Miraculous Adventure in Joey Drew Studio

by Gale-Dragon

It was just supposed to be a fun Halloween event. All they were going to be doing was going through each class's Haunted House. The only condition made was that they never go to the original location of that studio. But thanks to Lila, they were in Joey Drew Studio. Now Mariette, Max, Adrien, Kim, and Markov must survive the studio and escape, all without blowing their identities.

4. Chapter 2

~}i{~

Miraculous Adventure in Joey Drew Studio.

Chapter 2: Singing the Old Songs That Haunt Us When The Truth Come Out.

~}i{~

~}i{ 11/01, Joey Drew Studio }i{~

"Ugh, oh, my head... What happened?" Marinette groaned out as her eyes slowly opened. She, Adrien, Max, Kim, and Markov were still laying on the ground. Everyone started coming around, slowly, and all with heads throbbing. They slowly moved into a sitting position, to avoid adding any more pain to their already hurting heads. Max moved Markov into his lap since the AI seemed to be experiencing a circuit malfunction and couldn't activate his copter blades at the moment.

Once Markov rebooted his vocals, he said, "I believe I can categorize the curious event of all of us experiencing a CPU shortcircuit and then losing consciousness at the same time as 'Bizarre'... ... Inquiry, did you guys also see weird images of a strange machine, that Bendy Ink Demon, and a circle with ten pillars of lights?"

Normally, this would have been an odd question for anyone, much less an AI, to ask, but considering where they were...

"Urg... Yeah... I saw those," Kim responded, rubbing his head.

"Ditto..." Marinette groaned out in pain.

"Same," Adrien said, rubbing his temples.

Max glanced between his friends when he said, "I saw them too, but how and why? I mean, all of us saw the exact same images at the exact same time. The odds of that happening is- Ouch! Head still hurts..." The glasses-wearing teen then rubbed his head with his left hand. Maybe now wasn't a good time to do calculations.

Marinette glanced up at the coffins before saying, "Something about this place... Just seems off... And I don't just mean the overabundance of ink, the ink creatures, and the coffins. Something just seems... Strange here." That everyone could agree on.

Since Kim recovered the fastest, he stood up and check the door where they came in. When he peered around the corner, he was greeted by the sight of what was best described as a cave-in with the ceiling boards blocking the way as ink streamed down the new opening and trailed down towards a hole in the parallel wall. Kim sighed when he returned to the group and said, "Looks like backtracking is no longer an option."

Markov glanced around and said, "Well, since there isn't any ink in this room, would it be alright to equip that air gun?"

Max nodded when he said, "Sure buddy, *glances at his cast* but I'm going to need a little help with that."

Kim, Adrien, and Marinette agreed to help. After all, six hands are better than one, especially now.

}i{ Outside the Studio, at Collège Françoise Dupont This Very Moment }i{

Due to the recent revelations and a newly added Reckless Endangerment Charge, which currently had pending Manslaughter Charge on it, one Lila Rossi was being held in a juvenile detention centre with very heavy restrictions and near isolation from the other residents. She resisted the entire way, claiming that she was being wrongfully accused and her having diplomatic immunity.

Mrs Rossi already revoked her daughter's immunity as soon as she heard that Lila was not only bullying one of her classmates but also physically assaulting another and sexually harassing the boy who she claimed was her boyfriend. Removing the immunity... Was surprisingly easier to do than the diplomate thought it would be. Mrs Rossi sighed as she walked out of the school. She had already been interviewed by the leading officer on the case against her daughter. An actual investigation! Against her daughter!

Mrs Rossi sighed again. She wasn't all that surprised by it if she was being honest with herself... What surprised her was the number of people actually suing her daughter! Granted, Mrs Rossi did expect the Dupain-Cheng, Kanté, and Agreste family to sue Lila for defamation, assault, and sexual harassment respectively, and the school for truancy and reckless endangerment.

But more people were suing Lila Rossi, not just those involved with Collège Françoise Dupont.

Clara Nightengale was suing Lila for defamation. The singer-dancer heard that Lila claimed to have given Clara some dance moves that Lila wasn't credited for and even helped Clara with song-writing. The rhymer specifically stated in her suit that she worked her butt off to make her own moves and create her own lyric for her own songs, plus she has never heard of a Lila Rossi until a colleague of her's told her about the claim. While Mrs Rossi was shocked at this suit, she did have to admire that the singer-dancer managed to rhyme the whole charge.

Next on the Sue Lila Rossi list was Jagged Stone for not only defamation but also emotional distress of his honorary niece (It's Marinette, but her name was withheld due to her being a minor). Apparently, Lila claimed that she saved his pet cat from getting run over by a plane and wrote a song about her. Both of which Jagged made clear that they weren't true. He's never had a pet cat, in fact, his only pet for the past 18 years was his pet crocodile, Fang. He and his assistant/manager, Penny, also pointed out that there was no way that any airport staff would let a civilian on an active runway and that a regular human being wouldn't be able to outrun a plane getting ready for take-off. And since the first of the two wasn't true, the second was automatically debunked. Plus Jagged made clear that it would be completely 'unrock-&-roll' for him, an adult well in his 30s, to make a song about a teenage girl, especially by name. "That'll make people think I've been doing some very unrock-and-roll stuff with that girl," Jagged stated in the charge. That statement did confuse Mrs Rossi, but the officer cleared that up, abide a little awkwardly.

Prince Ali of the Kingdom of Achu was next on the Sue Lila Rossi list for misrepresentation and also defamation. A friend of the prince who lives in Paris (that would be Rose, but due to her being a minor and friend to the Prince, her name is being legally withheld for her own protection) informed/warned him of Lila's claims of "being super close with him and his family". Prince Ali did think his friend was trying to make a joke but when the friend told him about how Lila was claiming to have visited the palace often in Achu, that she is the Princes best friend who helped with a lot of his charities, and even how she rode on his private jet, Ali quickly understood how this was concerning. The prince immediately summoned his foreign relations team to advise him on the proper legal actions against this liar. Mrs Rossi rubbed her head in annoyance when she debunked the trips to Achu by saying that they've never even stepped foot in the kingdom, ever.

Even Paris' Heroes were suing Lila for defamation and reckless endangerment. Mrs Rossi couldn't believe that even Ladybug and Chat Noir were suing her daughter, so she asked why they would. The officer explained that Lila got an interview with the Ladyblogger by claiming to be "Ladybug's Best Friend", to which the red-themed superhero denied that claim multiple times when she said that she would never be friends with someone who would willingly risk not only their safety but their family as well by making such a claim. When Mrs Rossi asked for an explanation, the officer responded that Hawkmoth could target Lila or members of Lila's family to get to Ladybug.

Mrs Rossi ran a hand through her hair as she thought about that part of the interview. She wondered why Lila thought it was a good idea to lie about that. Just to be popular in school? The safety risk was not worth that kind of attention... Especially when a supervillain wanted to get any edge he could find to defeat the hero. Mrs Rossi did remember the officer writing something on a pad after she made that statement.

But that wasn't even the worst...

The Gabriel Brand, not the Agreste family, was filing charges against Lila, who was working as one of their models. Mrs Rossi was completely floored by this information when the officer told her this. The officer showed her a copy of the modelling contract with the Gabriel Brand. When Mrs Rossi told the officer that Lila never told her that she got a job, the officer asked how she didn't notice that her daughter had was employed. Mrs Rossi sighed when she responded that Lila told her that she was spending time with her classmates, either for study dates or just to hang out in general.

From what Mrs Rossi learned, the fashion company was not only firing Lila but also suing her for misconduct, defamation, and sexual harassment. They were also blacklisting Lila from the fashion industry as a whole over what she did yesterday. The misconduct came about when nearly all of the photographers who worked with Lila, and a few other models (Adrien included), have filed complaints against "Gabriel's New Muse". To which Mrs Rossi was just wondering how the man, and father to one of Lila's victims, never tried to contact her about the whole modelling thing or even do a proper background check on Lila like a reasonable business person would do (The diplomat did mention that quarry to the officer she talked to. The officer did make a note of that).

For the Defamation... Apparently, Lila has been more than a bit "unprofessional" during the shoots, to put it mildly. Between arguing with the photographers and subtly sabotaging the other models who were supposed to be on the Feature Articles, there was an issue with Lila claiming that Gabriel Agreste told her that she was to only work with his son. No one filed a complaint about these at first since well, Gabriel Agreste was the boss. But the longer they worked with Lila the harder it became to just keep quiet, especially when the photoshoots were taking longer and longer because "Lila seemed to know better" than the professionals and the fact that Adrien couldn't even (fake) smile during the photoshoots when Lila was practically latching onto him every time. Those photos were in the complaint file. While it was later learned that a lot of the staff of the Gabriel Brand had sent in anonymous complaints directed towards Lila because of her behaviours, it then turned out that Lila had the person investigating her transferred to keep all the claims quiet. That also ended up in the rather thick police investigation file on Lila Rossi.

The final straw, and the one that causes the flood of complaints from more than half of Gabriel's employees, was the "Incident That Actually Made Adrien Storm Off The Set in Anger" as the photographers and other models liked to call it. Which was where the Sexual Harassment suit came into existence.

When Mrs Rossi asked what that "Incident" was, the officer showed her the security video of it (the video was sent in with the complaints by the security officers on duty that day). So, she watched the video. Because there was no audio Mrs Rossi had to make the best guess based on everyone's body language in the video. It... It didn't take much guessing to understand why Adrien stormed off the set... And that more than horrified Mrs Rossi...

How... How could Lila think that doing something like that was okay? It was clear from the video that Adrien was NOT COMFORTABLE, and judging by his body language, he HAD told Lila to stop, multiple times. Based on the body language of everyone else in the video, they all told her to stop. She didn't, and Adrien shoved her off him before he stormed off the set. THAT was certainly sexual harassment, period. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.

Just watching her daughter act that way on the video was enough to make Mrs Rossi break down and cry. After everything she did for her daughter, how did Lila turn out this way?

Right now, Mrs Rossi was sitting on one of the benches behind the school, taking a break from the interview and just taking in all this new information. Her bella, her sweet little angel, had to be the biggest lie Lila had told. And that hurt Mrs Rossi the most. Lila wasn't an angel, not even close, she was a manipulative liar who just viewed others as pawns for her to use for her own gain, even her own mother. Mrs Rossi heard the officer said that Lila had to be the worst case of antisocial disorder or sociopathy, that they have ever seen.

And... Mrs Rossi had to agree with them...

"You're Mrs Rossi, Lila's mother, right?" someone asked the diplomat. Mrs Rossi turned to see Claudie Kanté, but she looked familiar to the diplomat somehow. The train conductor rubbed her neck when she said, "I didn't think one of my shopping buddies was a parent of one of Maxie's classmates, let alone the one who hurt him..."

Shopping?... Maxie?

"Le Pomme Rouge (1) Food and Electronic Market. You would shop for food when your son browsed the electronics," Mrs Rossi said, now remembering the woman. She then remembered the woman's son before she rubbed her forehead in aggravation and said, "I was the one who wanted our kids to meet because I thought they would get along... Max... That's the name of the boy Lila attacked..."

Claudie placed a comforting hand on Mrs Rossi's shoulder as she sat next to her when she said, "You're not at fault, you're just another one of her victims. And you were going one what you knew and thought to be true."

Tears peeked out from Mrs Rossi's eyes when she said, "But I should've noticed! Something! Anything! But no! I just saw what she wanted me to see!"

"And what would you have done if you Had found out she was lying?" Claudie asked the other mother in a serious tone. The train conductor then added in that same tone, "From what I heard from both Maxie and the School, she has been able to weasel her way out of getting punished by playing down the scale of the offence, blaming others, making up some kind of excuse via a disability, playing the victim, or feaguing ignorance until yesterday. So that makes me think that she would get out of any punishment you would've given her and even making you believe that she learned her lesson."

Mrs Rossi allowed herself to slump. She knew the other was right. The diplomate could now see that that was exactly how it would've gone. Mrs Rossi sighed when she asked, "After all this, I'm surprised that the Césaire family haven't tried suing Lila too. She practically turned their daughter, Alya, into the perfect pawn for her to use..."

Claudie glanced at the ground when she said, "From what I heard from their oldest child, they're... *Sigh* I guess they're more using this thing as a hard major lesson for Alya... They probably didn't think that they could sue Lila or that many people would be suing her..."

"To be fair," Mrs Rossi said with a sigh before adding, "I didn't expect that many people were going to be suing my daughter too..."

~}i{ Back in Joey Drew Studio }i{~

It took some time, but now Markov had the modified air gun attached to his spherical form, the gun section was attached to his mechanical arm but leaving enough room for him to use the claw without the gun interfering, and a loading pack on his back. Max had to modify Markov's copter blades so the AI could still fly with the extra weight, with Marinette's help since she was the most dexterous of the three able-handed teens.

"Alright, now everyone is armed and ready for anything," Kim said as Markov tested out his new copter blades and new appendage. The AI quickly tested out the locking sequence and firing mechanism of the gun. The wall did end up gaining a few small new holes because of this.

"Let's not go overboard with the shooting, okay Markov," Adrien said in a worried tone.

Markov did a quick analysis before saying, "I won't because of the limited ammunition I currently have. I was simply testing out my new weapon to see if it is functioning properly. And despite the circumstances, it was attached very well."

Kim picked up one of the axes when he said, "Well, now that we're all ready, let's press on and see if we can find a way out of this place. Hopefully, we'll find a room that was in the blueprints and we can follow it out of this place." He then used the axe to break off the boards on the closed door with only a few whacks. Marinette picked up the other axe as Adrien and Max picked up the metal pipes before they all followed Kim out of the Pentagram Room once the door was opened.

The five entered a narrow hallway with a straight descending staircase. They cautiously made their way down as they spotted a 'Utility Shaft 9" sign as they walked (or fly in Markov's case). An unimportant beam broke in half and dropped as they walked down, but it didn't hit anyone so it wasn't a big issue. It didn't take long before they came to a wall that jutted out in front of them with a small Bendy sticker, a banjo leaning on it, three lit candles, and another graffiti message written on a wall that jutted out in front of the group that read 'HE WILL SET UP FREE'.

"I wonder who the "He" in that sentence is referring to?" Adrien asked out loud to no one particular. The others just shrugged at the statement, despite their curiosity about it as well.

When they looked to their right they saw that they were in a large room with a couple of more coffins, a few scattered wooden chairs, and some machinery. Max tucked the pipe under his right arm so he could push his glasses up a bit with his left hand when he stated, "That's strange, I don't recall this section being in the Joey Drew Studio blueprints."

Marinette looked at Max when she suggested, "Maybe this section was added after the blueprints became public record."

That was when Markov stated, "Except that the Joey Drew Studio was shut down on August 28, 1959. If there had there been any changes before then all those changes would've been in the blueprints that Max and I received from the archives."

Kim couldn't help but say, "Wait, if that's true and this was made 'off the record'... Then... This part of the studio isn't in those blueprints we got."

Max sighed as he glanced at his phone, that was still recording, clipped to his suspenders when he said, "It would appear so... Which means that the blueprints aren't going to be helpful..." And here the geek thought that the blueprints would've been handy during their navigation through their replica studio.

Adrien looked at his friends when he said, "But... Why would Mr Drew make these additions off the book? I mean, why add them in the first place?"

Marinette placed a hand to her chin to think when she suggested, "I wonder if it has something to do with the financial situation of the Studio before it was shut down."

Markov pulled up all the data the class managed to find during their research before saying, "Oh my. It seems like Mr Drew was... Certainly not very good with money. But, it still doesn't explain these additions to the studio. If they were having such a problem with the finances, then they should not have been expanding the studio."

That was a valid point... So why renovate and expand the studio when they were financially unstable?

"Hey, look. Another tape recorder," Kim said when he spotted the device on a small table, right in front of a small cardboard cutout of Bendy and five candles, three lit and two burnt out. The taller teen picked it up carefully and spotted scotch tape on the back of the device with words scribbled on it. "Property of Sammy Lawrence. Don't Touch," Kim read out loud for the others could hear.

