Finally, I give you chapter four! About time, am I right? I want to thank you guys for being so patient. I hope you guys enjoy chapter 4 while I get started with chapter 5.
Chapter Four: Tremendous Marvels
Sonic felt his consciousness pull him back to the real world. As the light slowly grew, he heard someone talking. He couldn't make out the muffled words since he was waking up at a turtle's pace. Finally, he was able to pick up the words.
"Here we go," said a female voice. "I'm no medic but this will do, especially for you, big guy. Now that the ink has entered your bodies, there's no telling when it'll claim you."
After a minute of silence, the voice spoke again. "I have to go. If my idea works and everything goes according to plan, we can keep the Ink Demon from achieving his goal. One can only hope."
Sonic felt a wet hand touch his shoulder, but he was still in the process of waking up so his body didn't respond.
"Keep going, guys," the voice added. "Everything has changed ever since you arrived. Maybe you'll be the ones to break the cycle and set us free. Oh, god, I can't believe I just said that."
She let out a chuckle before saying, "But you know what I mean. I wish you boys all the luck in the world."
The sound of footsteps of the unseen stranger started to fade away, just in time when Sonic opened his eyes.
He found himself in a whole new room. Before him was a hallway with a couple of large gears lying around. He looked up to see that the ceiling was leaking after feeling drops of ink fall on top of his head. He turned to the left to find Tails and Knuckles lying in the same position next to him.
"Guys?" Sonic weakly muttered. He lightly nudged Tails due to his weak strength to get his friend to wake up. He did again but a little harder than before. That was enough to knock Knuckles down, which brought him back to reality.
"Knuckles?" Sonic heard the echidna groan as he slowly opened his eyes. He tried getting up with his hands as support, but their pain caused him to use his arms instead.
As he got himself up, Tails started to wake up. Sonic lightly nudged him to get him awake faster.
"Tails? You all right?"
"Ugh," moaned the two-tailed fox. "I think I'm all right. A little beaten up, but I'm good."
"Yeah, don't worry about me. I'm fine," grumbled Knuckles. His eyes were widen when he noticed his hands. They were all covered with bandages! He also took note of other parts of his body covered with bandages.
"What the hell...?"
Sonic and Tails turned and shared the same expression after seeing Knuckles' bandaged fists. That caused them to see if they had bandages of their own. Sure enough, they did.
"Boris, did you do this?"
Knuckles looked up only to see Sonic and Tails. All of their faces turned white underneath their ink-covered fur. They all called for the toon wolf in hopes of him coming out. But he didn't. And he was no where to be found. That could mean one thing…
"That two-faced bitch!" exclaimed Knuckles as he threw his fist down. He winced as he rubbed the pain off his busted hand as he said, "She must've took him while we were out!"
Remembering seeing Alice walking to Boris while he was trying to wake him up, the hedgehog confirmed this.
"But why would she bind up our wounds?" Tails queried as he again checked out his covered gashes.
"There's no way Alice would take the time to help us, Tails," Knuckles told him. "She probably took Boris and left us here to rot."
"Then it must've been that girl," Sonic muttered, recalling the female voice as he woke up.
"Girl?" Tails and Knuckles asked.
Sonic explained that he heard a woman's voice as he woke up. He heard her mention the Ink Demon, some kind of plan she was working on and wishing them luck.
Tails suggested that it could be the same girl that Sonic ran into back on level 11.
"Maybe," Sonic agreed. "But what did she meant by the ink claiming us?"
"Wait, what?" asked Knuckles.
"Oh, she also mentioned about the ink will eventually claim us, like take control, I think."
"Sonic," Knuckles began while raising his arms. "We're completely drenched to the bone with this shit! Hell, we even spit some ink out when we fell from the first floor!"
Sonic guessed that the ink entered their bodies through their wounds.
"Now that's a different story," he said.
Tails then asked, "What does that mean, then? Do we start acting crazy once we're completely taken over like Sammy?"
"I hope not," muttered Knuckles.
"I don't know," Sonic said. "At least this confirms the rumors I heard about the ink possessing people, right?"
Seeing that nobody was in the mood for his dumb optimist discovery, he added, "But we can worry about that later. We have save Boris before he ends up like the other Boris clones."
"Yeah," agreed Knuckles as he got to his feet. "No telling what that bitch is doing to him right now."
Sonic got up nice and slow due to his aching body. Tails followed him as his own body ached as well. Once everybody got to their feet, they went straight for the corridor.
Sonic asked Knuckles how his hands were now they were all bonded up.
"They still hurt," replied Knuckles. "Not as much as did before we crashed, but our mysterious nurse did a good job with the bandages."
They came to the end where the path was split in two. The wall before them had a sign that read,
Level S
Accounting & Finance
Management Office
Grant Cohen -
- Archives J - L
- R & D Access
"Level S?" read Tails. "But there wasn't an 's' button back on the elevator."
"Maybe it's a secret floor," suggested Sonic.
Everyone turned to the left to find a huge door with no valve to open it. And they all knew that Knuckles was in no condition to take it down thanks to his broken hands.
"Let's check over here," Sonic said. "Maybe the valve's somewhere in there."
They went down the right, which took them to the left to be surprised by a Bendy cutout.
"Oh, it's you," groused Knuckles, not happy to meet his old nemesis.
Seeing the two doors, Tails asked which to one to take. Sonic tried the one on the left but it was locked. Knuckles went over to the right and found the door unlocked. He let out a yell of shock after he opened the door with his arms.
"What? What is it?"
Sonic and Tails ran over to see and their jaws dropped in horror. The walls of the room they entered in was completely covered with black writing. Some words were written over other words, making it hard to read. Most of the messages that they were able to read were, Time is money, Taxes and randoms numbers either huddled together or stood alone. But one thing's for sure; whoever owned this office went nuts big time.
Tails glanced over at a desk and found a tape recorder. After telling his friends,, he went over to see who it previously belonged to.
"It's been a while since we came across one of those," admitted Knuckles.
"Uh, guys?" Tails said. "This one isn't labeled."
"Maybe it's another one of Sammy's," Sonic guessed, remembering that Sammy had a tape recording with no label.
Tails pushed play on the device. What they heard was not what they were expecting. From what they could gather, someone was being attacked since he kept calling out for someone to help him. But that resulted in more background racket. The person let out a scream before another splash was heard. Then a growl came through the small speakers before it went off stepping on a puddle. Or going in a puddle. The recording clicked the end of the message, leaving the boys both disturbed and horrified at what they just heard.
"Well," Knuckles finally spoke, breaking the silence. "THAT definitely wasn't Sammy."
Sonic wondered, "Could that be Bendy?"
"But you can't hear his heartbeat in this tape," Tails told Sonic. "Maybe this guy was turned into a searcher or one of the Butcher gang members."
"Either way, it didn't end well with him," Knuckles concluded with his friends nodding in agreement.
Looking over an exposed ink pipe, Sonic found the valve to the door to the archives. Picking it up, he told his friends that he's going on a test run. Within seconds, he found himself back at the large door. He made a small laugh, happy that he was still able to run despite his bandages and cramps in certain places.
"Yack it up, fuzzball!" Knuckles called, hearing Sonic's laugh. He, along with Tails, ran to Sonic while he put the valve in and turned the wheel.
Once they opened the door, the room was soaked in darkness. Thanks to their eyes, they caught sight of a small stage with someone on it. They all went over for a closer look when all of a sudden, the lights on the stage turned on, revealing not one, but six ,ink, humanoid figures. They all surrounded a Bendy statue with a banner hanging above with a familiar message that said, "He Will Set Us Free."
"Well, this certainly isn't creepy at all," Knuckles said in a sarcastic tone.
Sonic went over to the nearest ink creature and waved at it, seeing if it was alive.
No response.
He tried again with a whistle. He even jumped up in front of it, gave it a weird face. Both showed no effect.
After taking one last look at the ink man, Sonic reported, "Well, the good news is that these guys aren't alive."
