Joey was thankful to the assistant and his attempts to rationalize what his spirit animal could be. The assistant had written 'possibly fall climate' and 'playful' for notes and by the end of the notes, it sounded more like a cat. But he knew it wasn't a cat, it was some other creature that he had never see before. Still, the men from that group didn't know about it, so he didn't have to work with them.
He saw them question that Susie girl a few days after they first showed up, only to determine that she was a swan and leave her alone. He even saw them talk to Henry for a couple minutes but were quick to determine he was fine and moved on. The person he felt really bad for was Sammy though, the younger student kept getting cornered by the men and interviewed. At least it wasn't as bad as the first time they spoke to him, the time he fainted.
Barely a week later, he had learned from Henry, who spoke with Norman, Susie, and Wally, that Sammy had switched schools to get away from the men. Apparently, his parents had even come into the school and complained about harassment to the principle while taking their son from school. Not long later, Wally had done the same.
A week after those two left, the men had left as well. It seemed that their primary suspects for the legend were those two and they weren't about to bother anyone else. really, Joey doubted the legend was even real, let alone that those two were involved. One was a goofy kid into electronics, constantly trying to study the technology the school had with Thomas. The other was completely into music, it was his passion in life, whoever thought he was a 'Hellhound' was out of their minds.
The fact that the men were there at all made Joey start questioning things more, specifically about the legend. He decided to do some more research on it and went to the library after school with Henry, who was also curious. Working together, the two soon learned a few things.
The men who came to their school were part of a group who's entire job was to seek out the people with the spirits and bring them in. They had two out of three of the people before but then the two they had committed suicide, one 17 years ago and the other 16. The legend said that there were usually three people with spirits of creatures from Hell, not from earth like normal spirit animals. The spirits included a demon, a fallen angel, and a hellhound, sometimes the hellhound brought more with it.
Of course, as he already knew of the legend, the spirit's "companions", or hosts as they actually were, basically reincarnated. As one died, a new one would be born in their place. So when the two died 17 and 16 years ago, that explained why the men were looking in highschools for students of specific ages.
Some of what he read about them included a warning to all who may run into them at some point. The three, or more, were highly dangerous and needed to be captured and locked away or else they would start to cause trouble. The last fallen angel, Alice, was found as a teenager attacking people who insulted her. The last hellhound, Boris, was found after literally destroying parts of a town. And the last demon, Bendy, was never caught, but was sighted once leaving the scene of a major crime, the police were still on the fence of whether or not he did it.
The articles also warned that they were unstable, switching back and forth between their real personalities, fake personalities, and those of the spirits. They would do this when they first learn who their spirit is and then they'd stop once they eventually fused with their spirit, something Alice had done but the team were able to keep Boris from doing. Once they fused, they were virtually unstoppable without the right equipment. And if all thee of them fused and met each other... well... it wouldn't say more than the world would be in grave danger.
One of the articles contained pictures drawn of the vague idea of what the spirits looked like based off their previous hosts' descriptions, as well as doodles from the hosts who could draw. Joey had to stop and stare at one of the creatures, the one known as Bendy. Those eyes... that smile... he'd seen them before.
.~.~.~.
During his next session, Joey made another breakthrough on his own spirit animal. Specifically that he was right, this was no animal. Of course, after learning that, he couldn't tell the assistant of what it was. This time, when the abandoned building began to form around him, the creature was already out in the open, watching him.
"So you figured it out, eh?" Bendy asked with a cackle. "I knew those idiots would spark your curiosity and help in the end!"
"It's really you," Joey thought, keeping his mouth shut in reality to hide what was going on.
"Yep, it's me! In the flesh, so to speak!" Bendy answered, bowing dramatically. He stood back up to his full height and grinned. "And you and I are gonna have a blast, you know that?"
Joey smiled as well. "I'm aware," he replied. "So we have to find the others then?"
"Straight to the plan, nice!" Bendy said. "It'll take a while, there's no rush, they haven't discovered yet. An' if they're anything like the last hosts, they won't for a while longer."
Joey nodded. "So what do I tell the assistant? Obviously, I can't tell him that my spirit animal is the demon those guys were looking for," he asked.
"The demon? Those guys don't even know where to begin to look for me, I could be five for all they know!" Bendy laughed. "Nah, they were here lookin' for Boris, hence why they spent so long with that poor kid. But you're right, they can't know where I am. Didn't the assistant think ya matched up more with a cat?"