"Sammy Lawrance? Wasn't he the Music Director of this place?" Adrien asked as he, Marinette, Max, and Markov walked over to Kim. The AI quickly checked the data that the class acquired on Joey Drew Studio before confirming the statement. Adrien nodded when he added, "Yeah, I remember Nino mentioning something about adding some of the songs from the cartoons into our replica as nice little Easter Eggs... He liked the upbeat rhythm."

Max tucked the pipe under his right arm and pushed his glasses up with his left hand when he said, "Play the recording, Kim. It might have some information we can use to find a way out of this place."

"And if not, well, hopefully, we have something to hum while here," Adrien stated, trying to lighten the mood a little bit. "I mean, the guy was the Music director, so he had to have recorded some of his songs, right?" The blonde said, trying to explain what he meant in the prior comment. The rest of the team mumbled an agreement. If the recording was just a song, then at least they would have something to keep their spirits up.

Kim placed the tape recorder on the desk/ledge and pressed the play button. But what was played wasn't a happy song or even a sombre one, it wasn't even a song at all. The voice that emitted from the recording sounded... Like someone who sounded eerily calm when he spoke about unsettling things. That kind of voice was what the team heard from the recording, "He appears from the shadows to rain his sweet blessing upon me. The figure of ink that shines in the darkness. I see you, my saviour. I pray you hear me. Those old songs, I still sing them. For I know you are coming to save me. And I will be swept into your final loving embrace. But, love requires sacrifice. Can I get an amen?" With that, the tape ended.

"I said 'Can I get an amen?'." A voice suddenly called out from nowhere, making Team Psi jump out of their skins. It sounded like the voice on the recording.

They all looked around the candle-lit room when Marinette called out, "Hello? Is anyone else here?" When there was no response, Kim held his axe up ready to strike as he cautiously walked around the immediate area to find who the voice belonged to. Adrien nudged close to a battle-ready Marinette, he still very spooked by both the recording and the disembodied voice. Markov hovered closer to Max, gun ready to use just in case something were to happen.

"Hey guys, I found another path but we're going to have to get ink in our shoes again," Kim called to his friends, signalling an 'All Clear' and informing them about his find.

Adrien, Marinette, Max, and Markov quickly reunited with Kim in front of a long hallway that was flooded in ankle-deep, black ink. There were a few streams of ink drizzling down from the ceiling above. The hallway was only lit by candlelight coming from the other end of the hallway.

The bluette was the one to vocalize, "I'm being serious, where is all this ink coming from? There's just too much of it here, even if you don't count Demon Bendy and the Ink People."

Kim nodded in agreement when he said, "Yeah. I mean, if it were water I can think of a few reasons why it's everywhere, but ink... That doesn't have much of a reason I can think of, even if there's a Miraculous or some other magic involved."

Max nervously fiddled with the pipe in his hand when he said, "You guys know that data on Magic is... Something I have a hard time calculating, but even with my limited knowledge of Magic I am 95% certain that something within this studio is causing all this Ink stuff to become far too abundant." Markov concurred with that statement.

Adrien took a step in the ink when he said with a weary smile, "Well, I guess the only thing we can do is Wad this out."

The rest of Team Psi groaned once they realized the pun. Marinette couldn't help but say, "If it weren't for the fact that we're trapped here with killer Ink Creatures, I would find that funny."

"Don't you mean punny?" Adrien asked with a cattish smile.

Marinette playfully nudges Adrien with a small smile as they took a step into the ink. Both hidden heroes missed the confused glanced from Kim, Max, and Markov.

~}i{ At the Same Time, Alya in Her Bedroom }i{~

Alya was sitting in front of her computer, scrolling through her Ladyblog, or rather the frequency data section for all the posts under the #LadybugBFF and/or #Lila on the Ladyblog. These posts were once her most Liked on the Ladyblog, but over time these same posts have become her most Disliked on the blog. The thumbs-ups slowly switching to thumbs-downs, right under the admin's nose. 'Why didn't I notice this before?' Alya asked herself as she looked at the Popularity Chart over the last six months for all the #Lila Posts. At first, these #Lila Posts were a huge hit on the Ladyblog, but they slowly lost their popularity and the more recent posts under the #Lila were immediately getting the most Disliked. Alya was now seeing all this traffic for the first time and it horrified the blogger.

'How did I miss all these?' Alya questioned herself as she now read each of the recent comments under the #Lila Posts. She had easily over a hundred comments under that hashtag that should've made Alya suspicious of what Lila was telling her. They Should Have... But... 'Why didn't I take the time to look at any of these?' Alya asked herself as she read the next comment.

"This girl again? Why is she even on this blog? This is supposed to be a blog on Ladybug and Chat Noir, but she's turning it into a Lila-only blog." One comment read.

"Come on Ladyblogger? You KNOW Ladybug and Chat Noir, Personally! Why haven't you asked either of them if this Lila girl really is Ladybug's Besty? This girl is taking over your blog." Another comment read.

"Seriously? This Faker again? Come on, every Jagged Stone fan knows he'd never had a "kitten", he's got a freakin crocodile named Fang. And if this fake claims that her "Heroic" was before Jagged got Fang, then she's certainly lying. Because Jagged hatched Fang from an egg 18 years ago, so Fang's older than she is." commented a Jagged Stone fan.

"You might as well rename this blog 'The Lilablog' since that's what this is turning into. I mean, the last post with Ladybug and/or Chat Noir on the "Ladyblog" was two weeks before the posting of this comment, the rest of the post are about this Lila girl. I don't know what the Ladyblogger is thinking when she's posting these girl's fantasies on this blog, but you'd think she'd double-check with those tales Lila tells her." One fan commented.

"Another post of that Liar Girl. Really? Listen, the only reason I follow this blog is because I'm a Ladybug & Chat Noir fan and Ladyblogger always has good videos on them. But since Ladyblogger seems to be tunnelled vision on this Lair and her Tales rather than LB and CN, I'm out. I mean, it would be one thing about her being Ladybug's BF if she were in disguise or using one of those Miraculous to hide her identity, but she's not, and that's the problem that's being overlooked here. If that girl really WAS Ladybug's BF, she wouldn't be boasting that she is to everyone with a screen, and the fact that she did puts a pretty big target on her back. Hello, Hawkmoth could be following this blog too you know, and he could kidnap her or her family to get to Ladybug. Also, didn't Ladybug confirm to Nadja Chamack that she and this Lila girl aren't friends for the very reason I'm talking about to her when she was asked during an interview last week? I'm a little surprised that Ladyblogger didn't think to check with Ladybug about the Liar girl before posting that stupid "Ladybug's BFF!" video, she would've easily stopped the downfall of this blog if she actually did some fact-checking." A former Ladyblog follower commented before officially unfollowing the blog.

Alya sighed at that last comment. The person was right, she should've thought about those things during the first interview with Lila. It should've been obvious, but... Why wasn't it?

Thinking back on a few things... Alya realized just how Lila always managed to get her to think that she was being honest, modest, and truthful... Lila was always able to get her to think that she was this amazing person that couldn't do any wrong...

"ARG! Damn it! Why didn't anyone tell me she was a liar?!" Alya exclaimed in annoyance as she turned off her monitor to take a break from the Ladyblog. As soon as those words left her lips, Alya realized that people HAD told her.

Kagami, when she saw the post on Alya's blog about Lila personally knowing her mother because she saw potential in her when she saw her holding a sword for the first time. Kagami told Alya, to her face, that Lila was lying with the proof being that her mother was BLIND and would not have SEEN Lila holding anything (Yeah, I'm very sorry about this one, but it's just here show how much Lila doesn't bother to look up famous people). Lila's counter for that was that Mrs Tsurugi saw this before she went blind. Alya now remembers seeing Kagami potent frown when she retorted calmly, "My mother has been blind MY whole life, so either this Rila person is much older than she appears or she is lying. From what I can tell, she is lying." Why didn't Alya start thinking that Lila was a lair then?

Max, after he saw how many posts of Lila's "Extraordinary Life" were on the Ladyblog. He told her the impossible statistics of Lila being aquatint with all these famous people, especially the ones that died before any of them were born. Max also told Alya that she's posting these lies on her professional bog, her Ladyblog, which could ruin her credibility. Lila told Alya that Max was being petty because of all her accomplishments and was actually bullying her, even going so far as to fracture her ankle because of it. Now that she knew that that was a big fat lie, Alya remembered the look on Max's face when he walked into class with a cast on his arm when she accused him of faking... Alya should've known that Lila was lying about Max being physically violent. So why didn't she?

Nath and Marc, after they were told by Lila that she could introduce them to Stan Lee next time he's in Paris. "Alya, Stan Lee passed away a few years ago, there's no way Lila can "introduce" us to him," they told her. Alya just brushed them off, thinking that they were just being jealous of Lila. She should've started thinking something was up when they said that since they knew all the big names in comic better than she did. Why didn't she think Lila was a liar then?

Miss Bustier, when she tried explaining that she had a detailed list of everyone who worked on the school's art auction and that Lila wasn't on that list. Alya should've found that suspicious, but she brushed it off as a mistake or clerical error. Why was she so quick to think that?

Adrien, when he noticed how much Lila was being featured on the Ladyblog and how she was treating Marinette. He told her that Ladybug herself confronted Lila about spreading lies about her and their "supposed friendship" when Lila was trying to convince him that she was a hero. "Alya, she's not Ladybug's best friend, she hates Ladybug! And she's using you to keep her popularity and to hurt others!" Adrien told her with worry. Alya should've thought it was weird that Adrien, Paris Sunshine Child, would say something so mean about someone. But Lila assured Alya that they were just having a small rough patch in their relationship, but assured that it'll be quickly fixed and not to worry about it. If Adrien said something about Lila, then she should've started questioning Lila's honesty. So why didn't she?

Nino, when Alya tried to warn him about what Lila told her about Marinette's ulterior motives... But Nino told her that he hasn't spoken to Marinette face-to-face before Alya telling him... And he told her that the bluette would NEVER do something like that, even if she was mad at them... Alya should've known this. Why didn't she listen to Nino about Marinette?

Marinette...

Alya buried her face in her hands at the thought of the other girl.

Marinette told her that Lila was a liar from the very beginning... Marinette hates liars and people who try her hurt her friends, so it was no wonder she never got along with Lila... Marinette somehow saw through the lies and saw what it could do to her friends... She warned them, she warned Alya... And Alya told Marinette that she was being jealous and she needed to check her sources...

Alya groaned into her hands. "I'm such a hypocrite!" she grumbled into her hands. SHE should have CHECKED what Lila told her, not Marinette. She was supposed to be a Reporter, not Marinette. She should've noticed all the inconsistencies, not just Marinette. She should've caught on to all the lies, not just Marinette. 'I shouldn't have assumed that it was jealousy...' Alya thought to herself as she glanced at an old photo of her and Marinette smiling at the camera. 'Why'd I automatically assumed that jealousy was the reason why Marinette hated Lila,' Alya thought, still staring at the photo. The answer came to the bispectral girl immediately.

Because Lila told her that Marinette was jealous... And she just believed that...

"What does "Hypo-crite" mean?" Alya heard the voices of her younger sisters. She turned to the doorway to see not just Ella and Etta, but also Nora.

"Mom and dad called you for dinner... Seems like you didn't hear," Nora told her middle sister.

"What's "Hypo-crite" mean? Is it a game?" Ella and Etta asked in unison.

Alya sighed when she said, "No... A hypocrite is an idiot who doesn't follow their own advice... And loses their friends because of their stupidity..."

The twins glanced at each other with a worried look in their eyes as Nora sighed.

~}i{ Back in Joey Drew Studio }i{~

As Team Psi trudges through the ink flooded hallway. While it wasn't bad as the last few times they had to, they still didn't like the feeling of the ink seeping into their shoes. Markov did his best to avoid the ink dripping from the ceiling.

When they were about two leaps away from the doorway, they saw a man in a Bendy mask and overalls carrying a Bendy cutout walk by the doorframe.

"Hello! Excuse us! Can you help us!" Adrien called out to the man.

But the man didn't seem to acknowledge the group. He just muttered something under his breath as he continued on his walking.

"Hello? Mister?" Kim then called out as they passed the doorway. Group turned the corner to follow the man only to find that it was a dead-end with only the Bendy cutout staring back at them as it leaned against a pentagram on the wall. "Where the hell did he go?" Kim asked out loud as they looked over the dead end. The only other things in the dead-end with the Bendy cutout was a boarded-up hole in the left wall that seemed way too small for an adult to squeeze through and on the right wall was a three-levelled shelf, with the second level being quite askew, filled with cans of bacon soup.

Max nudged closer to Kim when he said in a stemmer, "Y-you guys d-don't need me to t-tell you that THAT c-couldn't be a hallucination, especially since we all saw him."

Markov couldn't help but vocalize, "I concur, more because my CPU is immune to these "hallucinations" things. And I am starting to believe that we do need to evacuate this place sooner rather than later."

"Easier said than done, Markov," Marinette said with a sigh as she looked around the new area. She spotted some kind of powerbox with three blinking lights on the wall parallel to the Bendy cutout. The bluette quickly walked over to the box, and carefully tugging Max along.

Kim, on the other hand, scratched his head as he counted the number of bacon soup cans on the shelf. The tall teen couldn't stop himself from commenting, "Esh, there must've been quite a deal on bacon soup if there's this many here... *Picks one up and looks at the expiration date*. Oh, Yikes! This stuff expired March 17, 1969!"

Max looked back at Kim as he tucked the pipe under his right arm so he could push his glasses up with his left hand when he stated, "Then it would be a good idea NOT to eat any of the food within this place if that is the expiration date on the cans."

Kim grimaced as he shoved the can back onto the shelf. That was when he noticed a flip switch with a blinking light hiding behind a few cans. He moved the cans aside to get a better look at it. 'Weird place to put a switch,' Kim thought to himself as he wondered why it was there in the first place.

Once Marinette and Max stood in front of the powerbox, they noticed that the gateway next to it was firmly shut by steel shutters. The geek tried pulling the lever down, but it wouldn't budge. The bluette tried next, thinking maybe that two hands were needed, but it still wouldn't move. The two then looked at the three blinking lights on the powerbox before Max said, "Seems like we need to get power to this gate somehow. Judging by the age of this, there should be a couple of switches nearby. Maybe three, if these lights mean anything. If we can find them, then we should be able to open the gate."

"Wait! Is this one of the switches?" Kim asked as he pointed to the switch he found.

Adrien stood next to Kim to look at the switch before saying, "Only one way to find out," and then flipping the switch. The light stopped blinking and became a solid light. When everyone looked at the Powerbox, one of the blinking lights stopped blinking and became a solid light.

"It seems like Kim's hypothesis is indeed correct," Markov stated as he flew over to the power box, and that was when the AI noticed what appeared to be a stone statue of Cartoon Bendy with a couple of spatters of black ink on it. Markov brought his claw to under his eye screen, as a question mark appeared where his eyes normally are, when he asked, "That's peculiar. What reason would there be to have a stone effigy of a cartoon character within the studio of its creation?"

"Huh?" Kim, Adrien, and Marinette vocalized in confusion.

Max quickly translated, "Someone made a statue of Cartoon Bendy and placed it here in the studio."

The others made a collective "Oh," as they gathered in front of the statue, more so to just look at it than anything.

Adrien rubbed his chin before finally saying, "Maybe Joey Drew really loved the character he created."

"Enough to have a statue made of him inside the studio?" Marinette asked with a raised brow, before adding, "It would've made more sense to have the statue standing in front of the studio."

Max then stated, "But due to the financial issue of this studio, I don't think that would've been a good idea."

"Mr Drew expanded his studio despite that, so I kinda think the guy would've had the statues made regardless," Kim pointed out. Team Psi glanced at each other before agreeing on the last notion.

Marinette then said as she tapped the blunt end of the axe she held on the powerbox, "Well, we better find the other switches so we can continue with finding a way out of here." Everyone nodded before they started looking around for the other switches.