"But they look like they are," Tails said, taking note of how lively they looked with their ink.
"Frankly, I don't want to stick around to find out," Knuckles stated.
As much as they were curious about the ink people, Sonic and Tails agreed to move on. Besides, they got into enough trouble thanks to their curiosity.
They came across a circular room with its shelves filled with books and other random items, like film reels, ink bottles, cameras and etc. They got the heart of the room where there stood a chair and a desk with a couple books and a tape recorder on top.
Like before, Tails went over to see who the previous owner was while hoping that it wasn't like the other one. Fortunately, this one had name and it was no other than Susie Campbell, the now two-faced angel.
"Let's hear what good ol' Susie has to say," declared Sonic.
Once the play button was pushed, Susie didn't sound like herself. Whereas her first tape she sounded happy and cheerful. In this tape, she sounded vengeful. "They told me I was perfect for the role," She began. "Absolutely perfect. Now, Joey's going around saying things behind closed doors. I can always tell. Now he wants to meet again tomorrow, says he has an 'opportunity' for me. I'll hear him out. But if that smooth talker thinks he can double cross an angel and get away with it, well, oh he's got another thing coming. Alice, ooh, she doesn't like liars."
That got the boys's heads buzzing with questions. When the tape ended, Knuckles expressed his theory that this must be the start of Susie's fall from grace.
"No kidding," Tails concur. "It also sounds like she either got replaced or fired from her role of Alice."
"That explains the dark tone of voice," said Sonic. It did leave him wondering who was her replacement.
"What about her saying about Joey's secret meetings?" Knuckles added. "Cause it sounds to me that this was a set up."
"A set up?"
Knuckles explained that maybe Joey got Susie fired on purpose so he can convince her to become a living version of the her favorite cartoon character.
"Kind of a sick way to persuade someone, don't you think?" Sonic asked.
"Considering all that we found so far, this might be a stepping stone for the worst that's happened here."
"You might be on to something here, Knuckles," Tails said. "Why else would the Gent company be working for Joey? It might be that he had an idea to bring actual cartoons to life and he needed the best to create a machine to do it. It would make sense to use the voice actors as props for the characters."
"So he sacrificed them to the ink so they become living toons?" asked Sonic.
"I guess," admitted Tails while shrugging.
"That would explain a lot," muttered Sonic, trying to put the pieces together.
Knuckles suggested that they keep moving. "Maybe we'll find more clues on the way."
It didn't take very long to find the door since it was a small, round room. The only problem was that the door had no doorknob or hinge to open it. Sonic then noticed a book that wasn't all the way in the shelf. As he pushed it in, a light bulb above the door lite up.
"What the…"
Knuckles and Tails glanced over to Sonic, just glared back with wide eyes with the 'what?' look. Seeing Sonic's hand on the now shoved book, Tails looked back up at the light bulb, which left the remaining four lightless.
"So that's how it works!"
He explained to Sonic and Knuckles that they have to go around and put four half-way in books into their shelves so they can open the door.
Knuckles found the whole thing stupid. Not because of the plan, but of the fact that it was designed that way.
"Maybe that's one of the reasons why this place shut down!" he exclaimed. "Too much time is put into these dumbass contraptions instead on the animation!"
Nonetheless, he, along with his friends, started their search. Tails found the second one in the center of the room. Sonic found the third one not too far where he found the first book.
However, as he shoved the book in, a flash of light appeared out nowhere, sending everyone in a confused panic. The chandelier above them started to shake back and forth with its lights burning brighter than before. The doors on small vaults near the shelves began to rattle. It felt like the whole room was moving causing everyone to hold on to something. Another flash of light came and everything returned to normal, excect for the horror-struck mobians, who were panting like crazy as they were holding onto random furniture; Sonic with his back against the bookshelf, Tails to one of the legs of the table and Knuckles gripping a pillar for his life, no longer aware of the pain in his broken hands.
"WHAT IN THE NAME OF CHAOS WAS THAT!?" screamed Knuckles.
"I have no idea," Sonic whimpered.
Tails got himself up slowly, shaking as he did. Once he was all the way up, his blood drained from his face.
"G-g-g-guys?"
The older boys turned to the youngest member of the team.
"They're gone."
They both ran up to Tails to see what he was talking about. Sure enough, they, too, saw that the ink people on the stage were gone.
"Where'd they go?" queried Sonic, franticly looking around.
"I don't know," Tails replied fearfully.
"You know what?" announced Knuckles. "Forget it! Let's just find the last two books and get out of here!"
The other two couldn't agree more. Knuckles shoved the fourth book in with his foot since it was so low. But he did it with caution in case the flash of light would appear again. Sonic did the same thing when he found the last book in the center of the room.
At that, the boys huddled back at the door and were able to open it. As they entered the darkness, they were now in from what it looked like the deepest part of the studio seeing that they were now surrounded with rocky walls. On them were more ink pipes that drained the ink into the dark abyss and planks that made a couple pathways. There were also a few cages that dangled in various places with chains holding them from above.
"Gosh," marveled Tails. "It seems like this place keeps getting bigger and bigger!"
"I wouldn't be surprised if they have an underground theme park," joked Knuckles.
"You never know," said Sonic.
Looking up ahead, he saw a bridge cart that was connected to some wiring. Following the wires, it lead to the end at the edge of the balcony not too far from where he and his friends were. Going back to the bridge cart, he saw that it was on the border of the platform where they need to go. He looked over to his friends, who also noticed the bridge cart and balcony, and all expressed the same smile.
A second later, Tails flew everyone over to the lift. Since Knuckles was unable to hold on to Sonic, the hedgehog had to hold on to him with his arms under the echidna's pits while Tails did the same to Sonic. By the time they landed, Sonic and Tails took a minute to massage their aching hands.
"Thanks, guys," appreciated Knuckles.
"No problem, pal," Sonic muttered as he stretched his hands. "But I didn't think you were gonna be THAT heavy."
That got a laugh out of Knuckles. With that, everyone got to the door.
With a loud metal creak, they opened it to an open hallway with beat up walls with cracks big enough to crawl while the others were too small.
Everyone felt uneasy about going through it but there was no point of going back now. As they started to make their way through the corridor, it happened again.
The same brilliant flare appeared, making the room more brighter than before. However, this time was different. Inky hands came out of the cracks on the walls, trying to grab something on the other side. The hands that were closest to the petrified mobians tried to grab them. They screamed as they swat away the sludge-covered hands. They huddled together so the hands wouldn't reach. With another flash, everything returned to the way it was, again leaving the boys in a horror-struck state. Unknown to them, gravity was taking the Ink Machine further into the darkness, its chains rattling as it went.
After a minute of terrified silence, Knuckles bellowed, "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!?"
Tails was still in a daze to answer. Sonic, however, guessed that the ink inside them might be taking over.
"Oh, yeah!" yelled Knuckles. "I almost forgot! We're getting taken over by the supposedly living ink, the one thing that got us in this damn mess in the first place!"
He continued to rant on as he stormed out of the hallway. But his friends were still spooked about their second hallucination while they followed him out. They then entered a large chamber with a large den with some of its chains going up while the others went down. Along the sides of the walls were planks attached, forming an unstable staircase going up.
That was when Knuckles cried out, "Can this day get any worse than it already is?!"
That was when a familiar voice spoke from the walls.
"I see you there, my little errand boys."
Knuckles let his arms drop while his face formed an annoyed frown. "I spoke too soon."
"Your angel is always watching," Alice continued.
"You're doing a fine job at it, by the way," Sonic commented with a sarcastic tone. "But enough is enough! Where's Boris? What have you done with him?"
"Ah, so that's what keeps you going!" exclaimed Alice. "You're just looking for a little, friendly wolf."
As she chuckled, she added that Boris was the only one that actually defended himself instead of cowering in the corner like the others.
"That wolf is a lot braver then you ever will be!" yelled Tails.
"Aww! You're even more adorable when you're mad!"
"We're done with your games, Alice!" Added Knuckles. "Tell us where Boris is! Now!"
