Chapter One: Haunted Pictures
"Gentlemen, I give you, Joey Drew Studios!" Sonic announced as he showcased the rustic building as if he was presenting a prize. Tails and Knuckles, however, weren't so impressed as they gave the old studio a good look. Aside from the plant life almost swallowing the place whole, the building looked so ancient and fragile as if a feather can send it crumbling to dust.
Turning his head to Sonic, Knuckles asked, "Remind me why you took us to this dump again."
Rolling his eyes while his foot tapped in rapid impatience, Sonic explained, "Since it's my turn for this year's haunted house, I thought I do something a little different. Instead of a haunted house, we have a haunted animation studio!"
"Ah."
"What makes this studio haunted?" Tails asked.
"Ever since this place shut down 30 years ago, rumors been going around that the workers of the studio never left. So whoever goes in the studio, never comes out to tell the tale. But what got my attention was that someone said that the ink that the animators used for their pictures was alive and possessed people to do its bidding!"
"Yeah, haven't heard that one before," Knuckles mumbled with a yawn.
"It actually sounds very interesting," Tails stated sounding intrigued. "It wouldn't hurt to look around, see what we can find."
"Now you're talking!" Sonic cheered for his best friend's optimism. "Besides, we faced a whole bunch of weird creatures in the past. So even if the ink's alive, we'll just take out in a flash!"
He glanced over to Knuckles. "What do ya say, Knux?"
Knuckles couldn't help but roll his eyes with a smile. "Okay, you guys convinced me. Let's see what this bad boy's got."
"All right!" acclaimed Sonic, excited for what lies in store. "Let's do it!"
He speed up to the door while Tails and Knuckles just walked up the over-grown weeded pathway. He opened the door and to his surprise, it wasn't locked. Seeing it over Sonic's shoulder, Tails suggest that the old locks must've worn out.
"Maybe," Sonic agreed as he looked at the doorknob. Shaking it off, he pushed the door open, leading him and his friends to the heart of the studio.
They walked down the hallway covered with old movie posters presenting the show. One poster read, "Bendy in the Dancing Demon" and the other had, "Bendy in Little Devil Darlin.'" They figured that this Bendy fellow had to be the studio's mascot.
"Watch out for the ink," Sonic warned his friends as he pointed to the ceiling from where the ink dripped into a small pile near them.
"Yeah, the last thing we want is some black liquid taking over our bodies," joked Knuckles. His friends' reaction to his sarcasm were empty, but he could tell they were trying to hide their smiles.
Once they got to the main room, everything seemed sketchy and drawn out in a third dimension format. The only color that occupied the entire room was dark shades of yellow while the lights created a more lighter tone.
"This place still has power?" Tails inquired as he walked over to the dimly lite projector at the end of the room, rolling with age as it quietly screamed.
"I'm surprised anything in this place still works," Knuckles muttered as he looked over at the moving reels of the Joey Studios Logo.
Sonic, meanwhile, went over to an animator's desk near Tails. There was a smaller desk right next to it where a glowing picture was right in the center of a circle. Getting a closer look, Sonic saw that it was some kind of black and white cat waving to the viewer with a smile. Looking to the desk's larger neighbor, he saw another picture of the same character, not glowing and in a different pose with his arms down. He tilted his head to get a good angle, he saw that the character was actually a demon.
'Strange choice for a cartoon character,' Sonic thought as he straightened his head. He guessed that the little guy had to be Bendy due to seeing a cutout of him lying against the corner where Tails was. Not to mention that he saw parts of his body on the movie posters as he and his pals made their way in.
Sonic turned around and found Knuckles in a different room across from him, looking at the wall.
"Hey, Knux?" Sonic called as he walked over to him. "Whatcha looking at?"
Tails raised his head as Sonic yelled for Knuckles, taking his attention away from the ancient projector. He walked over to join Sonic to see what the red echidna was looking at.
"Hey Knuckles," Sonic said as he and Tails came up to him. "What are you..."
He stopped as he, along with his friends stared at ink painted words that read, 'Dreams Come True.'
"I guess you can say that this place has its way of expressing itself," joked Knuckles, despite his voice lacking its funny tone.
"No kidding," agreed Sonic.
Tails cocked his head to the left and saw a giant sign above that read 'ink machine.'
"Ink machine?"
"Huh?" Sonic and Knuckles fixed their puzzled gaze on the orange fox.
"Maybe that's how they make the cartoons!"
Before Sonic and Knuckles spoke a word, Tails lifted himself from the wooden floor with his twin tails and flew toward the corridor. He soon disappeared when he made a sharp right turn.
"Tails, hold up!" Sonic called as he ran toward the hall with Knuckles right behind him.
Sonic made a hard right before tripping over a large pipe with a loud yelp.