When they couldn't find any other switches in their current location, the backtracked through the ink-filled hallway back to where they found the Sammy Lawrence tape. When they passed the Bendy Cutout leaning against the wall that turned into the room with the tape and coffins, Adrien stopped and stared at it for a few seconds. 'That smile...' the blonde model thought as he remembered a certain someone with a similar smile.

"Found another switch!" Kim said as he found the 2nd switch was next to a cartoon poster titled 'Bendy in Train Troubles'. The taller teen opened the box and flipped that switch. The blinking light became a solid light. Two down, one to go.

Suddenly, the sound of wood breaking hit the air. Marinette, Kim, Max, and Markov immediately turned to the sound, only to see that Adrien had hit the Bendy cutout leaning against the wall with the pipe he held, breaking off one of cardboard cutout's horns.

"Adrien, are you okay?" Marinette asked the blonde in a worried tone as she took a cautious step towards him.

In practically a burst of anger, Adrien seethed out, "No! I'm not okay! That lying bitch practically sent us into a death trap! *Hits the broken Bendy Cutout again*. I shouldn't have! *Smashes the cutout*. Given! *Smashes cutout*. That Bitch! *Smashes cutout*. Another Chance! *Smashes cutout*. After That! *Smashes cutout*. Incident! *Smashes cutout*. Last Shoot!" It didn't take long for the furious blonde to destroy the cutout completely. Adrien was now panting after such a burst of rage and activity.

Kim placed a gentle hand on Adrien's shoulder when he asked, "Hey man, you wanna talk about it? Because it seems like you kept it bottled up for a while."

Adrien turned to his worried friends and finally poured out what happened the last time he was forced to work with Lila last photoshoot. He didn't skip on the details on what went down during that and told them what he felt during the whole thing. The whole thing just felt like a damn finally bursting open and now unable to stop the water that was flowing out.

"THAT LYING BITCH DID WHAT!?" Marinette's furious voice thundered in response.

With a disgusted look on his face, Max stated sourly, "While I would reframe from calling Lie-la a bitch, because it would be insulting dogs, I would certainly agree with the emotional response to that story... Adrien, please tell us the other models and photographers also told her that her behaviour was certainly inappropriate and that she had to stop."

Adrien couldn't stop himself from growling out, "They all did, multiple times, EACH. I just couldn't take her anymore, I had to leave before a did something I would regret. Namely punching her, because that what I wanted to do, especially when she touched me THERE. I don't care how close someone is to another person, you don't touch them there without their permission! Nathalie made sure I had that talk and made sure I knew that stuff."

Kim placed a hand on his chin when he asked, "And you STILL gave her another chance, even after what she did to you? Adrien, why the hell would you do that? Dude, you only give people a third or a fourth chance if they WANT to change, and Lie-la clearly doesn't want to change."

Adrien glanced to the side when he said in a forced tone, "Father... Was very displeased that I left in the middle of a photoshoot when there wasn't any emergency... And he told me to both apologies to Lila for leaving and be nice to her..."

At that moment, only sound within the room was the sound of dripping ink.

Marinette took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and asked in that calm-but-secretly-enraged tone, "Adrien, DID you tell your father what happened during the photoshoot?"

A little unnerved by the eerie calmness, Adrien replied cautiously, "Yes..."

Marinette nodded slowly when she then asked in that same tone, "Did you tell him the same thing that you just told us? Not word for word, but you told him in a way that there would be no chance of him misunderstanding or mishearing WHAT you were telling him?"

Still, in that cautious tone, Adrien replied, "Um, yes, I made sure Father knew what happened and that I was certainly uncomfortable with what happened, and I told him that I didn't want to work with Lila anymore because of it..."

Marinette nodded slowly again when she asked, still in that eerie calm tone, "And did you tell him this before or after he said he was displeased that you left the photoshoot and needed to "Make Up" with that liar?"

Adrien shifted uncomfortably when he replied, "Um, it was after I told him... *Now in a more angrily annoyed tone* But Father seems to believe his lying spy more than the concerns of his own son! She apparently told him that I was being "too sensitive" to her "casually touching" me! There is NO WAY IN HELL her touches during that photoshoot could ever be considered "casual" in any way! I don't know what she said to have Father trust her more than me, but you'd think that me also telling him that the rest of the staff also telling Lie-la that she was being inappropriate and to stop what she was doing would be concerning to him."

Marinette closed her eyes before taking her phone out of her pocket. She turned her phone on and started typing, furiously. Max, Kim, Markov, and Adrien watch this in both fear and concern. There was no connection, so they knew it wasn't a text...

"Uh, Mari, what are you-?" Kim started saying before Marinette hushed him as she continued typing.

"It must be relatively important if she feels like she has to make a typed note," Max stated as he glanced around the area for the last switch. He then added, "But considering what just discussed, I am 83.5% certain that it involves finding a way to legally remove Adrien from his father's custody. And I have calculated that there is a 0.5% chance that Marinette might murder Mr Agreste over that if he fails to see the error of his decisions." Adrien wasn't sure how he should feel about that idea.

Kim couldn't help but point out, "I don't blame her, I mean... If my parents found out that some person I don't like was molesting me like that, whether it's from me or someone else, I'm pretty sure they'd do everything in their power to keep them away from me or sue them for sexual harassment. They'd probably do worse if it was my kid sister being molested."

Markov then added, "I am quite certain that would be the typical response of a caring parent if they hear that their child is experiencing sexual harassment."

With a sigh, Adrien replied, "I suppose they would..." Max placed his cast on one of the blonde's shoulders as Kim placed a hand on the other.

Once Marinette finished with typing her note, Team Psi continued on their hunt for the final switch. Which didn't take them long at all. The 3rd switch was next to the coffins. Marinette opened the box and flipped that switch.

"All right, that should be all of them. Let's head back to the main power box and see if we can open the gate now," Max stated as he tucked the pipe under his right arm and used his left hand to push glasses up.

So they made their way back to the metal gate, but something creepy caught their attention.

"Uhh, didn't Adrien destroy that cutout?" Max questioned as he pointed his cast to the turn with a cardboard cutout of cartoon Bendy leaning against the wall. The very cutout that the blonde thoroughly destroyed not even a few minutes ago, yet there it was, back in one piece and grinning back at the teens with its unnatural smile.

Adrien's face paled a bit when he said, "I'm pretty sure I did. I mean, I hacked it to pieces in a fit of rage, right?" Kim and Marinette commented that they were sure that he did. When Markov re-watched a memory file of the act, he confirmed that it happened and couldn't explain why the cardboard cutout was back in one piece.

After glancing at each other in a flash of fear, Team Psi quickly rushed by the cutout and trudged through the ink to get to the gate's powerbox.

After catching their breaths, they saw that all the lights were solid and threw the now active switch. The metal gates slowly creaked up and opening a new path blocked by wooden boards nailed to the door on the other side. Marinette and Kim made a few quick hacks each to break down a few of the board. That was when a light to the new area suddenly turned on with a soft eery moan accompanying it. That caused the group to freeze in place.

"Hello? Anyone there?" Marinette called out through the remaining boards, trying to get a better look at the new area from where she was.

That was when Kim called out, "Listen, we don't want any trouble, we're just looking for a way out of this place."

There was no response.

Kim and Marinette glanced at Adrien, Max, and Markov with an unnerved look in their eyes. Everyone clenched their respective weapon in anticipation, expecting the worst while hoping for the best. And with that, the axe wielders chopped down the remaining boards and they all cautiously entered the new area.

It had a rather large area with a high ceiling. More cartoon posters of old Bendy episodes and two walkways with a wall between them with a sign that read "Music Department". Under the department sign was another sign that read "Director: Sammy Lawrence". A few candles lit the area, but not by much, while a spotlight hit the group with its beam. A Bendy cutout leaned under one of two speakers mounted on the top edges of the Music Department sign. A gramophone sat on top of a dried puddle of ink. And another tape recorder sat on a small ledge close to where Team Psi walked in.

Looking past the new spotlight on them, Adrien couldn't help but say, "It's still pretty dark in here."

Markov quickly took note of the tape recorder and flew over to it, closely followed by Max, and then the rest of the group. After a quick analysis of the device, the AI stated, "According to the handwritten label, this tape recorder also belongs to Sammy Lawrence."

Kim cringed when he heard before saying, "After that last one, I'm not sure I want to hear what this message is about."

"But..." Marinette piped up before saying, "What if it has a clue about getting out of here? Even if it's a slim possibility."

That was a good point... So they played the tape.

Sammy Lawrence's voice emitted from the device, but this time it didn't sound eerie, he actually sounded normal but annoyed, "So, first Joey installs this Ink Machine over our heads. Then it begins to leak. Three times last month, we couldn't even get out of our department because the ink had flooded the stairwell. Joey's solution? An ink pump to drain it periodically. Now I have this ugly pimp switch right in my office. People in and out all day. Thanks, Joey. Just what I needed. More distractions. These stupid cartoon songs don't write themselves, you know."

Max tucked the pipe under his right arm to use his left hand to push up his glasses when he said, "Well, that was interesting. Judging from the tone and implied behaviour we just heard in this Audio Log, I am 76.4% sure that this one was made long before the prior Audio Log of Mr Lawrence we listened to in the "Alter Room" area. Uh, since it kind of resembles one."

Adrien couldn't help but add, "Yeah, he doesn't sound, uh, devoted and creepy in this one. But he also mentioned an "Ink Machine"... You guys think it's the same "Machine" thing that Mr Conner talked about in the Log we found yesterday?"

Max rubbed his chin in thought when he said, "That might be a possibility... Ink Machine... That... Might be a theory as to why there seems to be an abundance of ink here in the studio... But, what was it suppose to do in the first place?"

Markov was the one to say, "We do not have the sufficient data to make any logical guesses to its purpose, other than the fact that it seems to be the thing that is possibly filling this location with ink. Also, our critical priority now is to find a way out of here. We can speculate on the "Ink Machine Theories" once we escape."

Kim tapped the axe to his shoulder when he said, "Markov has a point. We need to get outta here, especially before anything else happens."

Marinette found an open doorway and walked over to it. That was when she realized that it leads to a descending staircase full of ink so that the door with an Exit sign below couldn't open. The bluette told her friends, "Looks like the stairwell is flooded. If we're going to get out of here, we'll need to find Mr Lawrence's office and activate that pump to drain it."

"Huh, guess that recording was handy after all," Kim said as he started looking around the area for some kind of clue as he, Max, Adrien, and Markov made their way over to the bluette.

Marinette was going to turn and nod at her friend when she noticed a power switch. "This must be for the lights," she said as she pulled the switch down. All the lights turned on in the area.

Max raised a brow at this when he asked, "You know, now that I think about it... How does this place still have working power if it has been shut down for more than half a century?"

Markov pondered that thought when he responded, "Perhaps someone is either still paying the electric bill for this building or this place has some sort of self-sustaining power source that we are not aware of."

Kim patted Max on the head with his free hand when he said, "Listen, Max, I know I tell you not to overthink things in the past, but right now we don't need to sweat the small stuff. We just need to get out of here, so use that brain for that."

Max gave a small smile when he said, "I guess that is a logical point to make."

The team walked back into the now powered on Music Department. They could now see more ink dripping down from the ceiling right in front of the department sign, and that was when a giant glob of ink dropped down. It landed with a slimy plop, then it morphed into a half-human ink creature from the chest up with the rest of its body dripping into a slug-like ink blob. The ink creature then started crawling towards the group with an eerie moan. Team Psi took a few steps back as the ink creature crept closer. They were just shocked at the sudden appearance, but they quickly got over it when Marinette and Kim smashed the ink creature with their axes, once each. When the hits landed, the ink creature burst into an inky mess on the floor and leaving a glob of black ink in its place.

The next thing everyone knew, six more Ink Creatures suddenly appeared and crawled towards the group as they groaned that eerie tune. With that, Team Psi leapt into action. Kim smashed his axe over one of the Ink Creature's head, KOing the thing immediately. When the other's saw this they did the same with their respective weapons. Marinette swung the axe down on one inky head. Adrien followed the bluette's action by doing the same with the closest Ink Creature to him. Max, awkwardly, swung his pipe at another Ink Creature's head, since he only had one hand to work with, but he missed and ht its shoulder and had to hit it another time before it was able to strike. Markov quickly activated his weapon protocol and locked onto the heads of the remaining two Ink Creatures before firing two shots, both landed on target.

Once all the Ink Creatures were taken care off, the group let out a breath of relief.

"Not going to lie, that was freaky," Adrien said with a huff, trying to calm himself down a bit after that activity.

Max tucked the pipe under his right arm and used his left hand to push his glasses up when he said, "Agreed. It seems like the power switch had some kind of trap attached to it. I guess that someone or something layed that for whoever pulled the switch... *Shutters* Those Ink Creatures just looked like they were searching for us."

Marinette glanced around for more Ink Creatures when she said, "And we were unfortunate enough to do. Again, it's a good thing we know how to defend ourselves, or we would've been in worse shape."

Kim let out a nervous chuckle when he said, "I guess Hawkmoth's Akumas were handy for something after all... *Now in a wiry tone* Do you guys think either Ladybug or Chat Noir would be able to help us? I mean... It's not Akuma related but they are heroes and we can use their help..."

Markov hovered close when he said, "What you are saying is true Kim, but how would Ladybug and Chat Noir know that we are here to give their aid?"

No one noticed how Adrien brought his pipe close to his chest so he could feel the Kwami in his inner jacket pocket or Marinette placing a hand on her purse. Both discreetly glanced at the little beings who cautiously poked an eye out to look at their worried holders. They wanted to help, they wanted to just tell their holders to screw the secret identity rules and just transform to save the group and get out of this place, but they couldn't... Something just felt off about this place... And the Kwamis didn't like that at all.

"Uh, I was on call with Chloe, so she might be able to get in touch with Ladybug," Adrien said suddenly, trying to lighten the mood by putting a little hope on the table.

Marinette plastered a smile, despite knowing that that would be impossible, when she added, "And I'm sure Chat Noir will be more than willing to save us if he knew we're here."

Adrien activated his 'Model Smile', knowing that Chat Noir isn't going to be able to get that message, when he said, "Yeah, I mean. Heroes save people. So she'll save us."

As Marinette visibly nodded in agreement, Max, Kim, and Markov looked at the blonde and bluette in confusion. Something was off about what they were talking about and their behaviours...

Adrien noticed a gate that was once closed was now open. Quickly thinking, the blonde model said, "Hey look, seems like defeating the Searchers opened a new path. You guys mind if I go ahead and check it out?"

Kim raised a brow at this when he said, "Uh, Adrien, this isn't an episode of Scooby-Doo. Splitting-up isn't exactly a good idea here, especially there could be more-. Wait, Searchers?"

Adrien nodded when he replied, "Yeah, Searchers. Since Max mentioned that those Ink Creatures seemed to be "searching" for us, I'd figure we just call those particular Ink Creatures "Searchers" since it's easier to remember." That was when the group hear a ding emit fro Max's phone like it was signalling something.

Marinette immediately jumped at the chance to talk to Tikki when she added, "That's smart! Say, why don't I check where this hall leads while you check out what's beyond the gate." As she pointed to an ascending staircase.

"Great idea Marinette, we'll meet back in 5, 10 minutes tops," Adrien said with a smile before he rushed off towards the gate while the bluette rushed over to the ascending staircase, leaving the rest of Team Psi in the main area of the Music Department.

"... Uh, Max, what just happened?" Kim asked the moment he lost sight of the blonde and bluette. The taller teen then said, "Because I was sure I told them that splitting-up was a bad idea."

"Affirmative, I heard..." Max said as he unclipped his phone from his overall strap and check it to see what the ding was about. The techie frowned when he said, "Great... We've been in this place for a full 24-hours... My phone has a weird limit on video length, where the longest I can record a video is 24-hours."

Kim glanced at the ascending staircase Marinette went up when he said, "On the upside, we were out for most of that time. The downside is that we're still trapped here... What are you doing?" The taller teen noticed that the shorter teen was scrolling through the recording.

