted a bit. For a heart-stopping moment, Mike thought William was about to drop them, but there was a ding indicating they had arrived at their destination and the elevator doors began to open. As expected, there was a swarm of staff bots waiting for them with more pouring in from every corner of the Pizzaplex.
Monty and Roxy moved first, letting out a roar and growl respectively as they charged forward. Monty used his impressive strength to force those closest to the elevator back, crushing those he got his hands on. Using the extra room Monty had created, Roxy was able to build up speed and plowed a line through the crowd, attacking with her claws and teeth as she did so.
Mike immediately began racing down the opening Roxy had created, using his wires to pierce and push back the staff bots that were pressing forward in an attempt to close the gap in their ranks. One staff bot managed to slip past Mike's wires as they were busy dispatching others and went to tackle Mike. Mike easily flipped over the staff bot, cutting the wires on the robot's neck with his claws before nailing the landing and continuing his escape.
Only to let out a surprised yelp as one of them managed to snag the back of his shirt collar, successfully bringing Mike to a stop. The staff bot didn't get a chance to do more before Freddy ripped the bot's head clean off. Mike only gave a brief nod in thanks before continuing to press forward, the bear guarding his right side while Monty continued to be a destructive force on Mike's right.
"The stairs are packed!" Roxy growled as she came back to the group, using her teeth to crush a bot's head. "There's too many to force our way through! We'll have to find some other way to get up to the elevator!"
Mike quickly looked towards the stairs and sure enough, the bottom part was clogged with staff bots. But further up the stairs, the crown was a lot thinner.
"Monty! Do you think you can carry Freddy and jump a short distance?" Mike asked the gator, diving onto his hands under a grab at him and kicking the staff bot away as he flipped his body forward before landing back up on his feet.
"I think so!" Monty confirmed when he realized what Mike was implying.
"Good! Let's take the short cut shall we!" Mike smirked, using his wires to launch himself into the air before using them to grab onto the stair railing and pulling himself farther up, delivering a flying kick that took out three staff bots as he landed about halfway up the stairs. Monty picked up Freddy, grunting as he used all his strength to launch the two of them to where Mike was. They had a bit of a crash landing, but they were able to crush several bots beneath them. Roxy across the top of the staff bots on all fours, purposefully digging her claws into whichever unfortunate bot became her stepping stone before finally joining the others.
"I got another message from Gregory," Freddy said as they rounded the top of the stairs. "He and the others have safely arrived at the exit!"
"That's good," Mike breathed a sigh of relief, his wires tearing a staff bot apart before flinging the parts at other bots to slow them down. "Now we just have to join them."
"Hurry up you slow pokes!" Roxy shouted, having raced ahead to call the elevator, and was now holding the door open as she kicked staff bots away from it. The others picked up speed, safety, and freedom so close they could almost feel it.
Which of course is when everything went wrong.
The only warning Mike had was Roxy suddenly looking worried before a high-pitched tone, barely discernable to human ears, filled the entire area. Mike immediately clamped his hands over his ears as the noise induced a splitting headache and stumbled a bit as his cybernetics began to glitch out, error messages flashing across his vision. It was even worse for the glamrocks though as their limbs began twitching uncontrollably as the sound messed with their electronic signals before falling over one by one, the sound forcing all of them to shut down.
Knowing that staying here would only mean his capture, Mike forced himself to keep moving forward, feeling agonizingly slow as the sound continued to bug out his system and made his vision glitchy. The tone suddenly changed pitch and Mike was forced to drop to his knees as he lost function in his legs. His animatronic arm hung loosely at his side and his eye showed a final error message and warning before his eye shut down as well. While Mike wasn't knocked unconscious by having his animatronic systems completely shut, he was basically a sitting duck as the weight of his metal limbs kept him locked in one place. (The worse part of a total shut wasn't the feeling of helplessness, but rather how much more effort it took to breathe. The weight of the wires stored in Mike's chest always felt heavier like this and reminded him uncomfortably of the metal monster using his corpse.)
"I don't know why you expected this to go any different," Vanny mocked, making Mike turn his head to watch her approach. "My Master is the genius that designed the animatronics whose parts you now have in your body. It was only a matter of time before he figured out a way for me to make you completely helpless."
"William may know about animatronics but he doesn't know me," Mike retorted, purposefully cutting his finger and drawing a rune on the ground in his blood. "I've found a life without him and have learned some new tricks. Spiculum!"
Mike felt his body warm slightly as the remnant in his veins reacted to the magic he was channeling causing his eyes and the rune to glow. Stone spikes began growing out of the floor, getting bigger as they rapidly approached Vanny. Vanny yelled in fear and did her best to dodge, getting a deep gash in her thigh when she couldn't get out of the way fast enough.
"You're going to pay for that," Vanny hissed in pain, clutching her wound.
Moving faster than should be possible with such an injury, Vanny suddenly stood in front of Mike and smashed the handle of her knife into his temple, nearly knocking him over from the force of the impact. Mike's vision blurred from the blow and he could feel blood start to trickle down his face. Before he could even begin to think about a counterattack, Vanny grabbed him by his throat and slammed him back into the ground, his head throbbing painfully from where it hit the floor.
"You're lucky master wants you alive, or I'd slit your throat right now," Vanny informed coldly. "Instead, I need to make sure you're nice and compliant so we have no more pesky escape attempts."
Mike's vision cleared enough for him to glimpse a syringe full of a shimmering substance in Vanny's free hand, but there wasn't anything he could do before she jammed the needle into his neck. He could feel his veins burning as his remnant tried to purge whatever had just been injected into him, but it didn't seem to be working fast enough as his thoughts became fuzzy and his eyelid started to droop.
"Your father is going to be so happy to have you back Michael," Vanny said as she got off Mike.
The last thing Mike felt was a pair of staff bots grabbing him under his arms and beginning to drag him away before he finally lost consciousness completely.