"Ha! Ha! Watch your step!" Knuckles laughed as he jumped over the fallen Blue Blur.
Sonic grumbled as he got back on his feet. After glancing at a small sign on that same pipe he tripped read, 'Watch Your Step,' he growled with annoyance. He made a left turn and entered a large room with awe where his friends were.
They were standing on balcony that gave them the view of the entire room down below. There wasn't much in the chamber except for several barrels, feeding bags of some kind stacked near the right corner, and empty shelves on the left. Other than that, there was a giant, squared hole with several rusty chains holding something huge within the abyss. That got Sonic's head buzzing with exciting curiosity of what's down there. But Tails seemed to be more exhilarated as he put in the dry cells in a small machine with speed.
"Done!" He declared. "Now let's see what this thing is!"
"Fire away, Tails!" Sonic announced, also ready to see what was hidden within the shadows. Knuckles simply nodded. As much as he was inquisitive about the chains's mysterious prisoner, he couldn't help but be cautious about the whole thing. It must be his guardian instincts, but still, there's no harm on being on full alert for unexpected surprises.
Tails pulled down the level and the ancient machines roared to life. The chains began to rattle as they lifted their shrouded object to the surface. The boys leaned against the edge of the balcony, prepared for what's coming up to meet them. Their eyes went wide and their jaws dropped as the hidden object finally emerged from the abyss.
It was a giant box-shaped machine with a large pipe on the front covered with dried ink. Right underneath it was a platform where the ink from the pipe dripped given the dried ink at its tip. Behind it was a large glass container with a large label that read 'ink' given its black shade of color. There was another pipe that was connected to the dark container to the pipe up front. There was a reason to why the machine was hidden; for below it were more pipes attached to it due to the power the device needs to work. The chains stopped chattering and steam emerged from the machine, making its presence known to the stunned anthropomorphic mammals.
"Whoa!" exclaimed Tails. His twin tails spun as he flew down for a closer look at the device.
Knuckles whistled. "30 years and this thing's still in one piece."
"Yeah," agreed Sonic as he was in the same boat as Knuckles was. "You think it still works?"
The red echidna shrugged. "Everything else seems to work fine."
Sonic turned back to the machine and yelled, "Hey, Tails! You think you can get this thing to start?"
"I... I don't know!" The two-tailed fox replied as he circled around the mechanism.
He returned to his friends back on the balcony so he could explain. "I can't find the on switch! I even checked down there before you called. It's just not anywhere in here! Not even a power station!"
"Could it be in a different room?" Knuckles suggested.
The blue hedgehog gave him a weird look. "Why would the on switch be in a different room?"
Knuckles raised his hands in defense as he said, "Just a suggestion."
Tails thought for a moment. "Knuckles might be on to something. Don't get me wrong, having the power switch in a different room is pretty ridiculous. But it seems the best option we got if we want to turn the machine on."
"It's your call, Tails," Sonic told him.
Tails took another moment to think before coming to the decision to look for the chamber with the power switch.
"All right," Knuckles muttered.
With Tails in the lead, Sonic and Knuckles went back to the hallway. However, this time Sonic actually walked over the pipe having learned his lesson a few minutes ago.
Then everybody stopped for they noticed an open garage door on their right that lead to another hallway.
"Wasn't that door closed a moment ago?" Queried Knuckles, who recalled seeing it closed when he ran past it to catch up with Tails.
"Yeah," muttered Sonic, who also remembered. "But how did it open?"
"Maybe that leads to the power station!" Tails exclaimed, happy to see a hint to where the power source could be.
The two older boys shrugged as they followed Tails down the hall that came to end with two new pathways.
"Which way?" Sonic asked while looking to his right and left. His friends followed the same head movement.
"Let's try right," said Tails, going past another animator's desk and a cutout of the little demon leaned against the wall to another passage.
Just as they went closer to the end, a wooden plank from the ceiling fell, breaking the studio's silence. The boys stopped where they are and looked around with wide eyes.
A minute later, Sonic tried to lighten the mood, joking that the studio's age is showing. Nobody responded to his joke as they were still a little spooked. Out of the corner of his right eye, Tails spotted a room that contained something mechanical.
He yelled, "Hey! That must be the power room!"
As Tails raced in the room with galvanization with Sonic and Knuckles close behind.
The room was indeed the power room for there was a switch that was labeled 'Ink Machine: Main Power' on top of a lever. The lever itself was attached to a large machine that covered the whole wall. As Tails checked it out, Sonic and Knuckles took a look around. Aside from the device, the chamber contained six pedestals each having a picture of a random object hanging above them near the wall.
"What's with all this stuff?" Knuckles wondered.
"Decorations?" Suggested Sonic, though he was just as lost as Knuckles was with the pictures and pedestals' purpose.