"And spoil the entertainment?" Alice queried. "You got plenty of time to find us. But you better hurry, errand boys. Boris is having trouble staying in one piece."
Expressions of worry and fear came upon the mobians as they all dashed to the top of the stairs. They came upon some kind of break room due to the crouches and a record player playing calming tune. But the song didn't bring any serenity to the boys' rising blood pressure.
"Oh, I'm gonna kill her! I'm gonna kill her!" gritted Knuckles as he paced around the room. "That bitch is so gonna pay!"
"Calm down, Knuckles!" Tails said while trying to get the angry echidna to sit down. When he finally did, he said, "You'll get the chance! But we have to keep our heads together if we want to rescue Boris!"
Sonic agreed. "And the last thing we want is to get Bendy's attention. He's probably still pissed at us for destroying his cutouts."
"He always finds me. Oh, no!" whimpered a voice.
Everyone looked up on the balcony and saw another humanoid ink figure. This one, however, had bright, golden eyes and were filled with fear. He had his right arm close to his body as if it was injured. The boys weren't sure how it could talk since this one had no mouth. The guy didn't seem to notice the odd-looking newcomers down below.
He spoke again in a terrified tone as he looked around. "I-I just wanna go home! When do we go home? When do we go home?"
The ink man continued to cry as he limped his way across the balcony. The boys, however, were left in an uncomfortable silence.
"Do…" Tails began, trying to find his words. "Do you think that he's one of the guys back at the library?"
"I don't know," Sonic answered. "But it seems to me that he's not too far gone like Sammy or Alice."
"But that doesn't mean he's less dangerous," warned Knuckles.
His friends agreed despite feeling sorry for the guy. He might switch from a sniveling wanderer to a heartless monster.
Seeing a door underneath the balcony, the boys walked up and turned the knob. They let out a gasp of horror when they saw what was inside.
It was a large room filled with more ink people. Some were on their knees with their heads down and eyes closed. Everyone else was just standing around while moving to the side every second. Some were holding onto themselves whereas others almost have their hands close to their heads. But they all shared the same expression of sadness and despair.
"Sweet chaos!" cried Knuckles.
A few looked up and gave the boys strange glares with their golden eyes. They didn't blame the ink folk since they were the only ones out of the entire studio that stood out. Some turned their heads to the side with confused curiosity while others just stared at them with their sorrowful expressions.
The newcomers waited to see the ink people would attack them. But nobody moved; they just stayed in their spots while giving them inquisitive glances.
Sonic slowly walked inside. Tails and Knuckles just watched with worried looks. But as Sonic walked by the ink people, none of them touched him. By the time he got the end of the room, he turned back to his friends and motioned them to follow him, seeing that the ink people are harmless. Soon the fox and echidna also walked through the ink crowd to join their friend on the other side.
When they made it to the end, they found another message on the wall that said, No angels! Underneath it was Sammy's more iconic message.
"At least these guys are in the same boat as we are with Alice," Knuckles said after reading the wall.
Seeing another person crying in the corner, Tails admitted how bad he felt for these people.
"Me, too, buddy," Sonic agreed. "But as much as it pains me to say it, we have to keep going on. We can help them once we find a way out."
At that, Tails nodded in agreement. Maybe someone in the G.U.N. lab can help him find a way to turn the ink people back to normal.
Knuckles called his friends over when he found an open vent. He told them to go ahead in case the ink folk start to have second thoughts. He said that because all the ink people started to gather around, having them completely surrounded while staring at them with their sad, curious eyes.
"I think we'll be okay, Knux," assured Sonic before he went in the vent first. Tails followed him in as Knuckles looked around at the ink group. Seeing that none of them made a move to attack, he nodded as he made his way in the vent.
"How we're doing, Sonic?" Knuckles called as he crawled the vents after them.
"So far, so good!" reported Sonic.
Hearing Knuckles mutter in pain due to his hands, Tails offered him a hand by offering the echidna to hold onto one of his tails.
"Thanks, Tails," said Knuckles. The fox responded with a smile as he wrapped his tails around Knuckles' arms.
Hearing this, Sonic told Tails to do the same thing with his own tail if he spots trouble.
"And how will we know when there's trouble?" asked Knuckles.
"I'll give you a signal," replied Sonic as he got closer to a vent shutter to a new room up front. "It'll be something like-"
Before he could finish, the Ink Demon appeared out of nowhere with his hands on the edge of the shutter, ready to rip it open. Sonic screamed as Tails immediately grabbed his tail, ready for what was about to come. Sonic dashed through the vent, with his friends holding on as tight as they can.
Once they were gone, Bendy couldn't help but laugh. He was laughing so hard that he leaned against the wall and let gravity take him down with his hand on his face. Despite that he has done this trick to every person he's come across, it works every single time. When he heard familiar voices in the vents as he was looking for the fifth stone, the Ink Demon thought he give them a 'warm' hello. And boy, was it worth it!
Calming himself down, Bendy got himself up. Now that the fun is over, it's time to get back to the hunt.
…
Sonic, with his friends behind him holding for dear life, shot out of the vent like a rocket, screaming as he went. Tails and Knuckles came tumbling out with their wide dried eyes and shaking heads from the whip lash. Sonic, meanwhile, grabbed anything he could find and stuffed them in the vent in hopes that the Ink Demon wouldn't be able to get out. Then with his back turned to the stuffed vent, the blue hedgehog calmed his nerves and his racing heart.
Knuckles slowly rose from the ground, one of his hands still on his head while the other held onto to the wall for support. "I take it THAT was the signal?"
With his heart going back to its normal pace, Sonic muttered, "Yeah... sorry." He even admitted that he didn't hear Bendy coming.
He then found himself looking around the room. His friends also glanced at their new surroundings. Near them was a huge Bendy statue, probably bigger than the one back on level 14. To their left was another couch and a closed door with a sign to it left that read, "Storage 9." Aside from a few Bendy posters, a couple crates and chairs, there was a Bendy cutout that greeted them the best way he knows how while leaning against the wall next to a miracle station. But what got everybody's attention was the writing on the wall. Unlike the usual messages they came across, this one said, "Come Up And See Me," with an arrow pointing to a staircase going up.
The first thought that came to everyone's heads was Alice. But then, they weren't so sure since the ink on the words looked dried as if it was up for some time.
"I'll fly up and check it out," Tails said.
"Be careful," Sonic told him.
The young fox nodded as he took to the skies and flew to the upper floor. After looking around, he called up his friends saying that the coast is clear. Like Tails, both Sonic and Knuckles simply jumped up to the higher level, ignoring the stairs.
They glanced around at their new surroundings, but there wasn't much to look at other than the small area where Tails was that had curtains on each side. The walls within it were covered with parchment paper, most of them were blank pages while others had various buildings with Bendy and other various cartoon faces on them. They went up to the table that had blocks with different sizes. Turns out that the blocks actually represent the buildings of a map of a Bendy themed park below them.
"Looks like you weren't far off by the theme park, Knux," commented Sonic as he gave the map a good look.
"Yeah," agreed Knuckles, glaring at the parchment. He noticed a tape recorder nearby the map. He went over and read the name label on its side.
"Bertrum Piedmont?"
At the mention of the name, Tails exclaimed, "Oh, I heard about him! He was one of the best attraction park builders in the 1940's! Walt Disney was going to hire him for his own park, but out of the blue, he suddenly disappeared."
"Well, now we can close the case," said Sonic. "Let's hear it."
Knuckles pushed the play button with his elbow where a proud, British voice came through, "For forty years, I've built attractions that stagger the imagination! Colossal wonders such as the world has never seen! I have earned my legacy with sweat. But right in front of everyone… high level investors, Wall Street tycoons, the ever-tactless Joey Drew introduces to me, the great Bertrum Piedmont, as Bertie! Like I was his child. You may be paying me, Mister Drew! But you don't own me! I'll build you a park bigger than anything YOU could ever possibly conceive! But before you go taking any bows, Mister Drew, know that this grand achievement will belong to me… and to me alone." And then the tape ended its message.