"Markov, could you sync with my phone and analyze the video?" Max asked the AI, who happily complied.

}{ With Marinette and Tikki }{

Marinette quickly and quietly shut the door to the Projection room the moment she entered. Tikki flew out of the bluette's purse as soon as the door was closed.

"Oh, Tikki! What am I going to do?! What am I going to do?! What am I going to do?!" Marinette gasped out in pure worry, trying to keep her volume down so not to attract the others, her eyes were wide in terror as she started passing back and forth in the small room. In a frantic tone, Marinette said, "If I turn into Ladybug and save them, they'll notice that Marinette is missing and they'll wonder why Ladybug couldn't save her too! But if I stay as Marinette, then it'll leave all of us open to attack from the Searchers and that Ink Demon! Okay, granted we can handle the Searchers, but that Ink Demon?! Uh-Ah, no way I can protect us from that thing?! I mean, Ladybug might, but well, I explained why I can't be her right now!" The bluette was burning a ditch in the floorboard with her frantic passing.

Tikki, trying to calm her chosen down, when she said, "Marinette, calm down. It's going to be okay. You and the others have been able to defend yourselves from those Searchers so far, you just need to do so for a little longer. Once the ink is drained from that stairwell, you all will be able to get out of this place."

Marinette wearily wrapped her arms around herself when she said, "I hope so Tikki... And I hope Chat Noir can handle Hawkmoth and his Akumas on his own until I can get us out of here."

Tikki was strangely quiet at this.

That was when Marinette noticed another Audio Log on the desk next to the movie projector. "Wonder who this belongs to," the bluette asked Tikki before she picked the device up and read the handwritten label. "Norman Polk, huh. Wonder what he did here?" Marinette asked before she put the device down and pressed the play button.

When the Audio Log played the tape, the voice of a man emitted from the device, "Every day, the same strange thing happen. I'll be up here in my booth, the band will be swinging, and then Sammy Lawrence just comes marching in and shuts the whole thing down. Tells us all to wait in the hall. Then I hear him. He starts up the projector, and then he dashes from the projector booth and down to the recording studio like the little devil himself was chasing behind. Few seconds later, the projector turns off. But Sammy, he doesn't come out for a long time. This man is weird. Crazy weird. I have half a mind to talk to Mister Drew about all this. But then again, I have to admit, Mister Drew has his own peculiarities." With that, the Log ends with a click.

"Sounds like Mr Lawrence was a, um, excentric individual," Tikki commented as she looked over the projection booths ledge to view the recording room. instruments were scattered about with 12 wooden chairs on the stage for the band, the projection screen was behind the stage, and a Bendy cutout was occupying one of the chairs.

Marinette placed a hand to her chin when she said, "It does, doesn't it, but he had to be doing that for a reason. Especially if he doesn't leave the recording booth for a while." She then looked over the area below the booth. From where Ladybug holder and her Kwami could see, there didn't seem to be anything but what was supposed to be there. Marinette tilted her head to the side slightly when she asked Tikki, "Do you think there's something there that we're not seeing?"

Tikki could only shrug.

}{ With Adrien and Plagg }{

The moment Adrien passed the gate he went to the first open door he saw and quickly darted into it before closing it behind him, it looked like some kind of work area for writers. Plagg immediately flew out of the blonde's jacket when he heard the door close.

"Plagg! What am I suppose to do?!" Adrien gasped out in worry, he kept his voice low so the others wouldn't hear him talking to the Kwami. The blonde ran a nervous hand through his hair when he stated in a frantic tone, "I have to save them! But if I turn into Chat Noir, they're going to ask where Adrien is! And if I stay as Adrien, that leaves us open for that Ink Demon to attack us! We can handle the Searchers, but that Demon *shutters*! I don't know if Chat Noir can handle that thing, especially without his Lady!"

Plagg sighed when he said, "Normally I'd tell you to relax and eat some camembert cheese, but given where we are... I'd say stay on your toes and prepare for the worst. If it ends with you having to turn into Chat Noir to save everyone, then do it, forget the secret identity thing."

Adrien frantically rubbed his head when he snapped as quietly as he could (which is hard, might I add), "Gah! Why do I even bother asking you about these things?! You give terrible advise!"

Plagg frowned when he stated, "Hey! That's not always true! Besides, this place is putting me on edge. ME! The laidback Kwami of Destruction! That alone should be telling. Plus, lives are more important than secrets. If you have to transform to save the others, then do it! Both the Guardian and Ladybug will completely understand!"

Adrien sighed, trying to calm himself down, when he said, "I guess you're right this time, Plagg... I hope Ladybug can handle Hawkmoth and his Akumas without her kitty..."

Plagg was oddly silent at this.

That was when Adrien noticed a Bendy drawing on one of the desks and looked it over. There was a full image of the Dancing Demon with four headshots of him. Under each of the headshots were words of expressions; happy, sad, angry, and disgust. However, the headshots looked identical to the image to the full-body Bendy sketch. Right next to the sketch was a post-it note that read 'Don't let Joey see this'.

Plagg chuckled at the drawing when he said, "I get it, cartoon Bendy doesn't have a wide range of emotions."

"But that's kinda sad too..." Adrien replied before glancing down at the drawing when he added, "How does anyone know when he sad or upset if he's always wearing a smile?"

Plagg's whiskers drooped a bit when he said, "Kid, I think you already have that answer..."

Adrien sighed at the comment, knowing that the Kwami was right... He knew better than anyone just how easy it was to plaster on a smile when he wasn't feeling happy at all. "Don't let Joey see this..." Adrien muttered the note out loud before looked at the black Kwami and asking, "What do you think that means?"

Plagg shrugged when he suggested, "Maybe Joey Drew didn't have a sense of humour? Or he could just not like people messing with his creation..."

Adrien looked back at the drawing when he let out a, "Hmm."

~}i{ With Master Fu }i{~

Wayzz felt something wrong, very wrong. The worst part of it was that he couldn't figure out what it was. Normally the Kwami of the Turtle Miraculous was able to sense what was wrong, but not this time, and now Master Fu was very concerned.

"We'll have to intercept Ladybug and Chat Noir during their next patrol," Master Fu said, stroking his beard. He then added, "They might be able to solve this conundrum."

Wayzz liked that idea and it eased the Kwami of Protection a great deal. The holders of the Black Cat and Ladybug should help them solve this mystery.

Wang Fu smiled when he saw his Kwami relax a bit before saying, "How about we watch a little television while we wait for Ladybug and Chat Noir to start their patrol. We can drink that fresh pot of tea I made." Wayzz smiled. Tea and tv sounded good.

Wayzz turned on the tv as the Guardian of the Miraculous poured two cups of tea. There was a news piece on green gardening on right now.

The two sat for a few minutes watching the special as they enjoyed the tea.

Nadja Chamack face appeared after the gardening segment ended with her usual catchphrase, but this time around she didn't say it with her usual cheerfulness, "Don't bemused it's just the news... Today's leading headline is the ongoing investigation against 15-year-old Lila Rossi, daughter of an Italian Diplomate to France."

Wayzz tilted his head to the side when he asked Wang Fu, "Master, isn't that the name of the "Annoying Lying Brat" that both Ladybug and Chat Noir tell us about after she's Akumatized?"

Wang Fu stroked his beard when he said, "Yes, I'm sure that's her name... Both Ladybug and Chat Noir dropped by the 29th after their patrol, separately, and asked me if they could do something to retaliate against that girl since she physically harms a friend of theirs for outing her lies... While I did tell them that they couldn't do anything physical against that lair as Ladybug and Chat Noir, I advised them to keep their phones in their front chest pocket to record her threats and lies, to show to their teachers. I hope this is the result of that advises." The Guardian of the Miraculous was certainly hoping that that was the case.

Nadja Chamack continued with her coverage in that same uncheerful tone, "Normally, we wouldn't be allowed to give you a name of a minor, but the Italian Government and Lila's mother have given their permission for Lila's name to be used, for them to figure out the true extent of all the lies she has told and the deeds done."

"Oh, my," Wayzz got out as Wang Fu took a sip of his tea. Perhaps that liar was worse than they originally thought.

Nadja Chamack bit her lip a bit when she continued, "Especially after she has purposefully sent four of her classmates to the dangerously condemned Joey Drew Studio."

"Joey Drew Studio?" Wang Fu repeated cluelessly as Wayzz took a sip of his tea. Lucky for them, the anchorwoman did a quick rundown on what Joey Drew Studio was and why it was condemned. "Dangerous Ink Monsters within that studio?!" The Guardian gasped, wondering why he's never heard of this place before.

Wayzz gulped when he said, "Master, I think Ladybug and Chat Noir's worries about that lair is justified! We have to let them know that they need to save those kids trapped in the studio!"

Wang Fu nodded in agreement when he said, "Agreed. It may not be an Akuma or Akuma related, but they need to save those kids from the dangers of the studio before it's too late for even the Miraculous Cure can fix."

Nadja Chamack then continued, but now in a slightly cracking voice. This made the Guardian and Kwami wonder if the anchorwoman knew the kids trapped in the studio. The redheaded woman then said, "Again, normally we are not allowed to give the names of minors, but all four of the teenager's parents gave their consent to have their names known so that they can get someone, anyone, to help their children." Wang Fu could understand that. Nadja took a deep breath before she gave the names and pictures of the four teens trapped within the walls of Joey Drew Studio, "Lê Chiến Kim *Picture of Kim appears on screen*. Max Kanté with his AI, Markov *Picture of Max and Markov appears on screen*. Adrien Agreste *Picture of Adrien (school photo, not him modelling) appears on screen*. And... *Chokes a bit* Marinette Dupain-Cheng *Picture of Marinette appears on screen*. Are the four teens that are currently trapped inside Joey Drew Studio!"

Wayzz eyes widened at this. He now realized THAT was what felt wrong.

The teacup Wang Fu was holding slipped through his fingers when he heard and saw two familiar names and faces. The cup hit the table they sat at before bouncing off and landing on the floor. Tea spilt everywhere, but neither Wang Fu nor Wayzz could think to care about that... All they could think of is the fact that Ladybug and Chat Noir were trapped in a dangerous building with others...

~}i{ Back in Joey Drew Studio }i{~

"Max, you have that look on your face," Kim said with a knowing look and tone. He knew when his smart friend was thinking or calculating something complicated, after all, the glasses-wearing teen had a hard time hiding his emotions.

Max watched the section another time before finally saying, "Sorry, but that moment was just too strange to overlook. There was no draft and even if there were the movement is too potent for it..." Markov was watching with his buddy.

Kim scratched his head when he said, "Yeah, okay, I get that Mari and Adrien's shoulders moving when we were unconscious is weird, but so is this place. *Sigh* Max, Markov, can't you two put that on hold until we get out of this place? We kinda need to focus on that right now."

Markov's response was a simple, "Kim has a logical point." Max had to agree with that.

"Kim's right about what?" Marinette asked as she walked down the stairs and regrouping with the three.

"About focusing on getting out of here," Max replied immediately. He then frowned at the bluette when he added, "And we were also talking about you and Adrien going off on your own. It's way too dangerous here to be doing that."

Marinette rubbed the back of her head when the group heard Adrien call out, "Hey, guys! I found Mr Lawrence's office!" The moment they heard that the rest of the team quickly followed the blonde's voice and met him in front of an office with a window to see inside. Above the window was the sign that read "Office of Sammy Lawrence Music Department Director" and then an arrow pointing to a door the was firmly shut because of a burst pipe the was spewing ink like a waterfall. There was also a Bendy cutout leaning against the left side beam of the window.

Kim looked inside the office to see a wooden desk, wooden chair, a picture of a music note above the desk, graffiti on the opposite wall that read "iT's TIME To BELIEVE", and the pump control on the left of the graffiti. Max quickly pressed to record button on his phone with his left thumb before he reclipped it to his overalls so that the phon's camera could record what was happening. The taller teen then said, "Well, there's the pump switch alright. But *turns his attention to the spewing ink in front of the door* that's one hell of a leak blocking the door though."

That was when Adrien nodded when he said, "Agreed, if we could just stop that ink from flowing, maybe we can get in."

Marinette noticed an Audio Log on a small ledge parallel to the door. "Huh, that's a weird place to put a Log." She walked over to it and pressed the play button to hear what was on it. Since the Audio Log was in front of Sammy Lawernce's office, the group figured it belonged to him as well.

But when the recording started, a much different voice emitted from the device. The voice sounded like a man with one of those New York accents when he said, "So, I go to get my dustpan from the hall closet the other day and guess what? I can't find my stupid keys. It's like they disappeared into thin air or something. All I can think of is that they must have fallen into one of the garbage cans as I was making my rounds last week. I just hope nobody tells Sammy. Because if he finds out I lost my keys again, I'm out of here." With that, the Log ended.

Marinette carefully picked up the Audio Log with one hand and found the handwritten label. She read the name out loud, "Wally Frank's Story Logs... From what he said in this, I guess he was the janitor or custodian here when the studio was open."

Max tucked the pipe under his right arm so he could push his glasses up with his left hand when he stated, "There are quite a few things wrong with that Log though. Firstly, if he didn't want Mr Lawrence to know that he lost his keys, why even make a recording of him saying it? Second, why'd he, or someone, place this Audio Log right in front of Mr Lawrence's office, where he could find and listen to it? Third, the phrase "Again" implies that he's lost his keys in the past and should not have been trusted with a new set unless he found a way to attach them to his person so he doesn't lose them again. And fourth, why did it take him a week to realize that his keys were missing?"

That was when Marinette remembered their research on the studio and said, "Maybe... One of the other people who were trapped here in the past found this Audio Log and place it here so it could easily be found by other trapped individuals like us. I can also guess that that person was unable to escape since our research showed that no one who entered this place was able to escape..."

The team hung their heads in a silent prayer for those who weren't able to make it out alive.

Adrien noticed a closed door next to Sammy Lawrence's office with a sign above it that read 'Closet'. The blonde fiddled with the knob, but it was locked. Adrien turned to his friends when he said, "I guess this must be the "Hall Closet" Mr Franks was talking about in that Audio Log. Maybe there might be something in there that can help us stop the inkfall."

Marinette brought a hand to her chin when she said, "It's a stretch, but not like we have any other choices in the options department."

That was a true statement.

"Looking for keys in bins while keeping an eye out for more Searchers, not a bad activity," Kim said, trying to lighten the mood, before saying, "Well, let's get started, but this time we're staying together." The taller teen gave Marinette and Adrien a stern look. Kim then said, "I'm serious, we don't know if there are any more Searchers here and that Ink Demon can appear at any time."

Max pushed his glasses up again when he added, "I concur, we have to stick together here, especially since we don't know what other dangers are here."

Markov nodded when he added, "Affirmative, and we are also a team. Teams are to stick together through any challenges."

Adrien scratched his cheek when he said with a weary smile, "Yeah, sorry about that."

"Ditto..." Marinette replied with guilt on her face.

With that, they started looking for bins to see if the keys were in them. Adrien already looked through the bins in the Writers Office, no keys in any of them. Max noticed a flickering light coming from the hallway across from the Writer's Office. "Wonder what's over there?" the glasses-wearing teen asked as he and Markov cautiously walked over to the flickering light. When they got to the end, they came upon another ink flooded stairwell. But this time around there was a sign.

"Infirmary?" Markov read the larger letters above the light. The AI then questioned, "I understand that workplaces need to have some sort of first-aid kit on-site, but an entire doctor's office seems a little too much. Especially for an animation studio."

As Kim, Marinette, and Adrien walked over to Max and the AI, the techie read the sign under the Infirmary sign out loud, "Notice: Anyone found faking illness will be docked a full week's wages. Not sick. Not paid... Yikes, that's pretty harsh."

"Why would anyone want to fake being sick?" Adrien asked rather cluelessly.

Kim glanced at the blonde when he said, "You do remember that a certain liar who likes to get out of doing the work and any menial tasked that she couldn't bother to do herself by pretending to be sick in some way, right?"