Hearing his friends, Tails turned around and glanced at the objects. He looked back at the lever and exclaimed, "So that's how it works!"
"What?" asked Sonic and Knuckles.
"I was checking out the power switch and from what I can tell, you have to set certain objects on these pedestals to turn the ink machine on."
"Hold on, let me get this straight," Knuckles announced, raising his large hands up. "We have to go on a scavenger hunt for six random objects to turn on a machine that may or may not work?"
"That sounds about right," Tails replied with a shrug.
Knuckles let a groan. "No wonder technology back in the day was so complicated!"
"Relax, Knux!" Sonic said, who was more than ready for the challenge. "It's not everyday that haunted houses offer scavenger hunts! It might be fun!"
Clapping his hands together and rubbing them together with excitement, Sonic looked at each picture.
"Looks like we need a gear, a wrench, a book, a plushie, some music thing and a bottle." Sonic has to turn his head around to see all the frames. "There's six objects all together. There's three of us so we'll split up and each gather two items."
"Now wait a minute!" Knuckles yelled. "Going on this stupid scavenger hunt is one thing, but splitting up?! Do you know what happens to people that do that in horror movies?!"
"Chill, Knucklehead," assured Sonic. He got why Knuckles was on edge but still! "Don't let your guardian instincts get in the way of our fun! And since when did you start taking horror movies seriously?"
"All I'm saying is if you two want me to help, we should stay together."
"But then it'll take too long!" objected Sonic. "When we split up, it goes much faster!"
"Yeah, Knuckles!" agreed Tails. "Plus, it's just like Sonic said: not all haunted places do this kind of thing."
"Am I literally the only one that wants to put our safety first over fun?"
"Well, sometimes you just gotta live life on the edge, Knux!" Sonic assured him as he patted his shoulder. But Knuckles pushed Sonic's hand off.
"Look, all I'm saying is that you never… ahh!"
Sonic and Tails ran over to see what scarred Knuckles. It turned out to be a Bendy cutout that was supported by the now standing plank leaning against it.
"Who put this here?" Sonic asked.
"In such quick timing?" added Tails. "I'm surprised we didn't hear it."
"See?" Knuckles announced, spreading his arms out to the devil. "This is what I'm talking about! We have no... WHAT THE HELL?!"
Both Sonic and Tails glanced at him at his sudden outburst. They followed his horrified gaze to their destination and exchanged the same face.
Just the across the hallway was another room where a corpse of a cartoon wolf with crossed out eyes laid strapped to a table. His chest was wide open, revealing his heartless rib cage. The boys ran to the room for a closer look. The dead wolf looked fresh as if somebody had just killed him a few days ago.
"What the hell were these guys doing?!" Sonic exclaimed. He had seen pretty nasty stuff on his adventures, but this definitely took the cake. Eggman himself wouldn't go to such measures to do this.
Tails couldn't even find the words to express his thoughts on the situation due to his disgust. At first, he thought the wolf was fake, yet he looked so real. Tails got even more sick as he noticed another message on the wall on his right that read, 'Who's Laughing Now?'
"I'm not sure I even wanna know," he finally replied.
Knuckles' horrified face said his opinion.
Turning to him, Sonic said, "You know, maybe we should stick to together. Just for safety's sake." There was no telling that whoever murdered the wolf might still be in the studio.
Slowly tilting his head toward Sonic, the red echidna replied, "Thank you."
Tails glanced at the wolf's chest and saw a wrench inside. "Hey, wasn't there a picture of a wrench back in the power room?"
The two older boys looked and saw the wrench as well. Knuckles sighed seeing that he had to be the one pull it out due to being the only strong one of the group. Besides, it's unknown of how long the wrench was in there.
He told Sonic and Tails to stand back just in case as he climbed up the dead dog to get it. The two boys did as they were told. Knuckles grabbed the wrench and pulled it out with no sweat. He raised his eyebrows as he thought it was going to take him longer to get out. He took a moment to see if anything would come out of the chest. After a minute of silence, he handed the tool to Sonic.
"One down, five to go!" Sonic announced.
He returned his gaze to the wolf as Knuckles made his way down.
"Rest in peace, Boris."
"How'd you know his name was Boris?" Knuckles asked as he hopped down.
Sonic replied by pointing to a movie poster with the wolf holding a clarinet with his name in the headlights.
"Oh."
"Where to now?" Queried Tails. "Those items could be anywhere!"
Sonic suggested, "We could retrace our steps. We might've walked past them without realizing it."
Knuckles shrugged. "Sounds like a start."
Tails nodded in agreement.
"All right," Sonic announced. "Let's do it to it!"