"Is it just me or does this guy remind anyone of Eggman?" asked Sonic.
"They definitely have their share of similarities," Knuckles agreed.
While Tails also agreed, he did think that Joey could've been more respectful to Bertrum since he was highly praised for his work.
Seeing something in the corner of his eye, Tails turned to find a lever near where the curtains were. Walking over to see what it was for, Tails found a small sign above it that read, Storage 9. Remembering that the same sign down below that was right next to where the closed door was, Tails threw down the lever.
Hearing a rumbling sound of old gears running, the two older boys looked around.
"What was that?" Sonic asked.
Tails flew down and found that the storage room is now open.
"Hopefully our way to Boris," Tails replied with hope in his tone.
Sonic and Knuckles jumped from the upper floor and joined Tails to enter the darkness within the storage room.
Suddenly, lights in various places turned on, revealing the inside of the storage room. There was even a sign that stood before the Mobians that read, Bendyland, only that land was crossed out by the word hell, making the sign say, BendyHell.
"The entire studio in a nutshell," Knuckles said after reading the sign with some of its lights flickering. He knew Sonic and Tails agreed to their chuckles.
Taking the stairs down, the boys glared around at the environment. There was endless amounts of stacked feed bags and crates. This included the various theme park items, such as Bendy trash cans, cartoon horses that belong to a merry-go-round, giant Alice Angel faces. There were even two closed game areas, and a 'show your strength' game. Near where the stairs are was the same cage the boys came across earlier. An ink person sat on top, oblivious to his surroundings as he mourned in his sorrow. There were plenty of shelves in the middle of the chamber. However, they had nothing to shelf except for the cobwebs.
As they went past the closed game stands, they saw a huge haunted house due to the two teeth on each side of the ceiling's edge and windows that showcased Bendy's eyes.
Looking at the house, Sonic said, "Talk about an ironic twist of fate."
"Don't remind us," grumbled Knuckles.
It was already obvious that Boris and Alice were in the haunted house, Knuckles suggest to spin dash the door together since his hands were of no use.
"I don't think so, Knuckles," Tails said. "Given how old this building is, it might crumble to the ground just by touching it."
Sonic muttered a curse when the fox said that. He knew Tails was right, but it takes away the heroic entrance to save Boris.
"So how do we get in?" He asked.
"Maybe there's a switch somewhere," pondered Tails as he looked around.
Knuckles found not one, but five switches all lined up together right next to the haunted house.
"I think I just found it," Knuckles told the others.
They all went over and Knuckles pulled the first one with his arm.
It didn't bulge.
He tried the other one with no success.
"Weird," Knuckles muttered. "They're stuck."
"One of them has to be the switch!" Objected Tails. He went over to the third one and tried to pull it down with no luck.
Sonic looked around in hopes of finding another switch. Seeing something lite up in the corner of his eye, Sonic turned and saw the two closed game stands were now open, revealing the both of them to be some kind of shooting game. That was when he noticed a tape recorder that stood right between the two games.
He ran over and returned to the others with the tape in hand within seconds.
Reading the label in the recorder's side, Sonic said, "Maybe Wally can help us."
As he pushed play, the familiar voice of Wally Franks came through. "These guys down in the warehouse get to play game all day while I'm stuck cleaning up after 'em! They kept locking themselves out of their own back room. So I says to 'em, look guys, I says, you're smart, right? Here's an idea! Why not rig theses games up to knock open a door if ya win? It'll be fun for you guys, and it saves me a trip down here every day. They went for it like a dog to pot roast. I tell ya! If these guys don't start realizing who's the real genius is, I'm outta here!" And then the tape ended.
"So," began Knuckles. "We have to play those games over there to open a door?"
"Sounds accurate," replied Sonic. "But which one?"
"I guess we should try all of them," Tails suggested, despite sounding unsure himself.
Knuckles called dips on the 'Test Your Strength' game as he rushed toward it, ready to play.
"But Knuckles," objected Sonic. "Your hands!"
The ink-covered echidna simply smiled as he formed himself into a ball and bounced on the pad hard enough to ring the bell on top.
"Tell me," came the voice of Alice. "Are you having fun? I'm sure Boris doesn't mind waiting for his rescue party."
Knuckles raised his bandages fist in the air as he muttered some curses to the invisible angel.
After he took a deep breath, he turned to the others and asked what game they should play next.
"I wanna try the ball game," Sonic said as he went over to the stand with his friends behind him.
After he took a moment to stretch his arms, Sonic grabbed the three balls, ready to throw. Just as he threw his first ball, it somehow popped out of his hand, barely making it to its target.
Sonic could hear his friends laughing behind him as he just stood there, wondering how he messed up his throw.
"That's the best thing I've seen all day!" Knuckles exclaimed, his laughter nearly choking him.
With irrigation and determination in his face, Sonic picked up the ball and with his arm swinging at full speed, he threw each ball at each piled cans, sending them to the ground. The sudden ding in the air got the other boys to look up to see what happened. All they could see was the fallen cans and Sonic in his triumphant stance.
Seeing the hedgehog's grin, Knuckles said, "We're still gonna remember that."
All Sonic could do was give him a dirty glare as they went over to the shooting game.
Since Tails was the only one who hasn't played, the older boys stepped back and let the kid have his fun.
With a devilish smile, Tails took the Tommy gun and got ready to fire. As the targets popped up, Tails shoot them down without hesitation. The best part was that he didn't miss any of them, not even one. With the ding ending the game, Tails turned to the others to see their impressed expressions.
"I have a life outside of building machines, guys," Tails told them with a skeptical look.
Suddenly, a door that was on the shooting stand's right slowly opened. Everyone looked at each other, wondering if something was going to pop out.
After a minute of silence, Sonic volunteered to go in. He ran in and let out a yell of fright.
Hearing his friends asking if everything's okay, Sonic replied, "I'm fine! I'm fine! I just got spooked by a bunch of Bendy faces."
Tails and Knuckles peaked their heads in so see what he was talking about. Aside from the small table, shelf and chair, they turned to where Sonic was and shared the same expression of shock when they saw three Bendy costumes hanging near a switch. It wouldn't be so bad if their ink covered faces weren't so terrifying, especially their smiles.
"They're making the earlier Disneyland costumes look child friendly," commented Knuckles.
Sonic chuckled at that as he pulled down the switch. Tails glanced down at the wire and saw that its hidden light led to the haunted house.
"A-ha!" Exclaimed the fox.
Seeing his friends' confused faces, Tails said that the hidden levers might charge up the door at the haunted house somehow.
"Either way," he continued as he led them back to the five levers. "It'll open the door and lead us to Boris!"
That left Knuckles grumbling again about why technology from the mid 1900's had to be so complicated.
Sure enough, the boys found the light ending on the first switch. Tails immediately pulled it down with no effort. Hearing another door open to their left, the boys ran to find it slowly opening. Above it was a sign that read, Research and Design.
They went in and found themselves on a balcony. Beneath them was the Butcher Gang, all huddled near a fire that burned in a barrel, chattering.
All eyes turned to Sonic, who simply grinned and mouthed, "One second."
He ran down the stairs, past the Butcher gang and took a right. When he went in, he found nothing. He simply shrugged, guessed he took a wrong turn and went back to make a left.
It took him straight to the switch. Not wanting to spend any more time, considering that there was an unfinished Bendy animatronic lying on a table, Sonic threw down the lever and ran back to the others.
"Two down," he announced with pride in his voice.
They all ran back to the haunted house and pulled the second lever. Following the sound of the third door opening, they came to the one called, Attraction Storage.
"Well, let's see what'll attract our attention," Sonic said.
Knuckles slapped him upside the head for the pun. But Sonic simply chuckled as he muttered, "Worth it."
After passing through the corridor, they came across a small room that contained a couple bacon soup stands and one of the ink bug's body lying against a wall near two open gateways, much like the one back on level 11. But that didn't compare to what was inside the chamber right next to the inkling.