"Urg, don't remind me, I had to make copies of my notes for her because of her "Arthritis prevented her from taking notes herself" and I knew that was a lie," Adrien vocalized before asking, "But I meant was why would anyone who has a job they're willing to do would want to fake being sick?"

Markov quickly pulled up some of the classes research on Joey Drew Studio before saying, "According to the former workers of this studio, Mr Drew was a rather harsh boss with high expectations for his workers and would push the workers to the brink and keep them in the studio until the deadlines are met. Some of the workers quit because they haven't seen their loved ones in days, sometimes weeks."

Marinette's face twisted in disgust when she said, "Yikes! Sounds like Mr Drew was a slave-driver."

Kim glanced at the sign in a glint of anger when he said, "The guy doesn't let his workers home and expects them to work on the cartoons under that much pressure? Damn! Seemed like Drew didn't seem to have any respect for his employees or labour laws."

Max nodded in agreement when he added, "Apparently financial reasons weren't the only reason for the closure of this studio."

Marinette brought a hand to her chin when she stated, "But where did the Ink Creatures come from and why are they tied to this place? I mean... Something or someone had to bring them here... Right?" She then looked at her friends at that last statement.

Adrien shrugged when he suggested, "Maybe it has something to do with that "Ink Machine" thing we keep hearing in some of the Audio Logs."

Max glanced at the ink flooding the Infirmary stairwell when he said, "Well, that's one theory..." He then glanced up at the others as they looked at each other.

So many questions they keep coming across, but as tempting as finding those answers are they knew that they needed to get out of this place first. And with that, their key searching resumed. They later found the keys in the bin next to the wall with an Alice Angle poster and an unlocked door which lead to a room with a pool table, complete with pool balls. Although, one of the balls looked a little too much like a disembodied eye. Not questioning any of the weirdness, mostly the fact that the keys were still here after half a century, Team Psi quickly returned to the hall closet and used the keys to unlock the door, which opened without any problems now. No one bothered to ask how that was possible after so long being locked closed.

Inside was nothing more than a regular custodian closet with a shelf with all the tools needed for cleaning, though they haven't been used in a very long time, judging by all the cobwebs caking everything. There were three cans of Bacon Soup stacked in a pyramid, that no one wanted to touch. A few wooden boards leaning in the corner. Two burnt-out candles. And lastly, another Audio Log on the middle shelf.

"Huh, another weird place to put an Audio Log," Kim commented before looking at his friends when he added, "You think it's another one from Mr Frank? I mean, it's in the closet he had the keys too."

"Only one way to find out," Markov stated before he hit the play button.

With that, the tape started, and the voice that emitted from the Log wasn't Wally Frank, but Sammy Lawrence, "Every artistic person needs a sanctuary. Joey Drew has his and I have mine. To enter, you need only know my favourite song. The bass fiddle sings with deep articulation. The drum thunders in triumph. The banjo playfully plucks. The violin shudders with a piercing voice. Sing my song and my sanctuary will open to you." With that, the tape ended.

max raised a brow when he said, "Why would Mr Franks keep one of Mr Lawrence's Audio Logs in this closet?" Kim shrugged in response.

Adrien scratched his head when he said, "Well... That wasn't helpful. Guess we wasted our time looking for keys for nothing. We're going to have to find something else to try to stop that inkfall over there." He pointed towards the gushing ink that was blocking the way to Sammy's office.

Max, Kim, and Markov agreed with their blonde friend, but to Marinette, the tape made perfect sense when she suddenly said, "So that's what Mr Lawrence was doing in the Recording Studio! His Sanctuary must be hidden in there!"

"Uh, Mari, mind sharing your thoughts with the class, because you're not making sense right now, and you're not even stutter ranting," Kim said as he rubbed the back of his neck in confusion as the AI, model, and techie agreed.

That was when Marinette explains how she found an Audio Log from a Norman Polk in the Projection Booth when she was 'looking through it for clues' and she told them what the Norman said in the Log about Sammy's strange behaviour. About how the Music Director 'Disappeared' in the Recording Studio for a long time. The bluette even told the guys how she thought that there had to be some reason as to why that was happening. "If Mr Lawrence's Sanctuary is hidden in the Recording Studio then his behaviour that Mr Polk noted in his Audio Log makes perfect sense," Marinette finished off with a smile, now happy she figured out the puzzle. She then added, "Maybe something in Mr Lawrence's Sanctuary could help stop the ink flow blocking his office."

The guys glanced at each other briefly. The bluette's logic was on point, and there was no harm in seeing if there was something in that sanctuary that could help them. So, the group made their way to the Recording Studio. When they entered the guys took in how big spread out everything was, Marinette, on the other hand, noticed something she saw from the Projection Booth was now missing.

"Marinette? Are you okay?" Adrien asked her when he noticed how quiet and pale she was.

Looking at the chairs for the band stage, Marinette stuttered out, "Wh-wh-where d-d-did th-the B-B-Bendy c-c-cutout g-g-go?"

The guys looked around the room, but there was no Bendy cutout. Bendy's face over a Voice Recording Booth, but no cutout.

"Marinette, I do not see a cutout of Bendy here," Markov stated as he spotted another Audio Log in the corner of the room, right next to the Voice Recording Booth.

"EXACTLY!" Marinette practically shouted before pointing the closest chair to the room entrance and stated frantically, "I saw a Bendy cutout propped in that chair when I was in the Projection Booth! I saw it with my own eyes! But its not here now!"

Kim scratched his head when he said, "Maybe you were just seeing things, Mari. I mean, those cutouts are usually everywhere and maybe you just thought you saw one."

Marinette hugged herself in anxiety and worry when she thought to herself, 'Tikki saw it too, but I can't tell them that.' She then said out loud, "Maybe... *Shutters* I guess this place it just riling me up..."

Adrien placed a hand on her shoulder when he said, "Well, at least you're not in this place alone."

Normally, Marinette would've gotten all flustered by this sort of physical contact with her crush, but right now, she just appreciates the comfort from a friend.

After the bluette calmed down, they decided to play the Audio Log in front of the Recording Booth before they did the music lock. This time around, the voice sounded like a woman's voice as the tape played, "It may only be my second month working for Joey Drew, but I can already tell that I'm going to love it here! People really seem to enjoy my Alice Angel voice. Sammy says she may be as popular as Bendy someday. These past few weeks I have voiced everything, from talking chairs to dancing chickens. But this is the first character I have really felt a connection with. Like she's part of me. Alice and I, we are going places." With that, the tape ended with a soft click.

"Strange... That voice doesn't sound like the Alice Angel we heard in the Bendy cartoons we saw," Adrien commented, trying to remember the voice of the character.

Kim picked up the Audio Log and looked it over. He found a handwritten label on it that read "Susie Campbell" with the dot over the 'i' in the shape of a heart. The taller teen raised a brow at this when he told the others, "Huh, according to the label, this Audio Log belongs to a Susie Campbell... *Looks at his friends* Didn't the credits at the end of the cartoons with Alice Angel say that the voice actress was Allison Pendle?"

"I think so," Max commented before thinking over what they just heard and added, "Judging from her overall tone, Ms Campbell seemed to have loved playing the Alice Angel character, so I am 82% sure that she wouldn't have wanted to leave the role willingly... Maybe she was in an accident or something happened that would cause her to leave the Alice Angel role?" He looked at the rest of the group with a questioning look, like even he wasn't sure about what he was asking.

No one was sure how to respond to a question like that... Even Adrien, who has dabbled in voice acting, wasn't sure about it.

So instead of dwelling on the strange Alice Angel voice actresses question, they started with opening Sammy's Sanctuary.

They played the instruments in the order Sammy said in the closet Audio Log. The bass fiddle first, the drum second, the banjo thrid, and the violin last. The group waited for a minute or so, but nothing happened. Kim then asked Markov if they played the instruments in the right order, to which the AI confirmed it.

Max tucked his pipe under his right arm so he could push his glasses up when he said, "Since we played them in the right order, then the "sanctuary" should have opened."

That was when Adrien asked, "Do you think we missed something?"

Marinette thought back to what Norman Polk said in his Audio Log.

~Flashback~

"He starts up the projector, and then he dashes from the projector booth and down to the recording studio like the little devil himself was chasing behind."

~End Flashback~

Marinette's head quickly shot towards the Projection Booth, eyes widen, when she said, "The projector! It has to be on when the instruments are played!"

"Huh?" the guys questioned cluelessly.

Marinette quickly explained, "When I listen to Mr Polk's Audio Log, he said that Mr Lawrence started up the projector before racing in here. I guess that the projector is the main key to opening Mr Lawrence's Sanctuary."

Even though the guys were a little sceptical, they followed Marinette out of the Recording Studio and towards the Projection booth. They crammed into the booth, but Marinette stood in the doorway since there wasn't enough space in the Projection Booth for all of them. Adrien played the Norman Polk's Audio Log, and just like what Marinette said, the projectionist told the strange behaviour he saw with Sammy Lawrence.

When they were about to turn on the projector they noticed something that unnerved them.

"Uh, Mari, didn't you say you saw a Bendy cutout in the Recording Studio when you were here?" Kim asked as his face went pale.

Marinette nodded as she rubbed her arms nervously when she said, "Yeah, why?"

Max, who also gone pale, gulped before saying, "Well, I th-think we believe you."

Adrien crept away from the balcony a bit, eyes wide, before he said, "But now there are two cutouts!"

"Those were certainly not there when we were," Markov stated, somewhat hiding behind Max.

Marinette peeked into the booth and looked down into the Recording Studio, and true to their words, two Bendy cutouts were occupying the chairs on the far right of the orchestra stage. The bluette shuttered as the colour drained from her face when she said, "J-j-just start the p-p-projector! The sooner we do so the sooner we can get out of here!"

Adrien quickly turned the projector on before everyone raced out of the booth and dashed into the Recording Studio. They became very unnerved when they didn't see the two Bendy cutouts in the chairs, and a chance glance at the projection booth really sent the group on edge when they saw that the two Beny cutouts were now in the booth! Thanks to Markov, they resumed their quest, but they were still a bit on edge. They played the bass fiddle first, the drum second, the banjo thrid, and the violin last as the projector continued to play in the background.

This time, they heard a click and then the sound of a metal gate opening. They quickly followed the sound to the Recording Booth just in time to see that there was a shutter next to the booth and it was opening with ease. Once the shutter was completely up, the group glanced inside to see a narrow hallway with three bass fiddles propped upright against some shelves on the left side while a wooden board leaned against the other set of shelves on the right, on the lower right shelf lay a fiddle. Everything had at least one cobweb on it.

"Not much of a sanctuary," Adrien commented as they made their way inside, one at a time because of the narrow space. When they got further in and made the turn in the narrow hallway, the blonde suddenly stopped in his tracks and causing Marinette to run into him, then Max ran into her, and finally, Kim nearly caused them to topple over when he bumped into the techie.

Markov, who avoided the collision because he was flying, question, "Adrien, why did you halt so sudd-." The question died before the AI could vocalize it completely when he saw exactly what caused the blonde to stop so suddenly.

Yes, there was a nice desk and stool to make a nice little hide-a-way office, with a banjo propped up against the desk, with a music sheet stand next to the desk, two lit candles even though there was working lights overhead, and a cute little Bendy plushie on the desk to make the place seem more like a sanctuary. What made this place creepy wasn't the oversized flow valve and toilet, but the pentagram drawn on the ground and the graffiti written on the wall parallel to the sanctuary entrance that read 'SING A HAPPY SONG. WHISTLE A MERRY TUNE. WAIT FOR HIS ARRIVAL. HE'S COMING VERY SOON.'

Kim got his voice back first when he said wearily, "I'm not sure if I should be grossed out by the toilet in the middle of this room or scared because of the creepy writing on the wall and floor..."

Max backed into Kim when he stuttered out, "Th-this p-place j-just k-keeps g-getting cr-creepier and cr-creepier." The taller teen wrapped a comforting arm around the smaller teen, trying to ease him a bit as Markov timidly hid behind him.

Adrien took a step back when he said in a creeped out tone, "I think Mr Lawrence wrote that after he went crazy."

Despite being more than a bit freaked-out, Marinette quickly made her way to the valve and turned the wheel-like handle. Once that was done she turned to the guys and said, "Let's just get to Mr Lawrence's office and drain the ink so we can get out of here! I'm pretty sure you guys can agree with me on wanting to leave a soon as possible." She then squeezed passed Kim to leave Sammy's Sanctuary. The guys quickly glanced at each other before agreeing that they wanted to get out of this place and following Marinette's lead.

When they got close to the bass fiddles, a Bendy cutout suddenly popped into view from the side where the band stage was and scaring the group half-way out of their skin.

Marinette, now fed up with all the cutout shenanigans, stomped over to the sanctuary entrance when she snapped, "Alright! Whoever's there, knock off the jokes, because they aren't-." The moment she turned back into the Recording Studio there was no one there, not even the Bendy cutout they had just seen. Petrified at this, the bluette slowly turned to the others when she stuttered out, "P-p-p-please t-t-tell m-m-me y-y-you g-g-guys s-s-s-saw th-th-that! I-i-it w-w-wasn't j-j-just m-m-me, r-r-right?"

"No! We saw it too!" Adrien squeaked out in fear as an unnerved Kim, Max, and Markov nodded, with the techie and AI peaking out from behind the taller teen.

Kim gulped before he said, "Let's just get out of here!"

Everyone agreed with that.

But the moment they took a step towards the Recording Studio door, seven Searchers suddenly appeared from the ground!

"Oh crap!" Marinette shouted before she quickly swung her axe at the head of the Searcher that got too close to her. Adrien quickly followed behind.

"Max, Markov, stay here!" Kim told the two before joining in the battle. He knew that Max was at a disadvantage with only being able to use just one arm against a hoard of Searchers and Markov needed to keep track of his ammunition, but at least the AI could easily defend his creator in the narrow hallway.

So Max and Markov watched in aw from the narrow corridor as Marinette, Adrien, and Kim practically destroyed the Searchers. The techie being able to get all that on his phone that was still conveniently attached to his suspenders. And after an intense half a minute of the battle, all the Searchers were destroyed, leaving only the bubbling ink puddles where the spawned.

"Okay *pant*, any idea on how *pant* those Searchers appeared *pant* when they did?" Adrien said, trying to catch his breath.

Kim wiped the ink off his face when he said, "I would say that the valve was booby-trapped, but there was too much of a chance on the in-between the turning the valve and us walking out."

"I concur with that," Max said as he walked out of the narrow way with Markov following close behind. When the techie rejoined with his friends, he stated, "There has to be some other reason as to why those Searchers suddenly appeared when they did."

Marinette scratched her head when she said, "Yeah, the timing seems a little too controlled. If the valve was booby-trapped then timing doesn't make much sense, especially since there's too big a chance for us to linger in there, not to mention the narrow corridor would've worked in our favour if we weren't as capable of defending ourselves."

Max nodded when he added, "It forces the Searchers to go in one at a time, a preventing whoever turns the valve from becoming too overwhelmed."

Kim patted Max on the shoulder when he commented on that being the reason why he wanted the shorter teen to stay in the corridor during the battle. The techie nodded thanks when Adrien told them that they had to head back to Mr Lawrence's office. Since they found the valve to hopefully dispel the spewing ink in front of the door.

So the group left the Recording Studio, unaware that they were being watched.

~}i{ The Lahiffe Household }i{~

Nino didn't feel hungry as he slowly batted a meatball back and forth with a fork on his plate.

It was dinner time, and according to the Lahiffe Family rules, every member of the family has to sit together at the table to eat and talk about their day. It was a mandatory rule where the only exception was to tell the family beforehand if they're going to be out. It wasn't a bad rule to have, it kept the Lahiffes together and it worked for them. But right now, Nino just couldn't bring himself to eat or talk to his mom and little brother.

"Mom, Nino's playing with his food," Chris tattled.

Nino didn't seem to hear as he continued to bat the meatball mindlessly.