They backed tracked their way to where the ink machine was. Once they got there, Tails found the gear where he found one of the dry cells. After a minute of looking around for the other items, the boys returned to the main room to have a look. The room was clean of the items they need. Seeing a corridor near the exit, they walked in to find an animator's desk sitting by itself in the corner with only the devil cutout for company.
Sonic noticed that on the desk was a picture of Bendy's face smiling but was more cute and innocent. He guessed that it was the character's first design before changing him.
'First designs usually don't work out,' he thought taking from his experience with his first movie.
"Hey look, there's a room!" Tails yelled.
Straight from the desk was another room filled with animator desks. The boys glanced around seeing if they could anything. Sonic came across the boarded up bathroom and took a peak inside. Other than the flickering light, there stood a toilet and another cutout of the mascot.
Knuckles, meanwhile, went over to a desk to get a better look at the sign that laid above it, which read, 'Work Hard, Work Happy.'
"Guess these guys needed some motivation," Knuckles said to himself. He was just about to walk away when he noticed something underneath the table. He bend over and saw that it was an ink bottle. Or poison since it had an image of a human skull.
"Hey, guys, does the grocery list include a bottle?"
Tails looked up and responded, "Yeah. Did you find it?"
Knuckles held up the bottle as proof. "How many more do we need?"
"Let's see," Sonic said as he and Tails walked over to Knuckles. "We got the wrench, the gear and the bottle. All we need now is a plushie, a book and some kind of music thing."
"I couldn't find any of them back there," Tails pointed at the back where he was at. "So I think this is room is clean."
"Well, then, let's head out!" Sonic declared.
As the boys left the room, Knuckles glanced over to the picture of the little devil on the desk where he found the bottle and saw something. He bend over for a closer look and saw that his eyes weren't deceiving him; Bendy was now was now in a different position. Earlier he was lying on his belly looking at the viewer with an adorable face. Now it looked like he was running away from something with fear in his eyes. Knuckles cocked his head as he squinted his eyes.
"Hey Knux, come on!"
Hearing Sonic, Knuckles thought it was best to leave. He couldn't get the image out of his head, especially at the possibility of the picture trying to warn him. He assured himself that pictures can't move. But that got him thinking about the rumors Sonic heard of the ink being alive and possessing people. Realizing that he was thinking too hard about nothing, Knuckles shook it off, putting his focus back in the scavenger hunt.
Sonic suggested they go back to the corridor where Tails saw the ink machine sign and go through the doors.
"Hopefully, they shouldn't be locked."
As they did so, Tails noticed that the door on their left was lite.
"Guys, look! There's a light!"
Sonic and Knuckles peaked over and saw it, too. They all dashed to the door but the light suddenly switched off. Tails opened it and found nobody inside.
"What the…?" muttered Sonic while taking a glance around the small room. "I could've swore I heard somebody turned the light off."
"Me, too," Tails said as he walked in for a look He saw a note on the desk that read, 'He will set us free.'
"Weird," he muttered before continuing to search the room, not really thinking about what the message meant.
Knuckles suggested that maybe the light bulb glitched. Sonic looked up and saw a music note picture frame hanging above a small desk. Putting his eyes beneath the table, he saw an old record. That was when it hit him.
"Oh, I get it!"
Tails and Knuckles looked at him with confusion. Sonic explained that the music note back at the power station was actually a record as he picked it up.
"Think about it! Back in the day, the only thing that could play music was a record! And you need a record player to play it!"
"Ah, okay," Knuckles said, getting at Sonic's point. "But don't you think they would've just hanged a picture of a record instead of a music note?"
"And where's the fun in that?" Sonic grinned as he nudged Knuckles' side.
"Speaking of music," Tails said as he turned on a nearby radio. It was static at first but eventually music emerged from the old speakers. None of them knew what the song was, but it definitely was catchy and had good bounce to it. Sonic couldn't help but tap to the beat as it played. He then started to nod his head along with the tune. They listened for a minute until the static concluded the song.
"Aww, over already?" Sonic moaned. "It was getting good!"
"It was catchy, no doubt about it," said Knuckles. "But it kinda gave me the creeps."
"Yeah, me, too," Tails agreed as he went out of the room.
"Oh, you guys don't know good music when you hear it!"
His friends laughed as they went to check the other doors. Most of them were locked except for one near the ink machine room. From the looks of it, it was a break room. However, the room contained nothing but tables. There was one table that held a movie reel and big pile of books.
"Houston, we have our book," Sonic said in a radio-like voice. He ran over to find the right one since most of them were just scrapbook of the cartoons.
"It should be a small, black book," Tails told him as he and Knuckles went over to help. But Sonic managed to find it before they got to him. He glanced at the title that read, 'The Illusion of Living,' written by the studio's founder, Joey Drew.
