AN: Now rewritten to incorporate the new updates.

Chapter 4:

The hallway was empty and silent except for something occasionally dripping from the ceiling. The floor was dusty and there were a few cobwebs hanging in the air. Surprisingly there was a dim light coming from the room up ahead, being the only sign of life in this otherwise abandoned building. The group cautiously made their way forward, their footsteps making the old floorboards creak, and came into a large room. The majority of light they had seen was coming from a project left on, illuminating the messy room with papers and chairs strewn everywhere, but there was no sign of Joey Drew anywhere.

"I thought you said he was expecting?" Marinette said in confusion as she looked around. "But there doesn't seem to be anyone here."

"Well the letter didn't give a specific time or date," Henry admitted as he too looked for a sign of his former friend. "So he's probably elsewhere in the studio. I can show you around while we look for him."

"Nice, a private tour," Alya said, pulling out her phone. "This might not be going on my ladyblog, but exploring an abandoned studio is defiantly film worthy."

"Down here's my old desk," Henry informed as he leads the group down a side hallway to a lone desk and chair. "I wasted so much time in this chair. Animating was hard work so I often got distracted making my own doodles instead of working on the actual cartoon. Joey would always get a bit frustrated with me for that, but my doodle ideas often ended up becoming new episodes or characters, so he couldn't hold a grudge for long."

"It sounds like you had a great time," Adrian chuckled with the others.

"Yeah," Henry agreed with a small smile before looking over behind his desk. Where there used to be just a wall was now a whole room with three more animation desks. "And it looks like they knocked out a wall or two after I left. I guess it took a couple of people to replace me. I just wish it hadn't ended so badly. But now maybe Joey and I can finally bury the hatchet and move on. But first we need to find him, let's keep looking."

Henry and the others admired the new room for a minute before heading back towards the main room. Henry lead the way across the main room and down another hallway. They didn't get very far before they saw that someone had painted "Dreams Come True" across the wall.

"Well that certainly wasn't here before," Henry shook his head in disappointment. "I bet some teenagers broke in and did that. Nothing we can do about it now…"

Turning away from the writing, the group went further down the hall. They turned down a corner and ended up having to step over a large pipe. They then came to a balcony overlooking a large room with a large pit in the center with chains leading down into it.

"What's down there?" Alya asked, leaning over the balcony in an attempt to see what was down the pit, but all she saw was darkness.

"I'm not sure," Henry replied, looking at the controls. "But it looks like this lift could use a few dry cells."

Luckily, there were a couple of dry cells on a nearby shelf and Henry easily installed.

"Let's see what you hid down there old friend," Henry murmured as he flipped the switch. The chains began to clank and move, revealing a giant machine.

"Woah," Nino said, looking it over from the balcony. "That's one big machine. What does it do?"

"I've heard about this," Henry commented, as he leaned in closer to get a better look at it. "It's called the Ink Machine. Apparently, Joey had it installed soon after I left. It's supposed to provide ink for everyone in the studio. Mostly though, I heard it caused a lot of problems, but I also heard it was used as another power source. I'm surprised it's off. I wonder how you turn it on."

"Well the machine looks pretty well taken care of," Adrian observed as he examined the machine and the controls nearby. "But I'm not seeing it any sort of switch for it here."

"Maybe the switch is in another part of the studio?" Marionette suggested nervously. She wasn't sure why, but the machine was making her feel uneasy, but she pushed it aside, chalking it up to being in a creepy old studio.

"Then let's go find it," Alya agreed enthusiastically, gesturing towards the door. "I want to see what this bad boy does for myself."

"Alright we can keep looking," Henry chuckled stepping back from the balcony's railing. They went down another hallway and the teens were enjoying looking at all the posters on the walls from when the studio was still in business. A sudden thud startled them and made them all jump slightly. They turned to see a plank of wood had fallen from the ceiling and landed just a few feet in front of Henry.

"That was close," Henry said, looking from the board to the ceiling. "But not really surprising considering the state of this place. We'll have to be extra careful from now on. I don't want any of you kids getting hurt so stick close to me and watch your step."

The group carefully made their way around the board and went down the right hallway. They came to a room with a large switch on the far wall and six pedestals along the side walls. Behind each pedestal was a framed picture of the silhouette of six different random objects.

"This seems like the power switch to the Ink Machine," Henry said as he walked forward and flipped the large switch a couple of times. "But it doesn't seem to be working. I must be missing something."

"I think these pedestals have something to do with why the switch isn't working," Adrian replied, studying the base of one of the pedestals and the cables leading into the wall. "They appear to be wired to it for some reason. "

"I wonder if we need to get the objects on the pictures then," Marionette said, glancing at the pictures. "It seems like the only thing that makes sense, but why make turning on the machine so complicated?"

"Who cares, it's just like a scavenger hunt," Nino smiled, studying the pictures and committing them to memory. "Doesn't seem like it'll be that hard to find all the things we need lying around this place. It might even be fun."

"This is great! This trip is turning out to be a real adventure." Alya beamed, panning the room with her phone then heading back out. "Come on! Let's find those objects!"

"Wait! We're supposed to stick together!" Marinette called as Alya left the room. Alya didn't appear to hear Marionette as she continued to disappear around the corner. Marinette started to sigh in exasperation when Alya screamed. The others looked at each other in surprise and fear before hurrying after Alya.