Ladybug stood wary, eyes darting to every darkened corner. "Do you see anything?" she asked.
"No," Chat replied, still tense. "But that doesn't mean anything."
Ladybug had to agree with him. Especially with the abilities one of the inhabitants had shown. "Just keep an eye out," she said.
The two of them came to the inky hallway Ladybug had turned around at and crossed without incident. However, they came to an obstruction.
"So how do we open this one, Bugaboo?" Chat asked regarding the closed door in front of them.
"I think we need to redirect power to this switch," Ladybug finally answered, playing with it. "It looks like there's three of them."
After a bit of backtracking, they had found two of the switches. The third one proved to be harder to find.
"Maybe it's behind this thing?" Chat asked, trying to move a cutout so he could look behind it, only for the head to break off. "Oops."
"Careful, kitty," Ladybug said, picking up a can off the shelf beside the decapacitated cutout. "It seems a lot of stuff in here is pretty old."
"Right," Chat replied, dropping the head. "Do you think that soup's still edible?"
Ladybug grimaced. "If you're desperate, maybe," she answered. "Really, really desperate."
"Right, save it for Plagg," Chat said, ignoring the shrill beep that sounded from his ring without the loss of a pad. "Hey, I think the switch's behind these cans!"
Knocking the cans to the ground did reveal the third switch, which let out a satisfying click. Ladybug turned to Chat but her gaze caught something else.
"Didn't you break that cutout, Chat?" she asked.
"I thought so…" The two heroes looked at each other. "Let's just keep moving."
"Yeah, let's."
The door opened without any incident, revealing a boarded-up entrance. Breaking them up, the two heroes entered the room beyond.
The room behind the boards was dark, with only a few faint lights and candles trying to keep the room lit. A sign had been painted on the wall that was unreadable in the dark.
"We appear to be in the Music Department, M'Lady," Chat offered. Oh right, he had night vision.
"Do you see anything interesting?" she asked.
"There's another tape player, a gramophone… oh, and stairs!"
"Stairs?" she asked, following Chat as he went around a corner.
"Yes, they're right here!" Chat said, looking down a hallway. "And it's flooded by ink, what are the odds?"
"Maybe this will do something," Ladybug pulling at a switch.
The ink didn't disappear, but the lights came on.
"Well, at least you can see," Chat offered.
"Yeah, there's that," Ladybug answered, stepping back out before stopping. "I don't remember that much ink on the floor…"
Suddenly, a thing shot out of the ink, half a person, inky black and featureless. Immediately, it reached for Ladybug, only to be struck down by Chat's baton.
"What was that?" she nearly shrieked, as the body dissolved into ink.
"Don't know, but we've got more of them!" Chat answered back.
More of the inky torsos appeared, crawling towards the two teens as soon as their hands hit the floor. While they outnumbered the heroes, they went down in one hit, and the pair were able to take them down fairly quickly.
Ladybug stood panting as the last one dissolved into the ink. "What were those things?" she asked.
"I don't know," Chat said, shaking ink off his baton. "But I think I have an idea."
"What is it?"
"It's just… you know how Plagg was going on about blood magic…"
"Yes… oh!" Ladybug felt herself going green. "Let's… revisit that topic later," she hastily said, desperately trying not to think where the fluid to power the ritual would come from. "Much, much later."
"Right." Chat walked over to the tape player and picked it up. "Let's see what Sammy Lawrence has to say," he said turning it on.
The machine let out a crackle and words came out. "So first, Joey installs this ink machine over our heads. Then it begins to leak. Three times last month, we couldn't even get out of our department because the ink had flooded the stairwell.
"Joey's solution? An ink pump to drain it periodically. Now I have this ugly pump switch in my office. People in and out all day.
"Thanks, Joey. Just what I needed. More distractions. These stupid cartoon songs don't write themselves, you know."
The two heroes looked at each other. "Doesn't this guy sound like the amen guy?" Chat asked.
"Yes, he did," Ladybug answered. "only, he seems a bit more… sane?"
"Yeah," Chat said. "Well at least we know where to go now."
Fortunately, they found the office easily. Unfortunately, there was an obstruction in front of the door in the form of a large flowing ink spill.
"Okay, there's no way we're getting past that," Ladybug said, looking upon the spewing ink.
"Yeah, that's one heck of a leak," Chat answered.
"Unfortunately, there's the switch on the other side of this door."
Taking out his baton, Chat tapped the glass. "Think we can break this?" he asked. "I don't think this will hold up to my Cata-"
"Not now, kitty," Ladybug said, cutting him off. "We might need your power later. Maybe there's some way to stop it?"
"Well then, this looks promising," Chat said, going to a nearby door and trying it. "Looked," he announced. "But the knob jiggles, so, maybe it can open?"
That was when Ladybug noticed the tape player that had been partially hidden by the spewing ink. "Maybe there's something on this," she said, turning it on.
There was a crackle and Wally's voice came out of it. "So, I go to get my dust pan from the hall closet the other day and guess what? I can't find my stupid keys. It's like they disappeared into thin air or something.
"All I can think of is that they must have fallen into one of the garbage cans as I was making my rounds last week.
"I just hope nobody tells Sammy. Because if he finds out I lost my keys again, I'm outta here!"
"Are you kidding me!?" Ladybug cried. "Are we seriously supposed to backtrack and check every trash can we find until we maybe find a lost-"
"Hey, Ladybug," Chat interrupted, looking at the lock. "Do you have a hairpin?"
Ladybug stopped her rant. "I do, why?" she asked, pulling it out of her yo-yo.
Chat didn't answer, taking the hairpin and sticking it into the lock. A bit of scraping later, there was a click and the door opened.
"Open sesame," he said, giving the hairpin back with a bow.
"How did you learn to do that?" she asked, impressed.
"YouTube tutorials."
Inside the closet was not much, only cans of bacon soup, some unlit candles, and a tape recorded by one Sammy Lawrence. Chat was the one to pull out the player and turn it on.
"Every artistic person has a sanctuary. Joey Drew has his and I have mine. To enter, you need only know my favorite song.
"The bass fiddle sings with deep articulation.
"The drum thunders in triumph.
"The violin shudders with a piercing voice.
"The piano delicately calls.
"Sing my song, and my sanctuary will open to you."
The two heroes looked at each other. "Despite my misgivings," Ladybug said, "it seems like we have to enter Sammy's sanctuary."
"I think I saw a music room back there," Chat said. "Do you think that the sanctuary would be back there?"
"Good idea, Chat!" Ladybug said, beaming. "We'll be out of here in no time!"