Holding it up for the others to see, Sonic announced that they're down to the last item.
"If we can find it," Knuckles muttered.
The boys searched the room for the plushie but it was no where to be found.
"Nothing here," Knuckles said. "We should go."
"Hold up,"Sonic announced, taking notice of a dart board. "I wanna do this real quick."
Taking the darts from the board, Sonic ran to the end of the room and threw one at a time with incredible speed. However, none of them hit their target as most of them were scattered in various areas near the board. Tails chuckled and Knuckles simply shook his head.
"You always did suck at that game."
Sonic just grinned as he went out of the break room with his friends close behind. They went back through the hallway that lead them to the power station, only this time they took a left. In the corner of their eye, they found a small table with a tape recording.
"Check this out," Tails said as he picked up the old device. Examining it, he found a name label on the its side.
"Wally Franks," he read.
That name didn't sound familiar to any of them. Tails suggested that he might be one of the employees of the studio.
"One way to find out, though," he said as he turned out the tape.
From the device came a voice of a man with a New York accent. "At this point, I don't get Joey's plans for this company. The animations sure aren't being finished on time anymore. And I certainly don't see why we need this… machine. It's noisy, it's messy, and who needs that much ink anyway? Also, get this. Joey had each one of us donate something from our work stations. We put them on these little pedestals in the break room. To help appease the gods, Joey says. Keep things moving. I think he's lost his mind, but, hey, he writes the checks. But I tell you what, if one more of these pipes burst, I'm outta here."
With a loud click, the recording ended. Sonic admitted that Joey Drew seemed like a weird guy to work with.
Tails couldn't agree more. "Especially asking his workers to give away their stuff to the 'gods.'
"But what kind of god would want six random junk?" queried Knuckles.
Sonic simply shrugged. He opened the door close to the edge only to find an empty closet. Knuckles went to the one on the left and was surprised by another Bendy cutout. Sonic and Tails couldn't help but laugh at Knuckles' yelp.
"WHAT'S WITH ALL THESE DAMN CUTOUTS!?" He yelled.
"Maybe they have a soft spot for you," teased Sonic.
Knuckles grumbled as he took lead with Sonic and Tails behind him, trying to silence their giggles. A turn to their right lead them to another passage. They tried the doors with only one unlocked. It was another closest, this time each shelf contained numerous cobweb-covered projectors. They went to the end and found a small theater room to their right. It was then that they spotted the Bendy plushie on a chair near the projector. Sonic walked over and held up the toy in victory.
"This concludes our scavenger hunt, gentlemen!"
"About time," mumbled Knuckles, still pissed at the Bendy cutout. "I'm just about had it with this place."
Tails glared around the room and found a valve to some kind of machinery. Above the wheel was a sign.
"Ink pressure?" read Tails, wondering what it was for and why it was so far away from the power room.
"C'mon Tails!" Sonic called. "Let's go."
Tails gave the machine a strange glance before returning to the others.
The boys went back to the power station but suddenly stopped at the entrance. The Bendy cutout that scarred Knuckles was now gone.
"Where's the cutout?" Sonic queried as he scanned his surroundings.
"Who cares?" Knuckles said, not wanting to do anything with the damn cutout. "Let's just turn on the ink machine and get it over with."
Sonic and Tails looked at each other with concern of who moved it. They then shrugged it off and followed Knuckles to the power room. Then they each placed the items on each pedestal following the instructions of the picture frames. As they did so, a light shed upon the item once they came into contact with the pedestal.
Peering around, Sonic said, "So now we just turn it on?"
Tails gaped over at the switch and found something flashing near it. Getting closer, it was a label that read 'low pressure.'
"Not yet," he said. "We gotta turn the ink pressure on and that's all the way back to the theater room."
"Seriously?" Knuckles groaned. "Why can't they have everything in one room?"
"It was the 30's, Knux," Sonic said. "They didn't know any better."
With that, they headed back to the hallway. This time, they were startled by yet another Bendy cutout. This time, it peeked out of the theater room before it quickly went back.
"Okay, THAT'S it!" yelled Knuckles, running down the hall, ready to take down whoever's responsible.
"Alright, you son of a.."
Knuckles stopped in his footsteps when he found the cutout by itself leaning against the wall. He looked around hoping that the person would still be here. But the room was exactly the way they left it.
Sonic and Tails ran up to see if Knuckles caught the guy only to see him alone.
"Okay, even I have to admit that something's up!" Sonic said. "Especially with all these Bendy cutouts!"