They went through the first doorway and found themselves in another storage room with what remains of the Bendy theme park, such as a clown bench,
The boys marveled at the sight of an ancient ride that looked to be some kind of carousel, but different since this one had arms that allowed riders to fly through the air. There was a row of dead light bulbs that circled the head like a crown. There was another set of circled lifeless bulbs on the bottom as well. Beneath the bulb crown was wave shaped images that went around the top. Underneath the wave images was a closed window with only a black circle as it decoration. By the way the ride was set, it looked like it wasn't turned on for quite some time.
In front of them was a tape recorder on top of a table. The boys found it a little suspicious that a tape recorder would be in a place where it was expected to be found by someone. Almost as if it was waiting.
Tails went over and saw the saw Bertrum Piedmont's name on the side. He turned to the others, who simply shrugged. With that, the fox pushed play.
"The biggest park ever built, a centerfold of attractions." Began Piedmont, sounding quieter than his last recording. "Each one, more grand than the one before it. It makes my eyes come to tears at the thought."
Then suddenly, just like with Susie Campbell, Bertrum's voice turned vengeful. "But then… oh Mister Drew. For all your talk of dreams, you are the true architect behind so many nightmares. I built this park. It was to be a masterpiece! My masterpiece!"
As he said this, the boys couldn't help but feel that something bad was about to happen. They glanced around the room, thinking some kind of ink monster would pop out.
Bertrum continued, "And now you think you can just throw me out? Trample me to the dust and forget me? No! This is my park! My glory!"
Suddenly, the doors slammed behind the Mobians, causing them to turn around and see their exit's blocked off. Other machines slowly roared to life, giving the boys enough to time to get ready to face what's coming. But to their shock, the lights on the bottom of the ride were turned on and were soon followed by the ones on top. It got worse when one of the arms moved as if it was stretching. It was soon followed by another who had a slight glitch before it extended. It wasn't long until all the arms raised to the air, ready to operate.
That was when Piedmont yelled, "You may think I've gone… but I'm still here!"
The shutters on the closed window were immediately opened and revealed a large head of the fallen theme park purveyor, terrifying the boys.
"Piedmont?!"
Before they had time to react, the arms began to twirl around at great speed. It immediately stopped and the one closest to the boys tried to smash them. They yelled as they took cover from the flying pieces of wood. It started to circle again, waiting for its next strike.
"What do we do?" Yelled Tails.
"Isn't it obvious!?" Knuckles shouted. "We destroy it!"
"Not with your hands, you're not!" Sonic told him. "Do a spin dash to tear down the rides when they hit the ground! Tails and I will take out the ones in the air!"
"Damnit!" Cursed Knuckles. He kept forgetting that his hands were broken. Fortunately, he knew how to fight without using his fists. "Alright! Let's go!"
They all charged after the tentacled carousel, both sides ready to fight. Tails immediately took to the air as Sonic and Knuckles remained on the ground. Sonic made a homing attack on one with ease since the ride wasn't spinning as fast as him. The machine sparked its now detached arm as the ride fell to the ground. Tails tried to find his target but they proved harder to catch since he wasn't as fast. Suddenly, a ride hit him from behind which caused him to fall into the seat.
"Tails!" Sonic cried.
"I'm okay!" Tails assured him. There was nothing the young fox could do now but hold on.
Fortunately, it wasn't long. The arms stopped spinning and tried to smash Sonic and Knuckles. The echidna spin dashed into two rides, sending the ancient tentacles to dust. Tails did a spring job on the arm, detaching it from the body of the now armless carousel.
"Get out of the way!" Yelled Sonic as he jumped high into the air.
Tails and Knuckles ran to the far side of the room, ready to take cover. Sonic curled into a ball and with intense speed, he homed in on the carousel straight through.
Once the blue hedgehog was out, the machine spun its armless body around as steam emerged from the inside due to its failing mechanics. Sonic took this opportunity to join the others, who took cover behind a bunch of stacked boxes. By the time he got to Tails and Knuckles, they all looked up from their spot and saw that it was still twirling uncontrollable. Then it spun faster than before, raining down its steam and electricity while the engines screamed. The boys ducked back to their hiding place and covered their heads, ready for impact.
But to their surprise, the carousel didn't explode. They all raised their heads to see the ride stopped. More steam emerged from not only from the hole that Sonic made but from its missing arm sockets. The lights that survived the battle remained in their glowing manner. However, Piedmont tilted his head way back with his eyes rolled upward before crashing down, leaving his mouth open. He rocked up and down until finally his head found it balance, his eyes vague into emptiness. The shutters concluded the theme park purveyor by slowly returning to their former place.
The boys sighed with relief as they picked themselves up from the ground.
"Well, that was fun," Sonic said with a grin.
"Speak for yourself," mumbled Knuckles as he rubbed his banged hands. Sure, his own spin dashes did their job, but trying to keep his body together made the bones in his hands ache.
Suddenly, noises of a machine came to life. Thinking it was the carousel, the boys huddled together, ready for another fight. But the sounds was coming form their right. They turned to see a door open revealing a lever.
"Seriously?!" Exclaimed Knuckles. "The switch was right there the whole time?!"
"Look at the bright side," Sonic said. "At least it wasn't inside the carousel. Otherwise it'll be destroyed with Bertrum."
"I feel bad for him, though," admitted Tails as he and the others went over to the switch. "All this effort just to get back at Joey for what he did to him."
Knuckles added, "All for nothing, too, since his trap was meant for Drew and not us."
"Yeah," muttered Sonic as he threw down the lever. Maybe it was for the best due to the fact that the line to get payback against Joey Drew was long enough. Besides, no good ever came from revenge.
They went back to the storage room and pulled down the third lever.
"One more," Tails announced.
"Can't wait for this to be over," Knuckles said as his patience with giving Alice a 'piece of his mind' was growing thin.
They followed the sounds of a garage door opening which led them to the entrance titled, Maintenance. Once the doors was swallowed by the side walls, the first thing that the Mobians saw was two ink-painted words on the wall that read, Choo Choo. Another set of the same words laid underneath them.
"Choo choo?" The boys read. As they went inside, the only thing they saw train related was a few Bendy posters of the demon riding a train. The words were repeated on the wall to their left over a table.
They went through a small hallway where an open valve led them to another room with flickering lights. All it contained was another Bendy poster, this time saying, Ride the Buddy Boris Railway. On the picture's right was more machinery, a barrel and a miracle station. To the boys' left was a set of stairs that led the way down into darkness.
Tails took note of a small plant that resided near the machines and another near the stairway.
"How are there plants down here?"
The boys simply shrugged as they had no idea. Sonic suggested that they could be ink plants.
"Normally, I'd say that's stupid," Knuckles said. "But after all that we've seen here, why bother denying it now?"
They turned and started to make their way down the stairs to a familiar ocean of ink when a light suddenly shined. They stopped dead in the tracks. Not because of the light itself, but because the light was moving. There was also the fact the there was the sound of someone walking through the inky sea. After waiting for half a minute, the light revealed to be coming from the Projectionist, stalking in the darkness like he was back on level 14.
The blood pressure in the veins of the Mobians grew in fear at the sight of the risen ink monster.
"How did…" stammered Sonic. "How is he… how?!"
"Oh, for the love of chaos!" Cursed Knuckles as he marched down the stairs while his friends could do nothing but stay in their place in shock.
They heard the Projectionist scream when it took sight of Knuckles. The next thing they heard was a grunt from Knuckles along with his opponent being slammed against the wall along with a splash as it fell to the dark sludge.
While this was happening, the same girl whom Sonic ran into earlier emerged from her golden portal on the wall. Making sure no one was looking, she closed the valve door and gave it a good nudge to make sure it was impossible to turn. After that, she turned back to see the boys still didn't see her. Nodding with approval, she returned to her portal, ready to proceed to the next step.