"That's what it looks like anyway," Joey answered.
Bendy crouched down to the size of a small animal and smiled, bringing a balled hand up like a paw. "Meow."
Joey stared at him in shock before smiling as well.
.~.~.~.
Years passed. Joey and Henry graduated and went to collage to start a cartoon studio. It took a lot of work for them, both having to take up other jobs first to be able to afford it, but once they could, they got started.
During the time in between highschool and starting the studio, Joey and Bendy formed a bond and worked on planning out how to find the other two spirits and what to do after finding them. To their surprise, after starting the studio, it appeared that the other two came to them instead of them having to go looking.
It happened not long after the studio first started. Joey had put out an ad for job openings for music and voice acting, as well as other jobs, and got responses from two people he never thought he'd see again, Susie Campbell and Sammy Lawrence.
Out of the two of them, Susie had stayed in their highschool, but he really never thought Sammy would return to their town at all after what happened. With the two of them working there, Wally Franks and Norman Polk joined as well. Apparently, Susie and Sammy got along because of taste in music and stayed in touch so it was Susie who got him back in town, and Wally had switched to Sammy's new school when he left and the two of them kept in contact with Norman.
Then Norman brought up and eventually called in another high school friend who used to also hang out with Wally. Thomas Connor. More and more people started to show up to work in the studio, most of them just looking for a job of any sort, not even thinking how odd it was that Joey started a cartoon based off the three Legendary Spirits. They soon had another voice actress, Alison Pendle, a merchandise designer, Shawn Flynn, and thankfully an accountant, Grant Cohan, who was someone they needed the most since Joey couldn't keep track of money for the life of him.
Overall, none of them seemed to think the studio or cartoon were that odd, at least no one was going to question Joey's decisions. Joey and Henry had agreed before hand that a goofy cartoon with the Legendary Spirits could be a fun and entertaining show. The only person who did question him was Sammy, which was fair he supposed, it actually gave him the chance to talk to him about it anyway. He was convinced that Sammy was actually at least a Boris but it wasn't like it was something he could easily bring up, this presented him the perfect opportunity for it.
"I understand why you'd be uncomfortable with this, Sammy," Joey began, watching the other squirm slightly across the desk. "I mean, I saw the way those men wouldn't leave you alone about it and I kept thinking that they'd have to be crazy to think you're one of the Legendary Spirits, it just doesn't match your personality. By the way, did you ever meet your spirit animal?"
"I quit attending sessions at all after that, so not exactly," Sammy answered. "I know it's a wolf of some sort, but... the reason why I was supposed to take more sessions was the place I saw the wolf at, it wasn't a normal place to see a wolf. It was a field out in the middle of nowhere near a nice forest, the wolf was in the forest, but it wasn't normal wolf habitat at all." It was plain he wasn't saying everything, there was something else... something that made him even more uncomfortable.
Joey just smiled and leaned on his hands calmly. Incorrect habitat? Perfect. Never saw the wolf clearly? Even better. The cherry on top was how obvious it was that he was hiding something as well. "I always figured you were the type for a peaceful field," he stated. "Maybe with birds singing, clear skies, a truly lovely place to be I'm sure."
"Yeah, I guess it was nice before... before the men," Sammy replied awkwardly. He looked up at Joey again. "How about you, Mr. Drew?"
Joey tensed up but managed to hide it as well as he could. Every part of him was screaming 'abort mission', and he wanted to do just that as he forced the smile to remain on his face. "I learned eventually," he explained. "It took about five sessions, but it eventually approached me. Playful little thing wanted to keep playing hide-and-seek," he laughed, watching his employee to see how he'd respond. Sammy was on to him, that was for sure.
Somehow, he managed to leave it at that and end their little meeting there, reassuring Sammy that there was nothing wrong with the cartoon and he was just paranoid. It was only after he got him out of his office that the smile fell from his face. He shut the door and locked it. "Well, Bendy," he began softly. "Was it him?"
"Hard to say," Bendy answered, receiving a noise of disappointment from Joey. "What? It's not like I'm a mind reader or anything! I can't get inside people's minds... not unless they're one of the spirits I'm lookin' for and they know it, that is. Even if he is one, he doesn't know."
"I guess I'll just have to help him find out," Joey hissed through gritted teeth.