Tails agreed. "It's almost like someone's playing us,"
They all went down the stairs when suddenly, the projector turned on. The boys stopped in their tracks and glared at the yellow, glowing screen. It was Bendy who was just bouncing up and down. Not like literally jumping, but enough to get his body moving. That was when the whistling came on. Now the boys weren't sure but they guessed that the whistle was the theme of the show. But they couldn't help but feel uneasy, especially when they stared into Bendy's soulless, black eyes. Each of them turned their eyes to one another without moving their bodies, wondering if something was about to happen.
Soon the whistling stopped but the projector continued to play the dancing demon reel.
"Oooookay," Sonic spoke, still a little freaked out. "THAT definitely took the cake."
Tails wasted no time in getting to the ink pressure and turning it on. However, an ink pipe that was right above where Sonic and Knuckles were began to leak, causing them to yell with disgust. It poured all over the hedgehog and echidna, drowning them with its black liquid as they did their best to shield themselves with their arms. They ran out of the room while they coughed out the ink that made it into their mouths. Tails just flew right over the flooded floor and around the pipe's leak.
"You guys alright?"
"Yeah," Knuckles muttered as he continued to spit out the ink. "We're good."
Sonic nodded as he wiped his face from the thick liquid. Looking down at his ruined shoes, he let out a groan. "Perfect. That is the third pair this week."
"Hey, could've been worse," Tails joked. The hedgehog gave him a glare.
"Well," announced Tails, trying to set the mood. "Now that the ink's pressure's on, we can now turn on the ink machine!"
He lead Sonic and Knuckles back to the power station and pulled the switch. Everything suddenly went dark. Lucky for them, they were able to see thanks to their nocturnal eyesight.
Looking around, Knuckles wondered what happened to the lights.
"Maybe all the power went to the ink machine," Tails suggested.
"Let's go see," Sonic said.
They retraced their steps back to the ink machine until they came across ink footprints. It came from the where the device was and made its way to the break room. Sonic got to his knees and saw that there were human footprints. He could tell since whoever left them wore no shoes. He stuck his finger in it. They were fresh.
Knuckles glanced at the door where the footprints ended and turned the knob.
"Locked," he reported. He tried to break it down but the door stood its ground.
Putting his hand to his chin, Sonic wondered if this was the same guy that pranked them with all the Bendy cutouts. He asked his friends if they were thinking the same thing.
"Maybe," Knuckles respond.
"But what was he doing?" Tails queried.
They all went over to the ink machine, now running due to the noises it made, only to see the entrance all boarded up with wood.
"Well, that answers that question," Sonic said, putting his hands over his arms.
Tails was now at an utter loss. He even admitted out loud to why their supposed prankster would board up the ink machine room.
"Either to keep us from getting in," Knuckles guessed. "Or to keep something from getting out."
Sonic walked over to the blocked chamber to see the opposite side. "If that's the case, who's he keeping…"
Before Sonic could finish his sentence, a figure of ink emerged from the other side and tried to grab him with its bare, scrawny, inky hand. Sonic screamed as Tails and Knuckles pulled him back, just as terrified as he was. They all lost their balance and got taken by gravity. None of them got a good look of who or what the ink figure was; all they got was the inky hand, two black horns and a huge, devilish smile. An ink waterfall came on the other side of the boards while the entire studio shook. And the ink figure was trying to bust its way out.
"That's our ticket to leave," Knuckles shouted as he picked up a stupefied Sonic back on his feet. "Let's go!"
That brought Sonic back to the real world as he followed his friends. As they ran for the exit, the garage door closed as the ink emerged from its sides, trying to escape. As they made a turn to the main room, a pipe fell from the celling, spilling even more ink.
"The whole studio is falling apart!" cried Tails.
"Thanks for the update, Tails!" yelled Knuckles.
More ink fell from the celling, blocking their every move. Sonic turned and found the exit. Calling the others, they sprinted for it. However, with all the ink and their weight, the floor couldn't handle it and it broke, dragging the petrified, screaming mammals to the abyss.
Tails landed first, but he landed on one of his tails, causing him to yell out in pain. He was soon joined by Sonic and Knuckles. They had a better landing thanks to the ink that began to flood the room, breaking their fall.
Knuckles and Sonic popped their head out of the ink and started to cough. Tails swam over to them since he could no longer touch the floor with his feet. Knuckles looked around and found a wheel. He swam to it and turned it. Sure enough, the ink was sucked into the floor.
"Is everybody okay?"
"Yeah," Sonic coaked. "Other than being soaked to the bone with this stuff, I'm good. Tails?"
Tails whimpered as he got to his feet. "I think I broke one of my tails when we fell."
Sonic went over for a look. He was no doctor, but he could tell that the bone of out of its place. Fortunately, it didn't break through the skin, but he could imagine the skin turning from its normal color to a black and blue bruise.
"It's not that bad," He told Tails as he grabbed a wooden plank. "But it could use something to put it back in place. Knuckles, see if you can find some tape or something."