"And STAY dead!" Knuckles yelled from below.
He returned to the others and said, "We're clear."
Sonic and Tails went down to be greeted by the ink-filled room. They could see what Choo Choo meant since there were two trains in the center of the room, their faces covered with the mascot's face. There was also a stacked pile of withered ink hearts on top of a box.
Wonder if the Projectionists had a thing for hearts, too, Sonic wondered.
At the mention of the inkling, he turned to see it lying in a sitting position with a large crack in the wall with splattered ink, its light inside the camera reel dead.
"You think it's dead?" Tails asked.
"It should be," Knuckles replied with assurance in his tone. "No one could a survive a blow to the chest, let along get slammed against a wall so hard it'll burst your insides."
"Let's hope so," muttered Sonic. Even after telling the others that they should find the lever, he couldn't help but wonder how the Projectionist got revived. Maybe the ink had more significant powers than he thought.
The boys ventured through the ink-covered chamber to find a staircase going up blocked off by a lift. Sonic turned right to see a large lever named, lift control. He ran toward with no sweat and pulled it down, causing the lift to go up.
"Now we're getting somewhere!" He exclaimed.
As he and his friends went up to the second floor, a faded blue light emerged from the Projectionist's chest.
By the time they go up, the guys found themselves on a balcony that gave the view of the first floor and having a pathway that formed the shape of a square. Tails looked to his left and saw the switch not far from where they are.
"There it is!"
He flew over with his friends running behind him, all of them thankful that it was easy to find instead of the last one.
However, as the two-tailed fox pulled the switch down, the lights suddenly went out. To make the situation even more stranger, the lights slowly glowed again. This left the boys clueless to what happened.
"Maybe the lights glitched when power was thrown into the switch," Tails suggested.
The others were unsure but seeing that nothing bad happened or anything came out and attacked them, they shrugged it off.
As they made their way back down to the inky sea, Tails saw a tape cassette lying on top one of the box nearby the stairway. After alerting the others, they went over to listen.
"Let's hope it's not another one of Bertrum Piedmont's," admitted Sonic.
Tails checked the label. "Good news; it's Joey Drew."
"Still," muttered Knuckles. "Keep your guard up."
The familiar voice of the studio's founder emerged from the small speakers. "I believe there's something special in all of us. With true inner strengths, you can conquer your biggest challenges. You just have to believe in yourself and remain honest, motivated, and above all, who you really are. Ok, let's stop it right there." The eyebrows on each Mobian's face was raised at the suddenly changed tone. It wasn't like Susie and Bertrum where they sounded resentful; Joey sounded more like he was irritated. He continued. I can only do so many takes of this trash a day. And tell the guys in writing I want more use of the word dreaming in every message. Keep railing on that, get it? Dreaming! Dreaming! Dreaming! People just eat up that kind of slop. Hmm? What? It's still on? Well, turn it off damn it!
As Joey commanded, the tape concluded its message, leaving the guys to wonder about Joey's true persona.
"That definitely took a dark turn," Knuckles finally said.
Sonic and Tails couldn't agree more.
"I'll admit, I thought Joey was one of those guys that dreamed too much that he lost his grip in the real world," Sonic added. "But it's obvious now that he's just using the word to get what he wants, even to the point of abusing it."
"And it now makes sense with Susie," Tails pointed out. "It's just like you said, Knuckles, Joey set Susie up so he can convince her to become Alice Angel for real, not evening thinking about the consequences of his actions other than to get the fame and glory."
"Explains a lot," agreed Knuckles. "It seems that he did the same thing to everyone else as well."
He turned to see the Projectionist to prove his point only to find its body gone.
"What the hell?!"
"What?"
Sonic and Tails turned and their expressions were the same as the echidna.
Sonic cried, "Where'd it go?!"
His question was answered when the Projectionist revealed itself coming out from behind the train furthest from the boys. It screamed as it charged toward them, hands ready to grab.
Sonic homed attack on the creature, sending it toward the wall. While the new crack made it clear Sonic hit it pretty hard, the Projectionist simply picked itself up and let out another shrill.
"RUN!"
Sonic, Tails and Knuckles wasted no time to get back to the stairway going up, since it's quite clear that the Projectionist can recover from the Mobians' attacks. By the time they got up, they found the valve door shut.
"Oh, c'mon!" Yelled Tails.
Sonic looked back at the stairs to see the light of the Projectionist glowing brighter. He knew that there was no way the Knuckles could open the valve with his hands still broken. Even if he could spin dash the door, there was no way he would finish in time with the ink monster right behind him. There was one other option, however.
He yelled. "Get in the miracle station!"
"Sonic, he'll see us!" Objected Knuckles.
"Just go!"
Within seconds, the boys ran into the station and closed the door just when the Projectionist made it to the top of the stairs. All huddled together in a tight squeeze, all they could do was watch the inky camera-head and wait for it to leave. It turned to the closed valve before turning to the miracle station, blinding the Mobians inside. It cocked its head to the side almost as if it was thinking that his attackers were inside. The guys glance at each other and nodded. They raised their hands to ready themselves as the Projectionist reached out its hand to open the door.
Suddenly, a bright light appeared out of nowhere, startling both the boys and the Projectionist. At first, they thought they were having another episode of the ink taking control of their minds. But that theory was tossed aside when they saw the Projectionist roared at the valve and the ink veins that appeared on the walls.
The Ink Demon ran toward the Projectionist and punched its head, causing it to take a second to recover before going back to the fight. The camera-headed creature gave the Ink Demon a blow to the face, but it had no effect on Bendy. More punches were thrown as their hidden audience watched with confusion and fear. Suddenly, the Ink Demon grabbed the Projectionist by the throat and lifted it up, clearly choking it as his opponent struggled to break free. Just as the Projectionist dropped his arms in defeat, a flicker of its light blinded the Mobians before the Ink Demon tore off his enemy's head and threw it at the miracle station.
Tails gasped in horror, causing Sonic and Knuckles to cover his mouth with panicked eyes. Hearing him, Bendy turned to the station, lowered his head and glance inside while cocking his head, probably to get a good look. Sonic and Knuckles became still as statues thanks to their fear. Tails, however, couldn't help but feel it shake his whole body. Luckily, his friends held him tight. He stood there staring at them, leaving the guys to wonder if he was going to open the door.
Then the Ink Demon leaned down to grab the Projectionist's leg and dragged it across the floor back to the valve, leaving its inky fluid behind. The boys waited until the veins were completely gone before going out of the station.
They slowly walked out, still traumatized by the fear of almost being caught. They looked down only to see the head of the Projectionist with ink shooting out like a water fountain.
They followed its inky trail to the door, which was now open and bent almost as if the Ink Demon slammed it open from the outside with all his strength. That got the boys thinking that Bendy's a lot stronger than they thought. However, he used his ink portal to get out thanks to the ink fluid revealing that he went through the wall.
Knuckles looked outside the room just in case only to find nothing.
"You think he saw us?" Sonic asked.
"I don't know," admitted Knuckles. "And I can't believe I'm saying this, but he came at a great time to save us from the Projectionist."
"At least we can confirm it won't revive from this," Tails added, pointing at it head, still spilling out ink.
"We should get going," Sonic said. "There's no telling if Bendy might come back, whether he's seen us or not."
The others agreed. Although it still got them wondering if the Ink Demon really did see them. It was still hard to tell since his eyes were covered with ink, but remembering from their last encounter, it was best not to underestimate him. But that got them wondering why he went after the Projectionist. Either he wanted something to eat or just happened to run into his old rival. Or it was something else.
The questions were put on hold for another time as the boys returned to the haunted house, pulled the fourth lever and final one and heard its gates yawn as they opened, allowing the boys venture inside.
As they went in, an evil laugh was heard but got no reaction from the boys as they were used to it from their past experiences with haunted houses. Laid before them was a cart with a Bendy face and words on the wall that read, Turn back.
"Too late, now," Sonic muttered. Now that he and his friends were so close to saving Boris, there's no point to go back.
