AN: Don't worry HeliX Sol, Noir will be showing up again before the end of Chapter 4.
Chapter 35:
The group went up the rickety ink-stained stair, passing a giant dripping pipe and a few Bendy cutouts that were somehow embedded in the stone walls of the cave. They came to a larger platform with a couple of machines on it. One of them was for a lift that crossed the cave to an exit on the other side. The other smaller machine was back by the cave wall, but it wasn't immediately obvious what its purpose was. Henry and Marinette went to examine the lift controls while Alya and Nino looked over the other random machine.
"We can get across here if I can find a way to fix this," Henry said, having discovered what was wrong. "We just need to find a gear that fits here."
"If we need to, I can always use my lucky charm," Marinette suggested, ignoring Tikki's angry and worried glance. "I've gotten a lot weirder and more complicated objects then a simple gear."
"I don't think that'll be necessary," Henry replied with a slight shake of his head. "We've seen all sorts of gears and random parts scattered throughout this studio. I'm sure we'll find a gear if we just look around long enough."
"We might not have to," Alya jumped, gesturing for Henry and Marinette to come to where she and Nino were by the machine. "We think we've figured out what this machine does."
"From what we could tell, it's used to make various objects," Nino explained, gesturing to various parts of the machine. "You turn this wheel to select what you want to make, then turn this crank. Whatever is put in this trough is then cycled through the machine most likely to make the object. We just need to figure out what goes in the trough."
"Probably ink," Henry stated, looking over the machine himself. "Ink seems to be making up so much of what's in the studio already, I would not be surprised if objects are made from ink as well."
"Should we just grab some from that pipe?" Marinette suggested, waving over at the pipe in the cave wall.
"Can't be that easy," Henry replied, glancing over as well. "And I really don't want to risk anyone leaning over that gap. "Let's check out that hallway first. Maybe we'll find something useful down there."
The teens nodded and followed Henry down the hallway. They turned a corner and came to a small room with a large pipe taking up most of the interior space. Henry noticed a lever by the doorway which he pulled, causing the large pipe to slowly open. Revealed was a vat of bubbling steaming ink.
"This is probably the ink we need," Marinette observed. "How are we going to get some?"
"Well we definitely shouldn't just stick our hand in it," Henry joked slightly, working his way around the pipe to a smaller pipe with a valve. "But maybe this will do something that will help."
Henry turned the valve only for a swollen searcher to emerge with a groan. The group shouted in surprise and fear, jumping back slightly in case the searcher decided to attack. Everyone froze were they stood, waiting to see what would happen, but several minutes passed and the swollen didn't do anything. It didn't even turn around.
"What now?" Alya finally whispered after nothing had happened. Henry didn't answer right away as he had noticed unusually large lump of thick ink on the searcher's back. Acting on a whim, Henry reached out and grabbed the lump. It came off rather easily and luckily it didn't make the searcher attack. Instead, the searcher just let out another groan and sunk back into the ink.
"Hopefully this will work," Henry said, showing the others the ink in his hand. "Let's get this back to that machine."
The group made their back through the hallway and Henry dropped the ink into the trough. Making sure that the machine was on the gear setting, Henry turned the crank. The ink flowed into the machine and began to rumble. The group stepped back as the machine dinged and a ball of ink popped out. It solidified and formed into a gear as it hit the ground. Henry picked it up and tested it in his hands. It seemed solid and felt like metal, even though it had obviously just been ink.
"This should work," Henry decided, taking the gear over to the lift controls. It fits in easily and when Henry pulled the lever, the lift turned on and the lift began coming towards them.
"Do you think it can hold all of us?" Alya asked as they watched the rickety thing approach, eyeing it doubtfully.
"It's a risk we'll have to take," Henry said firmly, leaving no room for protest. "We can't risk getting split up. I'm sure we'll be fine."
They cautiously piled into the lift and began to cross the chasm. About halfway across, the lift stuttered, making everyone look around in panic. Marinette was about to transform when the lift smoothed out and they were able to get across the rest of the way. They scrambled off the lift as soon as it reached the other side.
"Let's agree to never go on that thing again," Nino joked slightly as the group recovered. They chuckled slightly as they all nodded.
"Hopefully we won't have to," Henry said as he straightened up, brushing off dust. "Come on, we need to keep going. Boris is counting on us."
The teens straightened in silent agreement. The group headed through the door, ending up in a shabby hallway. As soon the door closed behind them, both Marinette and Henry gripped their heads in pain. But once again, Marinette was only feeling a throbbing in her head. Henry was assaulted by once again by visions, this time of inky hands reaching through the walls, trying to grab him. But worse than the vision was the voices he was now hearing with it.