Knuckles nodded and looked around. He found a toolbox on a shelf nearby. He went over, looked inside and found a small piece of rope.
"Here," he called, getting Sonic's attention. "Try this."
He threw it to Sonic who caught it with his free hand. He told Tails to hold onto something while he bandaged the tail. The fox nodded as he tried to conceal his tears. Knuckles went over and offered his hand for Tails to squeeze.
"Thanks, Knuckles."
Knuckles smiled. "No problem, kid."
As Sonic tied up the plank to the young inventor's tail, Knuckles looked up to the roof of the surface. They must've fell a few stories, which left him thinking that the place is bigger from the inside. There was no way that he could climb his way back up thanks to the old wood. Most likely it would break off when he try to grab on to it, sending him back to the ground. Not to mention the ink that was still pouring down would blind him every time he look up.
And then there was that ink monster. There was no telling what that thing was capable of or what it will do when it saw them again. With Tails injured, Knuckles couldn't risk getting anybody else hurt. Sure, Sonic could jump out of here easily, but he still have to deal with that ink guy.
There was also that other ink figure, the one with the human footprints and blocked off the entrance to the ink machine. Despite his efforts to keep the ink monster from escaping, it's unclear what his plans are as Knuckles was still convinced that he was the one toying with them with the Bendy cutouts. Maybe he was trying to scare them away so the ink thing wouldn't get them. If that was the case, the guy did a poor job doing so.
"There we go!" Sonic declared as he got himself up. Tails let go of Knuckles' hand and looked at his tail. "Not the best, but it'll do until we get out of here. How does it feel?"
Tails got up and walked around to test it out. He was a little wobbly since he always used his tails for balance. He eventually got the hang of it.
"It still hurts, but I can manage."
Turning to Knuckles, he apologized if he squeezed his hand too hard.
"Nah, you're good. I barely felt anything."
Peering around, Tails found another tape. The older boys turned and saw Tails walking up to the same shelf where Knuckles found the rope. He staggered back with the tape recording in his hands.
"That's weird," muttered Knuckles. "I didn't even see that."
"I'm surprised it wasn't affected by the ink!" Tails exclaimed.
"Maybe the ink wasn't high enough," suggested Sonic. "Is this the same guy, Wally Franks?"
Tails looked at the side and found a different name. "This one's Thomas Conner. I've heard about him. Back in the 30's, he was the best engineer in town. He worked for a company called Gent that worked on pipes and machines. I sometimes make my inventions based off his own."
"That explains the machinery in this place," Sonic said.
Tails pushed play where a tough, gruff voice came in. "It's dark and it's cold and it's stuck in behind every single wall now. In some places, I swear this godforsaken ink is clear up to my knees! Who ever thought that these crummy pipes could hold up under this kind of strain either knows something about pressure I don't, or he's some kind of idiot. But the real worst part about all this… are them noises the system makes Like a dying dog on its last legs. Make no mistake, this place… this… machine… heck, this whole darn thing… it just din't natural. You can bet, I won't be doing any more repair jobs for Mister Joey Drew." The tape concluded Thomas' message with a click.
"Sounds like this Thomas guy's got the same opinion about the ink machine," Knuckles said.
"Yeah," muttered Sonic, deep in thought. "I wonder if he knew what he got himself into."
"Let's hope he made out before it was too late," Tails said as he set the tape recording aside. "So what do we do now?"
"Well, we can't go back up," Knuckles said. "Unless you guys want to catch up to that ink guy. So we might as well go forward, see if we can find an exit."
"Sounds better than no plan," Sonic said.
At that, the boys went through an open doorway that led them to stairs. Sonic asked Tails if he could walk down.
"I think I can do it," Tails said. He went slow as he descended the first step. He almost lost his balance on the second step. Thankfully, Sonic grabbed his hand and helped him down the stairs. Knuckles scouted ahead in case they run into trouble. He found another staircase but the bottom was flooded with ink.
Turning to his friends, Knuckles told them to wait. He went down to the flooded floor to turn the pressure wheel. Fortunately, it was near the staircase so Knuckles didn't have to go very far. He turned it and once again, the ink drained to the floor. He called out saying that they're good to go.
As Sonic helped Tails with the second stairs, Knuckles walked ahead and found another room flooded with ink. Knuckles let out a heavy sigh.
"We got another flooded room. Wait here till I drain the ink."
Like a few minutes ago, Knuckles emerged back into the thick liquid and searched for the valve.
'Like I wasn't covered enough of this shit,' he thought to himself as he swam through the black fluid due to his small size. He finally found the valve which was hidden near a corner. He swam to it and turned the wheel, sending the ink into the ground.
"Alright, you guys are good to go!"
