Henry had discovered a problem.
Not that that was a thing new in this cursed place.
The problem?
It reared its ugly head when Henry and the toons entered the next room.
Henry realized with a start that they were in the area where switches needed to be flipped in order to continue forward.
Boris started to head down the hall with a scared but determined look, before Henry caught him by the arm to stop him.
"It's all right, buddy. I can take care of it." Henry waved away the offered Gent pipe. "I'll be careful." At the dubious look the toon wolf gave him, Henry added, with a weary smile, "More careful than I have been."
Boris seemed to be mollified by this, and went back to stand next to the switch.
Henry found out pretty quickly that Bendy wouldn't stay behind with the other toon. The little devil had quickly wrapped a gloved hand around Henry's left hand to make it clear that Bendy would accompany him to the second switch. Henry made his way down the hall slowly, worried for the toon's safety. Henry couldn't help but let out a soft sigh.
Bendy tilted his head up at him curiously.
"It's nothing. Just a little tired." Henry smiled at the pout aimed up at him. "Okay, it's more than that. I'm exhausted, but there isn't really anywhere safe to rest yet."
Bendy wore a little frown, before he tugged on Henry's hand and led him to a room on the right of the hall.
A little detour.
That was fine by Henry.
The longer he could prolong having to hear that garble-speak of the distorted toon that would tear out of the poster for an attack, the better.
A little more quiet would be nice.
It wouldn't last, but Henry would take what he could get inside of this studio.
Henry let Bendy lead him to a table, and watched as the little devil let go of his hand and hopped up onto the table next to a cassette player.
Bendy turned to Henry expectantly.
"Want to take a listen?" Henry stepped forward and turned the cassette player on. He smiled at the sight of Bendy sitting on the table and listening to the voices of Wally Franks and Tom Connor with rapt attention. Henry figures the toon would be distracted for a time, so he wandered further down the corridor. Henry slowed to a halt in front of a broken little miracle station lying on the floor in pieces. Henry shuddered involuntarily at the sight.
It was an obvious reminder.
The one and only time that the Ink Demon had torn apart a station.
That had been one of the earliest loops, when Henry had been sent back to the beginning in a very painful manner.
Since that time, Henry did begin to notice that this particular little miracle station was always smashed to pieces, no matter how many more loops passed him by. It had to have been the Ink Demon's work, which meant the inky creature specifically came to this spot each loop to destroy the station.
Before Henry got to it, if he chose to look at all.
Not a good thought.
Herby frowned to himself. Why was he just standing there, staring at the broken pieces of wood? It would do no good to dwell on what had only happened once, but still, it was an unnerving and painful recollection all the same. Henry was in the process of turning around when he heard something he really didn't want to.
The gibberish snarling and sputtering the clones of the Butcher Gang made when they spotted him.
Henry barely got out of the way of one as it climbed out of the pieces of the little miracle station, swinging a wrench furiously at him as it spat nonsense at him.
Well then...
It appeared as though Alice really was furious about his words to her earlier. Despite Alice celery not liking the Butcher Gang clones, Henry was certain she could somewhat compel them in his general direction.
Definitely not good.
Henry backed away toward Bendy, even turning around, only to find quite a good number of Butcher Gang clones hobbling toward him.
They continued to spit out nasty things only they seemed to understand.
Bendy was still on the table, and was carefully keeping out of reach of any of the warped-looking toons. He looked a mixture of scared and pitying as the toon seemed to recognize the others for what they were supposed to have been.
"I'll be over there in a minute!" Henry called out to Bendy, while sincerely hoping that it didn't take that long. There was only so long Henry could fight before he tired himself out and was overwhelmed. And while he was already worn out?
A bad situation.
Henry caught a swinging wrench and tore it out of the Piper's hand. With a set expression at the number of enemies he faced, Henry began to bash the distorted toons with the wrench held tightly in his left hand. It hurt his shoulder, but Henry was desperate enough to ignore it in favor of not being overtaken by the Butcher Gang swarm.
His right arm was a useless tagalong in a sling. It just figured that Henry would find himself being swarmed while unable to properly defend himself.
Bendy curled up on the table against the wall, shivering. It appeared as though the toon had forgotten that he had an axe. Or maybe the little devil was frightened. The more likely answer was that maybe Bendy didn't, or couldn't, fight.
Henry focused on the end of the hall where all of the distorted toons were gathered. That was...a large swarm of enemies to deal with, and only with a wrench. But he had to get out of this area to get to the one with the switch. Henry looked things over, and decided that he wasn't going to let the Butcher Gang clones anywhere near Bendy, should they notice the quivering toon. Henry grit his teeth, and stepped forward.
There wasn't any more time to think this through.
Only act.
Adapt to the change.