Seeing the Bendy cart, the boys looked at each other, thinking if they should get in. They eventually agreed and they all huddled together in the cart, with Sonic on the right, Tails in the middle and Knuckles on the left. Just as they got in, another evil laugh was heard and the cart began to move, taking them toward the skull gate which opened at the cart's arrival.
"And now," announced Alice. "The ride truly begins, boys! Come in, and pretend it's all just a bad dream."
As they went through the gate's mouth, they greeted with flying dust, lanterns located in various places that shined in the dim tunnel. This included glowing evil eyes in the empty parts of the wall which was nothing more than just some kind of illusional picture. As the cart slowly turned right, they saw two cardboard gravestones labeled, RIP. Suddenly, a cutout of a ghost with pie-cut eyes popped out from behind the gravestone on the right. Unfortunately, it didn't scare its audience who were now by this point used to cutouts popping out of nowhere. Besides, they saw way too many horror movies that used that same old trick.
Beside it was a crate and a lifeless body of one of the Butcher Gang members; the one with the mouth on top of its head.
They continued to move on as they passed on more various objects; such as a cage, a leaking pipe and more illustrations of the evil eyes.
"It's a funny thing," Alice spoke again. "How so much can fall apart so fast."
They passed by another gravestone that had a skeleton as its pop-out scare. Near it was a huge pipe that revealed the darkness within.
The Twisted Angel continued, "We never really had control of the studio. Either you were in someone's pocket, or you were putting someone in yours."
Another skeleton popped out, again leaving the boys not frightened as they were now getting annoyed with the supposed scares. They passed by more gravestones, lanterns, boxes and cages. They even went by a closed off passage boarded up by wood. But what got their attention was that there was a sign on the wood that said, Bendy, which got the boys thinking about the where the pathway could lead.
Alice continued to rant about wanting to be beautiful when the boys saw up Boris' shadow up ahead. They called out for him, but it turned out to be the dark reflection of a Boris doll. Knuckles let out a curse while the rest just expressed their disappointment.
As they continued to pass by both familiar and new items, Alice proceeded with her chattering, leaving the boys to wish that Bendy had spotted them in the miracle station back at the maintenance room.
"Is she still talking?" Grumbled Knuckles.
"Yep," replied Sonic with a yawn. "Can't believe I'm saying this, but Eggman's more entertaining than her (1). Sure, he monologues, too but at least he actually gets to the point."
"True dat."
Tails let out a groan as he couldn't believe that he was actually agreeing with Sonic. Out of all the adventures the boys had together, Alice Angel had to be the most boring as she was nothing but talk.
That was when Alice said, "Hang on tight. I've got a surprise…"
This caused the boys to wake up from their boredom to see what's going on. The same door with a skull face that opened them into the haunted house opened up. At first, it wasn't anything different other than the same glowing eyes and another door that shared the same features like that of the last two. But what was different about this one was that behind it was a huge chamber. They couldn't see much of it since they were still in the tunnel. But that changed when their cart carried them to the skull door which opened them to the core of the haunted building.
An organ was played through the speakers, giving off the haunted house vibe as the guys entered the room. They stared in awe at what laid before them. Aside from the numerous barrels, chairs, tables, crates and hay bags that stood in the center of the room, above them was a large chandelier with none of its lights broken or even burned out. Several pictures of monster-like people were hung on which wall while the windows were closed off by wooden boards. A few lite candles that was hung on the wall furthering the haunted vibe of the chamber along with its cracked walls and torn wallpaper. There was even an organ that was covered with cobwebs and small candles, completing the spooky look.
"Man, this almost looks like the haunted house in Disneyland!" Exclaimed Sonic as he peered around.
"No kidding!" Tails agreed.
"And we didn't just went this kind of haunted house… why?" Pondered Knuckles. He gave Sonic a look as he said this, leaving the ink-covered hedgehog to simply shrug as his response.
Despite their admiration of the haunted chamber, they couldn't help but think that something was up due to how quiet everything is. Their suspensions were raised when they came across another skull door that opened them to a pathway of darkness.
"Think something's gonna pop out?" Sonic asked.
"Most likely," Tails said with a nod.
Knuckles just rolled his eyes. "I wouldn't be surprised if it's another cut-"
That was when giant, stitched hands emerged from the black void and stopped the cart, causing the boys to let out a startled gasp. But their faces turned to horror when the figure who stopped the cart revealed himself.
"BORIS!?"
Indeed it was, but the Boris that stood before them was not the one they recognize. What was once a small, lean wolf was turned into a hulking, x-eyed brute with his muscles giving away that they were stuffed. His head was covered with a broken dog cone, probably to represent the halo of his creator. In his chest was his ribcage and organs, wide open for all to see. Behind the large wolf was two pipes sticking out for unknown reasons. Looking back at his hands, on his wrists were some kind of gauntlet straps, most likely indicating that he's now the property of the Twisted Angel.
The giant wolf huffed as a response to the boys' terrified realization of their companion's fate, still holding on to the cart.
"What the hell did she do to you!?" Knuckles bellowed, already feeling his revenge burning with rage.
Then Boris adjusted his hands on the cart and began to push it back. The guys tried to bring him back to his senses with everyone overlapping their chatter, making it hard to understand what each one is saying. But it didn't matter for the brute simply threw the cart across the room, sending the Mobians flying through the air, screaming. They crashed into the wall, bringing the cart to a crumbled end.
Alice began to laugh as the boys got back on their feet only to see Boris heading towards them. Now that they got a good look at him, it was a horrible sight to see; his overalls showed that the stuffed muscles proved to be too big which caused the strap on the wolf's right shoulder to snap off. His shoes remained the same except for the right shoe having a belt wrapped around it. Meanwhile on the left leg, a bone stood out of its knee socket despite the leg having in a brace, making it hard for the brute to walk. Just glancing at the poor dog and his over-stuffed body sends shivers up the spines of the three heroes.
"Meet the new and improved Boris!" Declared Alice through her invisible speakers. "I took what I wanted, and in return, I gave him so much more! And this time, there's no Ink Demon, no escape. Boris, tear them apart! Leave nothing!"
The brute roared in response and charged after the Mobians. Even with his broken knee, Boris proved to be fast, but not as fast as his former friends. They all ducked as the wolf crashed into the wall. As the brute shook off his dizziness, Sonic took the opportunity to help the wolf come to his senses.
Seeing this, Knuckles shouted, "Sonic, what are you doing?! Get back!"
But the hedgehog continued on. Once Brute Boris turned to him, Sonic raised his hands to ease him.
"Boris, it's me, Sonic!" He yelled. "I'm here with Tails and Knuckles! We're here to rescue you!"
The stuffed wolf just glared at the ink-coated hedgehog. Tails was about to join him but was held back by Knuckles. Tails was about to object when Knuckles said, "Wait." Seeing his glare, Tails remained where he was while hoping that Boris will come through.
Sonic continued, "I don't know what Alice did to you, but we can work it out! We promised you to get you out of here! And I never break my promises! Please, Boris!"
When Sonic just got close enough for the wolf to stare down, he could see in his face like he was trying to remember. But it disappeared within a second when Brute Boris sucker punched Sonic in the stomach and sent him flying through the room and into the wall.
"Sonic!" Tails cried as he flew over to see if he was okay.
The brute made another roar and charged at his fallen opponent, only for Knuckles to give him a punch of his own on the face. As Boirs crashed to the floor, Knuckles yelled out in pain as he grabbed his hand.
"Sonic, you okay?" Tails asked as he helped the hedgehog up.
"Yeah," muttered Sonic, his body aching from the hit of the wolf and the impact on the wall. "I almost brought him back."
"I don't think we can," Tails admitted while holding back his tears. Sonic looked up and could see what he meant.
Knuckles and Boris were having a brawl while the echidna did his best not to use his fists. Like Sonic, he tried to bring Boris back but it resulted in him ducking from the swings of the brute.
