"Kid! Wake up!"
Adrian Agreste groaned and sat up. He was in a wooden hallway, one that had somewhat familiar posters hanging on the walls. Dark spots were in various corners. "Plagg?" he asked, blinking, hoping the blurriness would clear up soon. "Where are we?"
The black cat-like creature huffed and rolled it eyes. "I don't know," the kwami said. "You and your girlfriend were looking through that book your great-uncle left you and both of you got sucked into it, taking me along for the ride."
"Marinette's not my girlfriend-wait, she's here!?"
Plagg rolled his eyes. "Relax, kid," he said. "She's still knocked out. Do you think I would be out if she was?"
Adrien shot him a flat look. "Do you need me to answer that?" he asked.
Before Plagg could answer, Marinette let out a moan, making the kwami hide in his jacket. Adrien turned to face his friend.
"Five more minutes, Mamam…," she said, rolling onto her side.
"Marinette," Adrien said, shaking her. "Wake up!"
"Adrien?" she asked, blinking her eyes sleepily. "What are you doing in my room?" She blinked once again, then seemed to wake up fully. "This isn't my room!"
"Are you okay?" Adrien asked, not knowing what else to say.
"I'm not okay!" Marinette cried, flailing her arms around. "I just woke up in a room I have never been in before, with no memory of how I had gotten in here, and I'm trapped in here with my cru-classmate! Yes classmate is what I was going to say, not anything else."
Adrien had taken out his phone and was shining the light on the floor. "I think that an akuma must have done something," he said, noticing that the floorboards appeared to be drawn on.
A rattle from behind him indicated that someone had tried the door. "Door's locked," Marinette said, sounding much more confident than she had been a few seconds ago. "So, you're probably right."
"That's not good," Adrien replied as he swung his light over to the walls. The posters on them were really familiar… "And I'm not getting a signal in here."
"So until Chat Noir destroys the door, we're stuck in here."
Adrien coughed. "Well, him or Ladybug," he added. Because Chat's a bit stuck right now…
Marinette giggled. "Yeah. Right. Or Ladybug. Can't believe I forgot about her."
Okay… Brushing that aside for later, Adrien swung his light down the hallway, revealing a room with a light coming from it. "I'm going to go exploring to see if I can find anything to help us. Do you want to wait here incase help comes?"
"Oh no, I better go with you. We shouldn't split up in an unknown place," Marinette said quickly. "Especially in a building made by an akuma."
Adrien smiled, channeling a bit of Chat. "Well then, let's go exploring, Princess."
Marinette stopped and Adrien froze. Oh no, he had messed up, his secret identity was blown…
But Marinette smiled and gestured in front of her. "Lead on, fair Prince," she said.
Phew. His cover was safe. Although, he decided to keep Chat-like behaviors on a closer leash. "As the Lady wishes," he said and stepped into the room at the end of the hallway. "It appears that we are in…"
His light fell upon a sign on the wall adorned with three large film reels.
"Joey Drew Studios."
-MToLaCNBatIM-
Adrien frowned as he tried another doorknob, only to find it locked. He and Marinette had decided to search the lobby area first, to see if they could find anything.
Beside locked doors, all they found were posters and an old cutout that Adrien finally recognized as Bendy, a cartoon character that he finally recognized. Adrien was about to go down a new hallway, when he heard Marinette call from the other side of the room.
"Hey, look over here!" she said, standing over by a slanted desk. She was pointing at a picture of Bendy, with a small mouth instead of his trademark grin. "It's so cute!"
Adrien smiled. She looks so cute, he thought. No, bad Adrien, she's just a friend, you're in love with Ladybug.
While Adrien was struggling with denial, Marinette had picked up the piece of paper. "Do you think I can keep this?" she asked, peeling of the note with the word 'NO' off it.
Adrien shrugged. "I don't see why not. It will probably go away when the akuma is cleansed."
"I'm keeping it until then," Marinette declared before sliding the paper into her bag.
Nothing of note was found in that hallway, so the two of them went down the hallway that Adrien had started down earlier. One of the doors opened, allowing them to enter a room filled with a bunch of tables and chairs.
"So, what kind of akuma do you think this one is?" Adrien asked, picking up three darts from a table.