"Bendy!" Henry started to clear a path. "You're going to have to go on ahead and flip the switch. Take a right when you get out of this hall and then go left. One of these distorted guys comes out of the poster, so if you can avoid them and flip the switch, that'd be great. I'll...I'll need to keep these ones busy." Henry kicked a Fisher out of the way and sent another two distorted toons to the floor with a hefty smack upside their heads. "It's opened up!"
Bendy worked up enough courage to weave through the space Henry had made, running frantically and disappearing around the corner.
When the toon was out of sight, Henry beat the Butcher Gang clones heavier than before, baring his teeth in a savage grin.
This was so nice.
So satisfying, to smack these mockeries to hell and back. Turn them to ink with enough swings, so that they could no longer hurt anyone.
Henry wasn't sure how long he fought the seemingly endless enemies, but he knew that he had been struck several times. Henry's vision was starting to get covered in ink. He had to be careful or he'd end up with a trip through that inky well and come out...not quite himself. But it was preferable to being outright killed and sent back to the beginning. Henry still had no idea how it exactly worked. How some attacks destroyed him completely while some just sent him back through the well...
Henry heard a knock on wood, and he looked up with a jolt, realizing he had briefly blanked out.
The inky vision had dissipated.
Bendy was waiting a short distance away, worriedly looking down at the puddles of ink, then jumped. Scared, as the took pointed somewhere behind Henry.
Henry turned in time to catch a swing of a spanner with his wrench, and then, because he wasn't really thinking, Henry dropped his weapon and picked the inky toon up. With a frustrated yell, Henry threw the Striker off into a dark corner.
A furious garbling tirade rose from the darkness.
Henry ignored it as his shoulders slumped, breathing hard as he retrieved the wrench. He'd defeated all the Butcher Gang clones gang, apart from the one he had just thrown. But that didn't mean that more might not spawn somewhere nearby, and soon.
They had to get out of there.
Henry felt Bendy tentatively take his hand and tug him toward the end of the hall. Henry allowed himself to be led, too out of breath to protest or say much of anything. At least until he heard something behind him. A quick glance sent his heart leaping in panic. Henry moved as quickly as he could.
"Boris! Run!" Henry called out breathlessly, as he and Bendy reached the area where the toon wolf was waiting for them.
Boris' fur stood on end, pie-cut eyes widening in fright as his jaw dropped open at the sight of gibbering clones behind his friends.
"Go! Take Bendy with you! I'll catch up with you two." Henry was forced to heft Bendy up into the air and into Boris' waiting arms as a Piper and Striker got a little too close for comfort. "Take the stairs! Avoid the elevator as best you can! Take shortcuts, anything."
Boris gave a reluctant nod and kept his arms firmly around Bendy as he took off running, ears flat.
Bendy was distraught, struggling within the toon wolf's grasp.
Henry felt horrible, but he really didn't want to little devil to see what was more than likely going to happen. Already, more Butcher Gang clones were stumbling their way to Henry from another direction, and there was nowhere to run. There were simply too many enemies for him to deal with.
It seemed like there was going to be that trip to the well of voices this loop after all.
Henry spun about and thwacked the nearest warped toon hard, sending the Piper stumbling backward into several of its fellows. Just because he was going to lose here didn't mean Henry wasn't going to fight back at least a little. He couldn't fall back into giving up and letting whoever it was he faced in the studio kill him so easily.
Wait.
That was...
Why did that seem so familiar?
Henry blocked a few strikes from a Fisher, before the blows began to land, Henry's vision becoming covered in splotches of ink.
Had he given up before?
A Striker slammed Henry painfully into a wall. Henry's left arm finally gave out on him as the wrench fell from his limp grasp. Henry always put up a little of a fight before he was sent to the ink, like he had right now.
Right?
The last thing Henry heard before he was overwhelmed by the Butcher Gang clones was a distressed noise from Bendy from some distance away.
And then nothing but darkness for a short time. The darkness soon became the inky well.
It was as depressing as it always was, what with all the screaming and whispering.
Henry found it quite tempting to just let those numerous voices and the general hopelessness sweep him away. It would be nice to stop fighting and just rest, instead of being constantly exhausted and in pain all of the time.
Wait...was that how he 'died' before? How things went back to the beginning without him ever reaching the end.
Henry couldn't rightly recall, as the voices and general sadness around him threatened to pull him down and keep him there. But Henry wasn't going to let it.
Not this time.
Henry had to go back.
Bendy and Boris were still in the studio, and Henry wasn't about to abandon them.
This was...going to be unpleasant.
One formless swim through the inky well of voices, coming right up.
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A/N: Thank you for the reviews. I appreciate hearijg feom you guys.
And just as an fyi, even I don't know when I'll post next. Sometimes I am able to do twice a week. Sometimes, just one. I may even get to the point where there are longer periods of time between updates. I would be sure to mention when that happens on my tumblr, or edit at the top of a the most recent chapter.