Mrs Lahiffe knew why her oldest was acting this way and knew that she needed to talk with her youngest about it. So she quickly herded Chris away from the table, telling Nino that the bandages on the younger's arm needed to be changed quickly. The oldest Lahiffe son just mindlessly nodded, not hearing what was said.

"Mom, we changed the bandages already," Chris protested as his mom dragged him into his room.

Mrs Lahiffe mumbled an, "I know," as she closed the door to the room. She then motioned for Chris to sit on his bed before saying, "Listen, Chris, this is important, so I'm talking to you as a big boy right now."

Chris' interest perked up immediately. He liked it when he got a chance to be a big boy.

Taking a deep breath, Mrs Lahiffe said, "You remember Lila, right?"

Chris flinched a bit when he said, "Yes... I do..." The boy subconsciously rubbed his cast as he spoke.

Mrs Lahiffe took a deep breath, and let it out slowly.

Lila was the main reason for Chris being in a cast. She might not have done it directly as she did with Max, but she was the reason behind it. Lila told Chris a story about how she managed to do a backflip wheelie downhill on an old bike and how easy it was. Chris, of course, wanted to try that and after hearing how easy it was from Lila, he wanted to do it even more. So he "borrowed" Nino's bike and did exactly what Lila said she did in her tale. Problem was, it was a lie, and Chris found that out the hard way. It was thanks to a good samaritan that was able to perform some quick first-aid as he called an ambulance that Chris's arm was able to heal without any problems. The Lahiffes later learned that the samaritan was Alix's older brother, Jalil.

The young historian explained that he was used to patching up injuries, thanks to Alix being into sports. However, Jalil wasn't used to fixing broken bones, but he did his best. Though, he did ask Chris why he thought doing a wheelie downhill was a good idea when he wasn't experienced enough to so. Since he had Alix for a sister, Jalil knew a good amount about sports even if they weren't his interest. That was when Chris told his mom and Jalil about what Lila told him, how she said it was an easy trick.

Jalil horrified at what he heard, immediately set the record straight on how tricky wheelies are and that they need a good sense of balance to maintain for more than a few seconds and there needs a lot of practice on flat surfaces before even trying to do one on even a slight slope. The older male made sure to explain that backflips on bikes were difficult and needed a lot of experience to even attempt. Chris denied that Lila would ever lie to him like that and said there had to be some other explanation, which prompt Mrs Lahiffe to do a little investigation, starting with Lila.

When Mrs Lahiffe told Lila about Chris's bike accident and told her that someone told him how easy a trick was, she watched the girl's reaction. All Lila said to the mother was that it was horrible that Chris broke his arm and she hopes that he was alright. Trying to control her tone, Mrs Lahiffe asked Lila if she had any idea who would tell her youngest son such an outrageous lie while emphasizing on how Chris could've been more seriously hurt if he had either landed badly or if the ambulance didn't come as quickly as it did. Thank goodness that the mother has amazing self-control because when she heard what Lila said, she nearly lost it. Mrs Lahiffe remembered that interaction too well, and it still infuriates her.

"No Mrs Lahiffe, I can't thin-, well..." Lila said as she plastered on a worried look.

"Go on," Mrs Lahiffe stated, hoping that the girl was just going to admit that she was just telling tales and take some responsibility.

With a 'pity me' look on her face, Lila said, "I overheard Marinette Dupain-Cheng say something about purposefully giving some brat, her words not mine, bad advice on biking yesterday at school. I didn't know it was Chris and I didn't think it was going to be bad."

Mrs Lahiffe was appalled by what she just heard! How could she blame Marinette for that?! But she managed to keep her tone neutral when she said, "Really? Now, why would Marinette want to do something like that, especially to someone she sat for since he was a baby?"

That was when Lila turned on the waterworks as she wailed out how horrible Marinette has become.

Mrs Lahiffe was taken back by the sudden burst of "emotions", but quickly regained herself when she told Lila that she appreciated her concerns but she had to go. The mother was sure that the liar was thinking that she bought that load of bull, but she was more than sure that Lila was nothing but a manipulative brat. After that, Mrs Lahiffe talked to Ella and Etta about Lila's stories, both confirmed that Lila DID tell them about her doing an amazing bike trick.

Breaking that news to Chris and the young twins was not a pleasant thing for the mother... And she informed Mr and Mrs Césaire about Lila's actions and how quick she was to blame Marinette for her misdeeds. Mrs Lahiffe was going to warn Nino about Lila, but he beat her to the punch. Her oldest son went on a minor rant when he got home later day, he told her how he broke up with Alya because she believed Lila's words over his own and he told her that Lila made up some bull about Marinette flirting with him the day before, which he made sure to state that that wasn't true. Mrs Lahiffe hugs Nino for a very long time afterwards.

"What did she fib about this time," Chris asked, snapping his mother back to the present.

Mrs Lahiffe took another deep breath when she said, "This time, she did something."

Chris gulped when he asked, "What she do?"

"You know Marinette, Kim, Max, and Adrien, right?" Mrs Lahiffe asked cautiously, making sure her youngest knew the group.

"Marinette's my sitter who makes cool clothes, and Max, Kim, and Adrien are Nino's classmates. Max said weird stuff and made that talking sphere thing. Kim's a lot of fun. Adrien's nice, but I'm pretty sure he's an only child," Chris said with a smile. He then tilted his head to the side when he asked, "Why are you bringing them up, mama?"

With a sad look on her face, Mrs Lahiffe told her youngest, "Because Lila knowingly sent them to someplace super dangerous yesterday... More dangerous than Akuma attacks... And... There's a possibility that... No one will ever see them again..."

Chris's expression started confused but slowly morphed into horror when he realized what his mother was telling him. "You mean..." the child squeaked out before saying in a horrified tone, "Lila sent them someplace where they could be killed?!"

Not trusting her voice at the moment, Mrs Lahiffe nodded as a tear trickled down her cheek. The next thing the mother knew, she was clutching her now sobbing youngest to her chest. She knew he was going to react like this, but it still didn't make the impact any less painful.

~}i{ Back in Joey Drew Studio with Team Psi }i{~

"Well, it's not gushing as much," Adrien stated, trying to put a positive spin on the situation.

The group was standing in front of Sammy Lawrence's office where the ink was still spewing out of the pipe and blocking the door into the office.

Marinette sighed when she said, "At least one of us is staying positive in this hellhole."

The guys looked at Marinette in utter shock when Kim commented, "Yikes! You're swearing!" The reaction was understandable, none of them has ever heard the bluette use foul language or curse.

In an almost deadpin tone, Marinette couldn't stop herself from saying, "What else would you use to describe this place?"

Well... There was no way to refute that statement.

Max tucked the pipe under his right arm so he could push his glasses up a bit with his left hand when he said, "But Adrien did make a valid point in his statement."

"I did?" Adrien stated in confusion.

Max nodded when he explained, "While the ink is still blocking the door, it isn't flowing out as much. Therefore, there must be another valve somewhere that can stop the rest of the flow."

Markov quickly scrolled through his memory files before replying, "I cannot find any recollection of where another valve switch was located in our search. Just the one in Mr Lawrance's Sanctuary."

That was when Kim asked, "But there has to be another valve around here. Maybe it's in a place we haven't been yet."

"But where? We've been over the entire area here," Marinette stated as she looked at the guys.

That was when it hit everyone. "The Infirmary!" They all exclaimed together before they backtracked to the stairway that leads to the place in question. And to their amazement, the ink that once flooded the stairway was gone.

"The valve in Mr Lawrence's Sactuary must've drained the ink from this area," Marinette said as she and the other descended the stairs into the new area. A Searcher suddenly appeared on the left side of the stairs when the bluette took her first step on the ground, but she took care of that with a quick swing of her axe before continuing into the medical ward. The guys were rather impressed by Marinette's quick action.

While there were ink stains that nearly covered the ground of the Infirmary, there were also furniture pieces. Two chairs under a sign that read "Please Wait,", a small desk, a medical bed without a mattress, a Bendy cutout behind the bed frame next to an eye chart, a table with a gramophone on it, and another hallway that had a sign over that read "Utility Shaft 9". The group looked around to see a pipe next to a switch that was labelled with "Utility Access". Upon closer inspection, they realized that the pipe was missing the valve.

"Oh great, now we have to look for a missing valve," Kim stated sarcastically, not the least bit happy about this lack of progress.

Markov looked over the Utility Shaft 9 doorway before vocalizing, "Perhaps the missing valve is in this shaft."

Marinette shrugged her shoulders when she said with a sigh, "Might as well investigate it," before she threw the switch for the Utility access.

The group trooped down the hall. They arrived just in time to see a metal door creak open. Once the door opened completely, the group another graffiti on the parallel wall that read "DOWN HERE WE'RE ALL SINNERS." A terrible smell that hit their noses almost immediately.

"Is this! A sewer!" Max gasped in both disbelief and disgust as he quickly tucked the pipe under his right arm to cover his nose.

With a disgusted look on his face as he covered his nose, Adrien got out in disgust, "You mean that they put the infirmary next to a sewer! That's so unsanitary and nasty!"

Kim pinched his nose when he said nasally, "Not to mention that it stinks."

Marinette pinched her nose as well when she got out in a pretty grossed out tone, "EW! EW! EW! Who the hell thought putting a medical section next to a sewer system was a good idea?! Oh, Nasty!"

Markov couldn't help but comment, "Perhaps choosing not to add a nasal sensor to my form was a good decision. But that aside, I do agree that putting the Infirmary next to the sewer is highly unsanitary and counter-productive." For some strange reason, the AI had a weird sensory bug about his surroundings. He quickly glanced around the immediate area as the four teens reluctantly walked into the sewer. Markov looked behind him to see another sewer path, but it was blocked off by a bolted metal fence/gate with a Bendy sign that read "Work Hard. Work Happy". The AI couldn't help but note that the sign seemed to indicate some sort of manipulation. But what caught the AI's attention was a silhouette beyond the gate. A blinking light was casting a shadow on the wall, but Markov couldn't see what was causing the silhouette. 'The shape is similar to that of a person,' the AI thought, wondering if anyone else was trapped in here with them.

"Markov? You coming, buddy?" Markov heard Kim call out. The AI quickly looked over towards the graffiti and seeing the four teens standing there, still covering their noses.

"Affirmative, but something strange has caught my optics," Markov stated before turning back to the fence/gate, only to see that the silhouette was gone. "Uh, apparently it has disappeared," the AI said before flying over to the group a little quicker than necessary. And with that, the group continued through the smelly environment.

The sewer was swamped with black ink rather than regular sewer stuff, despite the smell. To the right when entering the sewer was a giant pipe that seemed to be shut, so no point trying to go through that, but to the left, they spotted two wooden boards nailed to the archway to feasibly block off anyone from entering. There seemed to be a yellow hardhat with a flashlight built-in peaking over the top of the lower board.

When the group made their way to the boards, they realized that the hardhat was being worn by a Searcher that seemed a little larger than the prior Searchers they've come across. When they got to the boards, they realized something.

"Is that thing holding our valve?" Marinette asked the rest of her teammates as the Hardhatted Searcher ducked into the ink.

"Apparently," Kim said as he quickly hacked through the boards.

They now saw the sewer turned to the right and on the slanted wall had more graffiti written on it that read, "THE SHEEP WILL COME TO SLAUGHTER."

Max shuttered when he commented in a sarcastic tone, "That's welcoming..."

They kept walking through on the path until they came upon a small alcove with a wooden work desk, wooden chair, a small wastebasket under the desk, a mug on the desk, a violin carefully propped up against the chair, papers with music written on them scattered everywhere, and another Audio Log on the desk.

"Whoa, this place... Looks kinda cosy," Adrien said as he hopped onto the escalated workspace, before adding, "It would probably be a whole lot better if it weren't down here in this smelly place." The rest of the team could agree with that, even if this make-shift workspace wouldn't work for them in their chosen field. That was when Adrien noticed the Log, so he pressed the play button to hear what was on it.

It was a new voice this time around when the recording started, "I love the quiet, and that's hard to come by these busy times. And yeah sure it may stink to the high heaven down here. But it's just perfect for an old lyricist like me. Sammy's songs always have some bounce, but if I don't get away once and a while, they'd never have any words to go with them. So I'll keep my mind a-singin' and my nose close." With that, the Log ended.

Marinette was the one to say once the Log ended, "I recognize that voice! That's Jack Fain! He wrote the lyrics to the Bendy songs from the cartoons."

Adrien nodded when he realized that the bluette was right, after reading the handwritten label on the tape that read "Jack Fain", before he said, "Yeah, I remember. Nino loved the songs for the old Bendy cartoons so he did a little extra research on the some of the Music Department staff and came across that name. Jack Fain's name popped up along with Sammy Lawrence's. He managed to find a few old interviews with Mr Fain before he was hired at Joey Drew Studio... Wait a second." The blonde placed the hand he had on his nose to his chin to think, before realizing how bad the smell was and brought his hand back to his nose. "Markov, do you have Nino's research on file?"

Markov nodded when he pulled up that information and asked, "You want to know about Mr Jack Fain's work during his time here?"

Adrien shook his head when he said, "Actually, no, that wasn't what I was going to ask. Knowing Nino, he would've looked up all of Mr Fain's work; before, during, and after his time at Joey Drew Studio. So can you tell me where, or what, Mr Fain work on after he left this place?" From what the athlete, bluenette, and techie could tell by the tone the blonde was using, he had some kind of suspicion.

Markov noded before he shifted through the data as fast as his CPU could process. The AI raised a virtual brow when he vocalized, "That is rather puzzling. According to Nino's research, there is no record of employment or any information about any projects after working at Joey Drew Studio. The only data Nino managed to find was a Missing Person's report on Mr Jack Fain that was filed by Mrs Fain, Mr Fain's wife. There's a note in the data that he wanted to tell Adrien this weird finding before the teams go into the Haunted Houses."

That was when Max said, "Now that you mention that... Didn't 90% of the data our class gathered regarding the employees show that they had no other employment AFTER Joey Drew Studio closed with more than 80% of them having been reported Missing by a loved one?"

Markov nodded when he stated, "Affirmative, the few exceptions are the co-founders, Mr Drew himself and his former partner. However, no one was able to find the surname of the former partner, just his given name, Henry. Therefore, there is no real data on Henry, other than he left the partnership and the Studio a year after it was formed."

Kim shuttered when he said, "You know, I kinda thought that the data that we found were just made-up to add to the lore of this place, but now that we're here, saw all the Ink Creatures, and listening to all the former workers... I'm kinda thinking that something else happened to them..."

Everyone glanced at each other with a similar unnerved look on their faces. Something stank, and it wasn't the sewer.

But they had to finish their task at hand, getting that valve from the Searcher and getting out of this smelly place. So they continued down the path until they came to a large room with two generator-like devices, a platform with chains attached to a pulley system, and the Hardhatted Searcher inside. Kim tried to sneak up on the Ink Creature to get the valve, but as soon as he got close to it the Searcher sank into the ink and appeared in another corner of the room. Adrien tried next, but the same thing happened. The Hardhatted Searcher just kept up with the "Keep Away" game.

"Guys, this is not working," Marinette said as Kim and Adrien tried to corner the Hardhatted Searcher yet again, and failed once again. So the boys rejoined the group and stood next to the generator on the left.

Max pushed his glasses up with his left hand when he said, "We need a better plan for retrieving that valve."

Markov watched the Hardhatted Searcher, who was now in the far right corner, just sitting there. The AI then said, "It's strange that this Searcher exhibits retreating behaviour when the other Searchers exhibit aggressive and attacking behaviour."

Adrien thought for a bit before replying with, "Yeah, Markov's right. This Searcher does seem different than the others, not just the hat."

"Wonder why this Searcher is so different?" Kim wondered out loud as he leaned against the generator and accidentally leaning on the switch, causing it to be pushed down.