"It looks like some kind of game akuma," Marinette replied, flipping through a book. "I mean all of these pages are blank. And I did hear Max say that he was going to try out a game with a hand-drawn art style."
Adrien thought for a moment. "The one Lila said that she inspired?"
"Yup, that's the one."
Exiting the room, they continued down the hall until they reached a sign hung from the wall.
"Ink Machine?" Marinette asked.
"I don't know what that is," Adrien admitted.
Going through the portal and stepping over a pipe, they entered onto a balcony looking out into a large chamber with chains reaching down from the ceiling into a large black hole.
"What's this supposed to be?" Adrien asked, leaning against a post. However, unlike the doors, the lever mounted on the post was not fixed in place and went down.
Nothing happened.
"What the…?" Adrien tried moving the lever up and down a few times.
"It looks like it is missing something," Marinette said, looking around. pointing at two empty slots, she added, "I think it needs batteries or something."
"Like that one?" Adrien asked, noticing a box resting on a nearby shelf with a miniature lightning bolt on the side.
"Yes! Like that-WAH!" In her haste to get the battery, Marinette had somehow tripped over air and had fallen over the trunk next to the door, causing it to open.
"Marinette!" cried Adrien. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine…" came her voice. "This happens all the time…"
"If you're sure…" Adrien then noticed the contents of the chest. "Mari, you found the other one!"
"Yay. Lucky me."
Inserting the two batteries, the two of them place a hand on the lever and pushed down.
"Alright," Marinette said. "Let's see what this place is hiding." She then showed a look of confusion.
Adrien didn't pay attention, as most of his focus was taken up by the large machine that was being raised up from the chasm by the heavy chains. It was a large and boxy device, with an oversized nozzle jutting out and gears visible on the sides. A long pipe extended down into the darkness, speaking of hidden depths.
And despite it sharing the same cartoony design of the rest of the building, it exuded an aura of despair and malice. Adrien inwardly shuddered but tried to put on a brave face for Marinette.
Who didn't seem to be doing too good herself. "This is one of the creepier akumas," she finally said.
"Yeah," Adrien agreed. "I wonder how you turn it on?"
She looked at him wide-eyed. "Do you want to turn it on?" she nearly shrieked.
"No," he answered. Looking back at the machine, he added, "But if we want to continue the game… I don't think we have a choice."
Marinette shivered. "Yeah, I guess you're right."
Leaving the room, they saw that a metal door that had been closed had opened, creating a new path. Despite a board nearly hitting Adrien, the journey down the right hall passed without incident. The room at the end of the hall held six pedestals and a lever that had 'Ink Machine' written above it.
"Why would someone put the lever here?" Marinette asked as she tried to pull the lever down.
It refused to budge.
"Okay, why isn't this working?"
"Maybe we missed something?" Adrien suggested.
"I guess you're right. Maybe there's something down the other hall."
After Marinette left the room, Plagg floated out and shook his head. "I don't like this, kid," he said. "This doesn't feel right."
"I know," Adrien said. "But what other choice do we have? Until Ladybug appears, it's probably best to play along."
Plagg was about to reply when he closed his mouth. "Did you feel that?" he asked.
"Feel what?" Adrien started to say when a scream echoed from down the other corridor.
"That sounded like Marinette!" Adrien cried, and he ran down the hallway, running into a cutout that had appeared in the middle of the floor.
"Who put this here?" he asked as he picked himself up and kept running.
He found Marinette in the next room, staring at a leaning table inside, hands held up to her mouth.
"Marinette," Adrien began. "What's wrong-"
He then looked inside the room. And nearly threw up.
In the middle of the room, there was a leaning table, large enough to hold a body. Four candles had been lit at the corners, casting an eerie glow over the entire room.
On the table was the black cartoon wolf from the posters, dressed in paper-white overalls. He was strapped onto the table, with his head lolling to the left. Black X's replaced the eyes, and one strap was off the body.
His chest was torn open, with a surgically clean removal. The wrench inside was framed by blocky ribs, with black liquid on the tips.
Marinette let out a sob and grabbed Adrien.
"Boris," Adrien breathed as Marinette held on tightly to him. "What has happened here?"