"Boris!… snap… out of it!… This… isn't… you!… We can… take out… Alice together if you just-"
Boris struck him upside the jaw where he almost touched the ceiling. Both Sonic and Tails spin dashed at him into a the pile of feed bags.
"Boris, please!" Tails cried. "You have to fight back! You're stronger than this!"
The beast got himself up, roared and charged at the heroes. Tails took to the skies while Sonic jumped out of the way with Knuckles in his arms.
"You all right, Knux?" Sonic asked once he made his landing.
"I'm fine," Knuckles replied with a moan. As he looked up, he yelled, "Sonic!"
Sonic turned and saw it, too. Boris was now just standing while holding onto his chest. He did this because the ink inside him began to spit out.
"We have to Sonic," Knuckles told Sonic who's face expressed his denial of the plan. The hedgehog could tell that Knuckles didn't like the idea either. But he nodded, anyway.
Before Brute Boris could recover, Sonic spin dashed him into the chest. Boris groaned and tried to strike him. But Sonic got out the way just in time.
Seeing this from above, Tails curls himself into a ball and did the same thing. But Brute Boris saw him coming and punched him away.
"Hey, big guy! Over here!"
The beast turned to see Knuckles waving his arms to get his attention. He roared and charged after him. Knuckles managed to get out the way before he collided into the wall again.
"Tails!" Sonic called. The fox roes from the rumble, turned and gave him the thumbs up.
Sonic pointed to Boris, who was holding his chest again and told him to strike when he's recovering. Much like Sonic, Tails didn't like the idea but did a spin dash on his old friend nonetheless. Tails ducked just in time when Boris tried to knock him away.
Suddenly, a crate was thrown into the air and landed right on top of Boris. The brute got up and started to look around for the one responsible. It turned out to be Knuckles, who was using the remaining crates as his fists. Sure, his hands hurt from carrying the boxes, but with his friends at risk, Knuckles had to put his pain aside.
Taking the same idea but with a cart, Brute Boris threw straight toward the echidna. Luckily, he got out the way just in time. This left Sonic and Tails to make another spin dash to keep the brute away from Knuckles.
Like before, Boris tried to swat away his former friends but wasn't quick enough. However, he anticipated Knuckles' move and ducked from the falling crate. Taking another cart, he again hurled it toward the echidna, who got out the way too late.
"Knuckles!" Tails cried. All Knuckles could do was roar in pain of not only his hands but his lower body now pinned to the ground thanks to cart.
"Go help Knux!" Sonic told him. "I'll keep the big guy busy!"
Tails did as he was told as Sonic ran up to Boris and gave him a good shove against the wall. Brushing himself off, the brute roared and threw the remains of one of the crates. But Sonic's speed saved him.
Just as he ducked, he glanced over to see Tails managed to pull Knuckles up on his feet. He turned to Boris and saw that he was spilling out ink again. He looked back at his friends and they were thinking the same thing.
Sonic yelled, "Together!"
Within a second, the Mobians curled into balls and made their spin attack on the brute. It turned out to be the last because it sent the deformed wolf on a coughing spree before collapsing on the floor.
"No!" Screamed Alice. "No! No! No! Why can't you ever just die?!"
But the boys payed no heed to her as they all gathered around the defeated brute, their expressions filled with sorrow. Tails fell to his knees, broke down in tears, and found himself apologizing over and over to the wolf. Knuckles said nothing but his downcast face said it all as he stared down at the team's fallen comrade. Sonic, on the other hand, knelt beside the weeping fox and put his hand onto the wolf corpse.
"I'm sorry, Boris," he began while keeping his eyes from shedding their tears. "I'm sorry we didn't get you out. You would totally love that steakhouse. Rest In Peace, Buddy.
Suddenly, Boris' body began to turn into ink, swirling around the lifeless body. The boys took a step back, confused at what was happening before them. The ink moved throughout the corpse, including the added parts until finally, it faded into the air, taking Boris with it.
Before the guys could figure out what happened, they heard rubble being thrown about behind them. They turned to see that Alice, now in her cartoon form, has moved aside a busted crate to storm toward them since the rest of the pathway was cleared thanks to their battle with her brute.
As she ran toward them, screaming with her arms swinging in the air, Knuckles got in front of Sonic and Tails, who got to their feet and to their defense stance, and readied his fists, ignoring their aching pleas.
"That's right, bitch!" Yelled Knuckles, ready to give Alice a good punch to her new face. "Come to Pa-"
All of a sudden, a blade of a machete burst through her chest, who stopped dead in her tracks and gasped. She looked down to see the blade shaking while she struggled to breathe. She tried to grab the blade, but she couldn't control the shock that went through her inky veins that paralyzed her arms. Finally, she fell to the ground while closing her eyes for the last time.
"Pa?"
The guys, now confused as ever, stared down at the now fallen angel only to look up a second later to see who did it.
Near where the doors are at where they encountered Brute Boris, was another angel. Just like with the Twisted Angel before turning into an actual toon, this one had the resemblance of Alice but with a realistic look. She had her horns, but used her halo like a headband. Her black dress had a huge faded green smear that almost covered the entire gown. She also had a yellow-stained bowtie near her chest, where she had a rope around her shoulder. She wore a belt that contained a stealth with a knife inside on her left hip. She wore the same black leggings and shoes like her deformed twin. This angel looked more like an military angel.
She appeared to be the one who threw the machete due to the fact that she was in a throwing stance. She adjusted herself and stared at the boys with shock, either it was because she was surprised that she hit her target or of the strange figures that stood before her.
But before the Mobians could do anything else, someone struck them from behind using the leftovers of a crate in attempt to knock them out. Tails and Knuckles were the first to go, but Sonic ducked thanks to his reflexes.
He turned to see who it was, which turned out to be Boris, in his normal self only this one had a metal limb and a strap around his shoulder, too.
"What the…?"
Not even thinking twice, the Boris clone grabbed him and punched him with his metallic arm, sending Sonic back in to the world of darkness.
…
A couple hours have passed since the boys were taken by their 'kidnappers.' The body of the Twisted Angel remained in its place, with her hand over the stab wound. The military angel removed the machete before leaving with the other Boris.
It was during this time that the ink people that the Mobians encountered not too long ago entered the room and glanced down at what remained of Alice. All they could do was stare at the witch that has caused so many to suffer. One of them saw something in her closed hand near her chest. He was about to reach out to grab it when a familiar sound stopped him. He, along with the other ink folk, ran back to the entrance where they came from just when the ink veins appeared on the wall along with an ink portal.
The Ink Demon walked out of the portal and looked around. Now that's he's down to the five stones thanks to the Projectionist, Bendy could feel the presence of the sixth one close by. He turned to see the corpse of the twisted angel. The Ink Demon walked over for a closer look and stared at the toon angel's body. She finally got the beauty she wanted only to die shortly afterwards. Bendy couldn't help but chuckle at the thought.
Like the ink person, Bendy saw something in Alice's closed fist near her chest. He reached out his hand to move the gloved one to find the sixth stone. He found himself grinning. This would explain how Alice got to transform into an actual toon. It would make sense to keep something precious close by so no one would steal it. Oh, the irony!
Bendy glared at the stone, embracing its bright pale glow while looking at his reflection. Not much longer now!
The Ink Demon threw the stone up in the air and catch it before going back to his portal. However, he stopped in his tracks and glared around, swearing that he heard something. After a minute, he walked to his ink portal and vanished. Once ink veins disappeared, the ink girl rose from her hiding spot.
She let out a sigh of relief, thankful that she wasn't spotted. With all the trashed rubble around, it made a good hiding place. She was sure that Bendy sensed her, but it fortunate that he just shook it off.
Phase One is complete. Now it's time for Phase Two. The woman did her part, now the strangers have to do theirs. If all goes well.
1. This is an reference to a video of Shadow and Sonic playing Bendy and the Ink Machine Chapter 4 where they said that Alice's nothing but talk. You can check out the video here if you're interested. watch?v=KSCi-5O_ook&t=2050s