Once the switch on the left generator was activated, two things happened. The first is that the switch on the right generator flipped up, and the second thing was that the platform rose, and revealing more graffiti on the wall that read "SING WITH ME". Marinette now noticed the arrows above the two switches, an up arrow on the left switch and a down arrow on the right. Suddenly, the right switch flashed pink in the bluette's mind, then the raised platform turned pink in her mind, then the spot under the platform turned pink in her mind, and finally, the Hardhatted Searcher turned pink in her mind. "I have an idea," Marinette said softly as she motioned for the guys and AI to come a little closer so she could tell them the plan without the Hardhatted Searcher hearing.

Once everyone was told the plan, they nodded and put it into action.

Kim, Adrien, and Marinette went to corral the Heardhatted Searcher into the spot under the platform while Max and Markov scurried to the right switch, ready to throw it as soon as the Heardhatted Searcher was in place. It took a minute to get the Hardhatted Searcher to pop up under the platform, but they did it. Markov quickly threw the switch, which caused the platform to immediately fall on top of the Hardhatted Searcher and squishing it.

"Sorry we had to do that," Marinette said as she picked up the valve.

Kim couldn't help but comment, "Nice hat though. Wonder where that Searcher got it?"

"We really shouldn't worry about that, let's just get this valve in place so we can drain the ink," Max said as he pushed his glasses up before he took the pipe from under his right arm.

The group backtracked and returned to the infirmary, relieved at both the fact that they were out of the smelly sewer and one step closer to getting out of the studio. Adrien reattached the valve in place and turned it.

"Okay, that should do it. Let's get to Mr Lawrence's Office and drain the ink," Adrien said with a smile. The rest of the team smiled and nodded back before they left the infirmary.

When they returned to Sammy's office, they were happily greeted by the lack of a spewing ink blocking the door. Now that there was no obstruction, they entered the Music Director's Office without trouble now. This time, Marinette threw the Pump Switch.

Markov beeped happily when he said, "Now let's return to the stairs and evacuate this place!"

"Hold on, check this out," Max said, looking over some of the stuff on Sammy's desk. One being a blueprint of some sort. The others looked over the techie's shoulder to see that the blueprints were for some kind of machine, but not just any machine. "Ink Machine?" Max read the words written on the paper.

Everyone glanced at each other for a brief moment before Adrien rolled up the blueprints and shoved it in Max's pack. After that was done, they all trooped out of the office and walked down the hall.

Max heard his cellphone ding. So he stopped, tucked the pipe under his right arm, and used his left hand to unclip his phone from his suspenders to see what the dinging was about. "Oh, the battery's low..." Max mumbled as he looked at the power gauge on his phone. Out of habit, Max tried to get his attachable portable charger that he made, but then remembered that he could only use his left hand. He tucked his phone under his chin, with the active camera facing behind the techy and getting a rather fit looking inky figure with yellowed overalls and a Bendy mask on film. Max successfully attached the charger to the phone with just his left hand, completely unaware of what was behind him. Once his phone had the charger, Max decided that since they were going to be out of the studio soon, he turned off his phone to conserve the power without looking at the feed he got and tucked the phone into his left pocket.

The ink figure behind Max raised a dustpan and struck the teen over the head with the object.

A little ahead, Kim heard a sound from behind. When he turned to see what it was, he realized that Max wasn't with the group. "Max?" Kim called out to his shorter friend. Marinette, Adrien, and Markov paused before turning and seeing that the techie wasn't there. "Max?" Kim called out again, hoping for a response. When there was none, the rest of the team backtracked to find their missing friend. When they turned a corner, they were hit over the head with something in quick secession and hard. Kim fell first, followed by Markov, then Adrien, and finally Marinette.

The bluette was bearly conscious when she saw a rather fit looking inky figure with yellowed overalls and a Bendy mask standing over her with a dustpan in his right hand. "Rest your head, it's time for bed," the figure said before Marinette lost consciousness completely.

~}i{ Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie }i{~

Normally, it was usually very happy and cheerful at Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie. The owners always making their baked good with a cheerful smile.

But... Ever since their daughter and a few of her friends were sent to a deathtrap, the smiles disappeared. No one could blame them though. They lost their child. And even if she dies in that horrid place, they wouldn't be able to bury her since they couldn't even retrieve her body.

Nadja was trying to comfort her friends at this very moment. As soon as her announcement about the trapped teens was finished, she immediately went to her friends' bakery to comfort them. Luckily, Nadja's daughter, Manon, was taking a nap.

"I'm sure that the announcement will help," Nadja told Tom and Sabine with a solemn tone, before adding, "I have been told that Mr Agreste has been looking for a construction/destruction company that will work on saving them."

That was when they heard a familiar ding of the entrance bell. With a heavy sigh, Tom stood up and went to greet the customer. To the tall man's surprise, Jagged Stone, Penny Rolling, and Fang were standing in their bakery. "Jagged, what a surprise... Um, if you're here about that commission..." Tom managed to get out.

The rock star shook his head when he said, "An't here 'bout that. Penny and I just finished with submitting that suit against that rotten little lair 'bout her stupid tales of me writin' a song 'bout her 'cuse she "saved my pet cat" and her emotionally harassin' my honorary niece when we saw that newsflash 'bout Mari and her friends bein' trapped in that dangerous studio. Did that liar really send them there?"

Tom nodded sadly, not trusting his voice. Sabine and Nadja walked into the bakery during this.

Jagged angrily rubbed his head as Penny placed a soothing hand on his shoulder when he said, "Damn it! Did that brat know how dangerous that place is?"

"Oh, She knew, all right," Sabine spoke out in an annoyed tone before she said with a growl a little louder than she would've liked, "She was told I don't know how many times by the school's staff that Joey Drew Studio was dangerous and she still sent them there with a fake map! That lair had the audacity to assumed that Marinette, Max, and Kim were JUST going to get in trouble once the school found out they went to the real location of the studio! Can you believe that?!"

To say that Sabine was enranged by this was an understatement. She was even more so when she heard the reason why her daughter was practically sent to a deathtrap.

Tom then added in just as much anger, "I don't know about Adrien getting a fake map, but I just know that he went with Marinette, Max, Kim, and Markov because they were on the same team and they'd figure they'd just arrive as a team!"

Jagged's, Penny's, and Fang's eyes widened when they heard what was said.

"You guys are loud," A small voice said from the entrance to the family area. Everyone turned to see Manon rubbing her eyes sleepily.

"We're sorry, Manon," Sabine told the young child as she moved over to the child and stroked her on the head.

The child looked over the group of adults and crocodile, all of whom has rather sad looks on their face. Manon didn't like it one bit, she didn't know what made them sad, but she knew a way to cheer everyone up. "I know what'll put a smile on everyone's face! A funny joke! I'll go get Marinette, she good with the joke skit," Manon said happily before she rushed out of the bakery and up the stairs.

The adults glanced at each other with worried looks on their faces when Tom asked Nadja, "You haven't told her? Wasn't she with you at the news studio when you made the announcement?"

Nadja sighed when she said, "She was in my dressing room when I made that announcement, she hasn't seen it... And I... Wasn't sure how to tell her..."

The adults than looked at each other in worry. How are they going to tell the child this news?

"Mama, where's Marinette? Is she still at school?" Manon's voice called down from the bluette's room.

Nadja chocked out a cry at this.

How are they going to tell the child that her favourite sitter is currently in a deathtrap and that she might not be seen again?

~}i{ Back in Joey Drew Studio }i{~

Consciousness slowly came back to Marinette and the first thing she heard was someone saying, "There we go now." She couldn't help but think that the voice sounded familiar as she slowly opened her eyes and was greeted by the sight of a rather fit looking inked-skinned man in a pair of yellowed overalls and a Bendy mask holding an axe in front of her when he said, "Nice and tight." Marinette blinked to clear the fuzziness out of her eyes, before noticing that she and the rest of the team were tied to poles with rather thick ropes. Adrien was to her right, Max was to her left, Kim was on Max's other side, and Markov was tied in a way where he couldn't use his copters or air gun and was propped on top of a nearby wooden barrel with Max's pack and Marinette's purse prompt against the barrel. Everyone sturred awake just in time to hear the Ink Man say, "We wouldn't want our sheeps roaming away now, would we?" Everyone was now completely awake when the Ink Man holds the axe up when he looked at it when he said, "No, we wouldn't."

'Why does he sound familiar?' The four teens thought to themselves, wondering where they've heard the voice before.

Swinging the axe a little carelessly passed the teens' faces but the axe never made contact, the Ink Man said, "I must admit I am *places a free hand over his chest* honoured you came all the way *waves free arm to show off the area behind him* down here to visit me *places a free hand on his chest again*. It almost *brings the axe up, taps the part under the business end on his free hand, and looks at the axe* makes what I'm about to do seem *looks at the teens* cruel." The Ink Man then walks over to the barrel Markov was prompt on top of and placed the next to main support beam when he said, "But the believers must honour their savour." He then turns back to the teens when he said with his arms moving in a slight wave as he brought his arms in front of him, "I must have him notice me."

"You're... Mr Sammy Lawrence? The Music Director of Joey Drew Studio," Marinette guessed, finally remembering why the voice sounded so familiar. This Ink Man had the same voice from the Sammy Lawrence Audio Logs.

"Oh? Now I really do feel honoured now," the Ink Man, Sammy Lawrence, said with a slightly surprised tone, before he said, "But now I do feel bad about what I am about to do."

"Uh, you don't have to do whatever you're going to do if you don't want to," Kim tried to reason with Sammy.

Spreading his arms wide, Sammy said with an almost irrational glee, "Oh, but I must. He must notice me." He then glanced at Max before he suddenly said, "Wait! You look familiar to me..." Sammy strode over to Max and leaned down until he was face-to-mask with the quivering teen before saying, "That face..."

Suddenly Sammy pulled away while shaking his head when he said, "Not now. For our Lord is calling to us, my little sheeps." Sammy's arms moved with so much expression, the teens weren't sure if it was because he was once the music director of this place or it was just his character. "The time of sacrifice is at hand!" Sammy said, his arms were spread as if he was talking about something grandiose. The former Music Director then continued, "And then, *brings his left hand up before clutching it into a fist* I will finally be free from this.. *Brings both hands to shoulder level as he clenches both in fists as he looks at them* Prison. This inky... *Moves arms up a bit and unclenches his fists a bit* Dark... *Clenches fists* Abyss I call a body."

'He's... Oddly expressive for someone who has his face completely covered with a mask,' Adrien thought, couldn't help but watch Sammy's arms move with more expressions than he's ever seen in a person. The blonde then thought, 'But what's he ranting about? And what does he mean about his body being an abyss?' Now Adrien was confused.

Sammy then suddenly shushed the teens, bringing his left index finger to the "lips" of the mask he was wearing, before saying as he spreads arms out with the palms facing down, "Quiet! *Brings his left hand to his left ear* Listen! I can hear him. *Turns his torso to the right and looks up* Crawling above. *Giddily holds arms up and makes piano/spider fingers as he turns his torso from the right and to the left* Crawling!"

The teens couldn't help but glance at each other at this, not sure what to think.

Sammy turns his attention back on the teens when he said, "Let us begin. The ritual must be completed!" He then turns his body slightly to the left before he said, "Soon he will hear me... *Suddenly leans close to Marinette's face* He will set us free." Then he walked out of the room, leaving the four tied teens and AI to be sacrificed for this ritual. The moment the door creaked shut, also being locked, the teens immediately start struggling against the bonds.

Kim strained against the ropes when he said, "Damn it! He may be crazy as hell, but he ties a mean knot!"

"Arg! No kidding!" Adrien hissed out, trying to wiggle out of the ropes keeping him tied to the pole.

"I have a few inquiries involving Mr Lawrence, but now isn't the time to ask them," Max stated as he also strained against the ropes.

Team Psi then heard Sammy Lawrence's voice over the speaker system when he chanted, "Sheep, sheep, sheep. It's time for sleep. Rest your head. It's time for sleep. In the morning you may wake. Or in the morning, you'll be dead."

Dread suddenly engulfed the guts of the four bound teens while the AI's Risk Factor programming was calculating a rather ominous outcome. Everyone started struggling harder against their ropes.

Sammy continued with his chant when he called out thought the speakers, "Hear me, Bendy! Arise from the darkness! Arise and claim my offerings! I beg you!"

"Oh, shit!" Marinette gasped, her eyes wide in realization before she told the guys, "Mr Lawrence has been worshipping that Ink Demon Bendy this whole time! He thinks that the demon can save him somehow!"

"Why the hell would he think that?!" Kim asked, still struggling against the ropes.

"Uh, well, for one, he's crazy," Adrien stated plainly as he tried wiggling and squirming out of the rope's grip to no avail.

"I summon you Ink Demon! Show your face and take these tender sheeps!" Sammy nearly bellowed through the speakers. The room then started shaking a bit and the metal door ahead of the group slowly creaked open until it was opened completely.

Markov struggled against the ropes keeping him in place when he vocalized, "Marinette, don't you have a sewing kit in your purse? A kit that contains a pair of scissors? You can use that to cut the ropes."

Marinette nodded before saying, "Yes, I do, in my purse, which is leaning on the barrel you are on top of."

Markov beeped out an "Oh..." before he started straining harder on the ropes.

Tikki peeked an eye out of the purse, abling her to see her chosen struggling against the ropes keeping her tied to the pole. The kwami bit her lip. She wanted to help her chosen, she truly did. But if she brought the sewing scissors to free her chosen and help cut her loose, she'll expose Marinette as Ladybug to two civilians, an AI, and Chat Noir. Tikki didn't like this situation at all, not the least bit.

"That's it! I can't take this anymore!" Everyone heard an unknown voice call out. Marinette, Max, Kim, and Markov turned their attention towards Adrien, where they heard the voice coming from but it certainly didn't sound like the blonde.

Adrien paled when Plagg shot out of his jacket pocket and then started bitting the ropes. "Plagg! What are you doing!?" Adrien nearly shouted at the black Kwami, who was still trying to bite the ropes to break them.

Plagg glanced up at his chosen when he snapped, "What do you think? I'm trying to save your butts! Screw the Secret Identity Rules! Your lives are way more important than that! And like hell I'm letting my chosen get sacrificed to some stupid ink monster!" He then went back to trying to bite through the rope.

Adrien, still pale and with his eyes widen, snapped his head towards his teammates. All four of them were staring at the black Kwami with wide eyes and dropped jaws (minus Markov, who didn't have a jaw), all have stopped their struggles with freeing themselves from the ropes. "Uh, Umm," Adrien vocalized nervously before finally saying, "Uh, this is, um, paw-sitively the worst time fur the cat to be let out of the bag. But at least Hawkmoth isn't here." The blonde gave his friends a nervous smile as Plagg continued to try to bite through the ropes, but wasn't making ant progress.

"Oh My God! You're Chat Noir!" Marinette exclaimed in a strange combination of shock and panic.

"Apparently..." Kim vocalized in a dazed/shocked tone as the bluette was kinda/sort of mumbling that Adrien was Chat Noir and Chat Noir was Adrien.

"Is there a way to reboot Marinette? I think this new revelation is overloading her CPU," Markov commented as he watched the bluette's actions.

That was when Marinette finally said in her panic/shock, "I've been rejecting Chat Noir for Adrien! And they're the same person!"

"Marinette? Are you alright? You are making less sense then you do when you're studdering," Max commented, wondering if she was overreacting to this scenario.

Surprisingly, it was Kim who put the facts together when he said, "Wait a minute! Is Mari implying what I think she's implying?"

Adrien's eyes now widened in shock due to realization when he looked at Marinette. The bluette now had her bluebell eyes on him with an apologetic look. "Are you?" Was all Adrien could get out.

Marinette sighed before she said as she turned her attention to her purse, "Tikki, could you help by bringing me the sewing scissors?"

The guys' attention immediately fell on Marinette's pink purse. It wiggled a few times before the red Kwami popped out of the purse, with the small sewing scissors in her stubby hands. Tikki waved an awkward hello to the others before she flew towards her chosen and used the scissors to snip at the ropes since the scissors were small and the ropes were thick.

Adrien turned his attention from Tikki to Marinette when he said, "You're M'Lady?! This is who you are under the mask?!"

Marinette smiled at Adrien when she said, "Yes, Chaton. This is who I am under the mask."