Seeing that there was no more stairs, he decided to wait for his friends. After several minutes, Sonic guided Tails to the bottom.
Tails thanked Sonic for the help. "You didn't had to, but thanks, anyway."
"Hey, it's no problem, buddy," Sonic said as he scratched the fox's head, causing him to laugh.
There was a door that laid in the middle. They went through to find a lite up room with a passage all boarded up. But what got their attention was another message on the wall to their left, which read, 'The creator lied to us.'
"That's one way to light up one's spirit," Knuckles joked.
Now that they were in a room where the light reigns supreme, Sonic took notice of how covered he was with ink. Tails and Knuckles were in the same condition. He couldn't help but laugh.
"What's funny, Sonic?" Queried Tails.
"Look at us!" Sonic said. Tails and Knuckles did so and they, too, were amazed of how coated they were.
"So we're all covered with ink," Knuckles stated. "What's to laugh about?"
"I was just thinking that if we had red paint, we could all look like Shadow."
Seeing his point, his friends laughed.
But it was short-lived as Knuckles reminded everyone to keep their focus on their escape. "As funny as this is, we should keep going. There's no telling what will happen if we stay here."
"Yeah, you're right," chuckled Sonic. "But we could use our new look to our advantage."
"Let's hope we don't have to," Tails hoped. He found an axe lying on a counter. He turned to Knuckles, who was looking in the boarded up hallway and asked if he wanted the tool.
"Thanks but no thanks," Knuckles said. "I got my babies to deal with this."
With no sweat, Knuckles punched through the wooden planks with no sweat. As he forged a path, Sonic carried Tails since there was so many pieces for Tails to trip over. And he was struggled enough without the support of his one tail.
They got to the end where they found a boarded up door. Knuckles told everyone to stand back. He ran into the door and broke it down. His eyes went wide at what laid before him in the new room.
"Oh, my chaos!"
Sonic and Tails walked in to see what he was talking about. But once they got in, they shared the same expression. There on the floor was a pentagram with six, melted candles on the sides of the circle, which of them lite. What made it worse was the three coffin boxes behind it. Two were leaning against the wall while the third one laid on the floor.
"No wonder this Joey guy went nuts!" exclaimed Sonic.
"I don't even want to know what convinced him to do this," Tails agreed.
At first, it would make sense since Bendy, the building's mascot, was a demon himself. But to go as far as to worship the prince of darkness himself, that was enough.
"Okay, guys," Knuckles announced. "We're gonna go around this thing to get to that door."
He pointed up ahead where a door was at, right next to the two leaning coffin boxes.
"So whatever you do, do NOT step inside this circle or the lines."
Sonic and Tails didn't bother asking him twice. Knuckles went on the right while Sonic went to the left. He extended his hand out to Tails as he chose the left, too. As Tails reached out to Sonic, he tripped on a small piece of wood and lost his balance.
"Hold on, Tails!" Sonic cried, reaching out to grab him. Knuckles reached out as well. Before any of them knew it, all three of them stepped inside the circle.
The room began to shake, making them lose their balance. Their heads suddenly throbbed, causing them to yell out in pain. Images came into view in their minds. First was the ink machine hanging from the abyss back in its room. Next was a human hand covered with ink but with a glowing spiral symbol. Last was the ink monster itself, revealing its bony structure with its gloved hand reaching out to the air. There was a bright light behind it so they couldn't see its face.
Sonic felt a familiar power come to him as the images went through his aching head. He tried to reach out to the energy despite feeling like he was drowning. Once the images departed, the boys felt so lightheaded that they all fainted, falling into the circle. The power left Sonic as he lost consciousness, leaving him and his friends vulnerable to the horrors of Joey Drew Studios.
…
Somewhere deep within the building, a woman ran as fast as she could. She suddenly stopped to catch her breath. She looked behind to see that no one was there. She sighed with relief as she sank to the floor. If he saw her, she would've been a goner.
But she did this so many times that she should've anticipated this by now. Squeezing her hands together, she pondered on what to do now. She took so many paths that lead to the same demise so it was hard to think of a new one.
She let out a heavy sigh. How long was this going to go on? It's like no matter how times she tried to break free, it always brings her back to where she started. There has to be a way out! There has to be a way to break it! There had to be! But how to find it?
She suddenly felt a presence. At first, she thought it was him, but after listening, or rather, feeling it, it was something else. The woman couldn't quite put her finger on what it was. All she got out of it was… chaotic. Not chaotic as in madness, but like peace of mind, something she hasn't felt for some time.
She got up to her feet, peered her surroundings, and followed the source of the unknown power. She could feel it getting stronger as she got closer. She turned around to make sure she wasn't being followed. No one was there. She turned back and went deeper into the studio, leaving behind her inky footprints.
To be continued…