With that, Adrien smiled at Marinette, who smiled back.

"Uh, as much as I hate being the one to interrupt this confirmation of the LadyNoir ship, but our current dilemma dictates that we need to escape before Bendy shows up," Max stated suddenly, and interrupting Marinette and Adrien's moment. Not that the two could blame him, the situation was bad and they do need to get away before things could get any worse.

Kim agreed with the techie when he added, "I mean, it's wicked cool and all, but Max is right, we need to get out of here."

"Try breaking the ropes now, Marinette," Tikki said as she managed to snip through half the width of the rope. The bluette nodded before she strained against the ropes again, but this time the ropes gave way. After breaking free, Marinette quickly took the little scissors from the red Kwami before she started using them to snip the ropes around Adrien. Since the bluette was more dexterous with the scissors than Tikki, she was able to snip through the ropes faster. Soon Adrien was free. Marinette now bolted to Max and started snipping at his ropes while Adrien went for the axe.

That was when they heard a loud noise coming through the speakers and then Sammy shouting in fear, "No! My Lord!"

That didn't sound good as Team Psi glanced up at the speakers.

"Stay back!" Sammy continued to shout in fear and then said, "I am your prophet! I am your-AAAHHH!" Sammy's screams then pierced the air through the speakers and then followed by a fierce roar shook the room.

"Shit! That's bad," Adrien said before he turned his attention to Kim and quickly used the axe to cut the ropes, just time with Marinette snipping the ropes on Max enough for him to break them.

The next thing everyone knew, five Searchers appeared from some of the small bubbling pools of ink.

With only one weapon available and no time to transform, Adrien had to work quickly. But luckily he was able to take out the five Searchers without much trouble and before they could get close to the rest of his teammates. It was such a relief that he was able to do it so quickly, especially since Marinette was working on freeing Markov from his ropes. Once the AI was freed, Marinette returned the sewing scissors to her little sewing kit and back into her purse. Both the techie and bluette picked up their respective bags. They noticed a puddle of ink forming under the door that Sammy left out of.

Yeah... Best not go through that door.

"Let's get out of here before that Ink Demon makes an appearance," Adrien said as they made their way to the open metal door.

They quickly trooped down the hallway and came to a small square area that was filled with ankle-deep ink that was blocked by a couple of wooden planks nailed up. Adrien makes quick work of the ones in front of them. The moment that stepped into the ink space, they glanced to their right just in time to see some kind of machine being lowered down by chains behind three stacked wooden boxes and an empty shelf.

Max was the one to say, "That looks like the device in the Ink Machine blueprints from Mr Lawrence's office! But why is it being lowered?" Everyone glanced at each other before moving on.

Plagg shuttered suddenly when Adrien hacked through the boards blocking the other side of the ink space, once those were down, those were gone everyone stepped out of the ink. "I sense something bad nearby," Plagg said out loud before adding with another shutter, "And I don't like it."

Tikki flew over to Plagg when she said, "That's weird, I'm also sensing something, but feels more excited to me." The red kwami did sound a little confused by what she said like even she wasn't sure with what she was saying.

Plagg narrowed his eyes at his red companion when he nearly snapped, "How can you NOT sense THAT presence?! It's making my skin crawl."

Adrien looked at Plagg before he could hack down the boards at the end of the hallway when he said, "Wow, Plagg, I guess you were being serious about being on edge. You're normally a little too laid back, even in serious situations."

Max pushed his glasses up with his left hand before he asked, "Maybe we need to tread cautiously if, uh, Plagg is acting this out of character." He was still letting the fact that the bluette and blonde were Ladybug and Chat Noir sink in. Max had sooooo many questions at the moment, but as much as he wanted answers he knew he had to wait until they were either out of this place or safe from any threats. Hopefully the former rather than the latter.

Adrien then hacked down the remaining boards blocking the other side of the ink spot and the group moved on as the blonde hacked down the wooden beams that were blocking the way. When the final beam was chopped down, the axe was snapped in two.

"Shit! That's not a good sign," Kim stated before looking ahead to see a room completely flooded with black ink. On the other side of the flooded room was a door. Plagg darted back into Adrien's jacket pocket, not liking what he was feeling. The group looked at each other in concern before they took a cautious step towards the ink flooded room.

Suddenly, Ink Demon Bendy emerged from the centre of the room as ink webs surrounded the walls of the immediate area. The Ink Demon gave a quick growl with that erected grin still on its face before it charged at the group.

The teens and AI screamed before they did the only thing that they could. Run.

There was no time for the heroes to transform! They had to run and make sure Kim, Max, and Markov were safe!

The heroes quickly grabbed the nearest civilian and pulled them to the left, into a new hallway to escape the Ink Demon. Adrien grabbed Kim while Marinette grabbed Max, Markov could easily manoeuvre himself to follow the humans as quickly as possible. All the teens burst into a sprint as the AI activated his throttles to keep pace with them. The ink webs clung to the walls, indicating that the Ink Demon was still close behind the group as they kept sprinting through the twists and turns in the surprisingly long corridor.

At the end of the long corridor, there was an open door. The group bolted faster towards the door as the ink webs started growing darker. The moment they passed through the door, Marinette immediately slammed the door shut as Adrien quickly used a thick and heavy wooden board to block the door, with the peges for holding the board up already conveniently in place, and preventing the Ink Demon from entering. Kim and Max were currently sitting on the ground, due to practically being thrown into the new room. Markov was hovering over the two.

Marinette and Adrien stared at the blocked door with an intense look in their eyes, ready to transform and fight the Ink Demon to protect their friends. Plagg and Tikki hovered next to their chosen.

The only thing that happened was the sounds of three knocks and a bearly audible growl before nothing for an intense, solid minute.

Marinette and Adrien finally collapsed to the ground from exhaustion, adrenalin no longer pumping through their systems.

"THAT had to be the scariest thing I have ever experienced before in my life," Adrien gasped out, with a pant. Now, all the stress and fatigue catching up with him now that the adrenalin wore off. The black cat hero has never felt this type of physical stress before, not even when there was a 4 in the morning Akuma attack.

Marinette groaned out as she fell back with her eyes closed and said, "ARRGG! This place is a hellhole nightmare!" The bluette's eyes opened and were met with the upsidedown image of Kim, Max, and Markov staring at the two heroes and Kwamis with a strange combination of confusion and amazement. Marinette sighed, not moving from her position, when she said, "Go ahead and ask, we'll try to answer best we can..." That was when Adrien remembered about the civilians and turned to face them, still in a sitting position.

Max pushed his glasses up with his left hand when he said, "I think we'll save those until after I list the questions that arose during our brief interaction with Mr Lawrence."

Kim nodded when he said, "Yeah, the guy's crazy but I can't help but wonder what fitness regiment he uses here in this place. Cuse he was buff. Not bodybuilder buff, but buff in a sense that he kept in shape."

Max raised his left index finger when he stated, "Which is where this question comes from. Has Mr Lawrence been here the whole time after Joey Drew Studio closed down in 1959? If so, was it by choice or by force?"

Marinette sat up and turned to face the others in their weird offset circle when she said, "Now that you bring it up... How old was Mr Lawrence when the studio shut down? Because if he was over 25 in 1959, then he should be pushing close 80 or 90 now."

Tikki thought about that for a bit before saying, "I know humans can sometimes live a long life, but considering this environment, I don't think he should even be alive now."

Markov chimed in with, "Apparently Mr Lawrence's mental state is not the only thing that was wrong with him. While I am aware that some individuals can "Look Good For Their Age" even their 80's, Miss Tikki does bring up a critical point about the environment playing a factor in longevity."

"You don't have to add the Miss when talking to me, just call me Tikki," the red Kwami told the AI.

Max pushed his glasses up again when he stated, "Which leads to the next question. Does his current form have anything to do with his "longevity" at the cost of his mental stability? Or even if his mental stability is even a price for it?"

Adrien thought about what Sammy said back in the Ritual Room before saying, "Maybe it's some sort of curse? I mean, that's what Mr Lawrence implied... But... Look, I'm not saying this to be racist or anything, but is his skin suppose to be that black? I mean, it was like he had a coating of ink covering his skin."

Max shook his head when he said, "Not naturally, but something has to be behind that reason. I speculate that maybe those Searchers are somehow also related to Mr Lawrence's current state. I don't think they're the cause of it, but they are somehow connected."

Kim thought for a bit before saying, "Ink... Maybe that Ink Machine thing has something to do with all that? I mean, we don't have enough facts to prove it, but it keeps popping up in some of the Audio Logs. Plus there's ink EVERYWHERE in this place."

Plagg finally threw in his euro when he said, "Yeah, the ink's got something to do with all this crap. I'm still getting bad vibes from the stuff, especially from that Demon Bendy thing..."

Tikki then added, "I sensed it too, but at the same time, I sense that it isn't evil."

Marinette looked at her Kwami when she asked, "So both of you are getting a bad sense from the ink, and the Ink Demon by extension, but at the same time, not an evil vibe, right?"

Both Kwamis replied with a, "Basically... But we don't know why."

Max pushed up his glasses when he said, "That is something to keep in mind, but my next and possibly worst questions are... If Mr Lawrence, a former employee of this studio that has been reported missing, is still here, then... How many of the other "Missing Employees" are still here? And does the fact that they're still here have something to do with all the explorers "Disappearing" when they enter this place?"

Everyone was silent for a bit at the question. The techie brought up a good point.

Adrien gulped when he said, "It's like this place keeps everything unlucky enough to walk in. But is it the doing of the Ink or something else?"

Everyone looked at each other in worry and confused look. But it was Tikki was the one to say, "I think the Ink is a tool in this rather than the cause. Like how a pen is for writing and a cup is for holding stuff."

Marinette thought about that when she said, "When you put it that way, Tikki. If the Ink is a tool... Then who's using the tool? Because I doubt it was Mr Lawrence or the Searchers." Kim suggested the Ink Demon, but even he wasn't sure about that. The bluette shook her head when she said, "I'm not sure of that... I think the Ink Demon Bendy is just as much affected by the Ink as Mr Lawrence and those Searchers."

That was when Adrien remembered one of Sammy Lawrence's Audio Logs.

~Flashback~

"So, first Joey installs this Ink Machine over our heads. Then it begins to leak."

~End Flashback~

"Hang on," Adrien said, getting the attention from the group, before he said, "Remember Mr Lawrence's Audio Log when we entered the Music Department? He said in that that Joey Drew had the Ink Machine thing installed. I'm starting to think that Mr Drew might be the one to start this whole crap with the Ink."

Max pushed his glasses up again when he said, "Given the limited information we have on him, it's already painting a rather unflattering picture of the man." Markov nodded in agreement.

Kim then said in a bit of a conflicted tone, "Not to play devil's advocate, but was Mr Drew even aware of what he was doing? Or if all this was just a terrible accident that somehow didn't get out? Let's be honest, we don't know anything about the guy and this place has been raising a lot more questions than answers right now." The athlete glanced around the offset circle before saying, "I know we want answers, but let's try not to forget that our priority right now is to find a way out of this hellhole. Now it's even more important since Ladybug and Chat Noir are stuck here with us."

Markov tilted to the side in confusion when he asked, "How so?"

Marinette, Adrien, Tikki, and Plagg understood immediately as the two humans rubbed their heads in annoyance.

"Shit! Kim's right!" Adrien groaned out in annoyance.

Marinette then added, "We're trapped here and that means that we can't protect Paris from Hawkmoth and his Akumas!"

Now Markov understood why it was important that they get out as soon as they can. Ladybug and Chat Noir are not out and about to save Paris from Hawkmoth and his Akumas. And as far as the AI was aware, the only ones to know the identities of Paris' Heroes are in this very room.

Before either Kim, Max, or Markov could ask, Marinette got out an, "I hope Master Fu has a back-up plan in case either Chat or I or even both are out of commission."

"Master Fu?" Kim, Max, and Markov questioned in confusion.

"The Guardian of the Miraculous," the two heroes and two Kwamis said in unison.

Marinette was the one to say, "He's the one that gives the Miraculous to worthy holders. I'm in training to be guardian, but I was allowed to hand out Miraculous temporarily."

"Ah, that answers that question," Max vocalized thoughtfully.

That was when Adrien asked Marinette with a cattish smile, "So, since the cat's out of the bag, do you think that you can tell me who the rest of the temporary holders are?"

With a sly smile, Marinette replied, "Nice try Chaton, but You are going to have to find that out yourself."

"Me-owch, you wound me, M'Lady," Adrien said in a playfully pretend hurt tone, making the bluette giggle.

"Alya was Rena Rouge. Nino's Carapace, Kagami's Ryuko, Luka's Viperion, and Bunnyx hasn't been given her Miraculous yet," Max commented as he pushed his glasses up. Marinette and Adrien looked at Max with shock on their faces. The techie smiled softly when he said, "Now that I know that Marinette is Ladybug, it was easy to figure out who the temporary heroes are. *Glances at Kim* Right, Roi Singe?"

"What?! Me Roi Singe? Nah, I can't be Roi Singe," Kim said, somewhat going into a rant. He stopped when Max gave him a 'Not buying it' look. Kim sighed when he said, "Yeah, I'm Roi Singe. I mean, might as well say it since we're getting that all in the open."

Max pushed his glasses up when he said, "I know Mari and Adrien already know this, but, you don't so I might as well tell you that I'm Pegasus."

"That makes sense," Kim said with a hand on his chin. He then added as he looked at Marinette, "And it also makes sense as to why Rena Rouge hasn't been out fighting Akumas the past two months. While you officially ended your friendship with Alya last week of September, even if it took Alya a month to realize that, it's been about two months since you did anything with her as friends."

Marinette slumped her shoulders when she said, "It's been two and a half months... I tried to keep our friendship... But she kept cancelling last-minute, forgetting our planned meetups and *sourly* not keeping her promises... *Normal tone* Mrs Tsurugi, while disappointed that I didn't act fast enough on the situation, understood why I tried to stay friends with Alya. So when she gave me that advise on dropping my "friendship" with Alya, I decided to follow because there was bearly any friendship left between us..." Tikki patted her chosen on the cheek in a comforting way, and Marinette smiled at the gesture.

"Can we change topics with me saying that now I understand why you wouldn't let me hand out any of the Miraculous," Adrien said to Marinette with a sly smile before adding with a sly smirk, "You knew that if I chose the next temp hero, I would've given it to you. *Laughs* Now I understand why Ladybug didn't want Marinette to have a Miraculous, she already had one."

Marinette and Tikki giggled with the rest of the group join in on the good mood with laughing.

To Max and Kim, it was funny because the two heroes had one weird love square. They loved each other, but have been indirectly rejecting each other for the same person.

To Markov, he got the irony of the whole thing and found it humorous.

The laughing stopped when they heard the sound of a thunk, followed by the sound of a soup can rolling. The group leapt to their feet and cautiously followed the sound when Adrien said, "Hello? Someone there?"

They walked through an open doorway and saw a bunch of pips, six scattered inked wooden barriers, two wooden shelves, a hole in a wall parallel to where the group came in, a closed door, and a sign that read 'Lift'. They spotted a can rolling until it hit one of the shelves.

Marinette then called out, "We know you're in here. Come out and show yourself."

Tikki and Plagg immediately hid in their usual hiding spots on their chosen out of habit when they heard footsteps. Whoever it was was complying as the footsteps got louder until the figure appeared from behind the corner. The group was utterly shocked at who the figure was, it was one of the figures they have become familiar with when watching the old Bendy cartoons. A familiar cartoon wolf.

"Boris?"

~}i{~

To be Continued in Chapter 3...

~}i{~

1) Le Pomme Rouge is just a double pun I decided to use as a name for the Food and Electronic Market. Le Pomme Rouge is French for Red Apple. Apples are a popular fruit people love eating and it's the name of one of the biggest tech companies.

~}i{~

Gale-Dragon: Okay, I'll admit, this took longer than I thought, but I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Also, I am NOT looking forward to writing out all the fetch quests in Chapter 3...