Wilson only stumbled slightly when the wave of ladybugs rushed over him. "It appears I may have miscalculated," he said to himself.
He was a few more room further in the studio when he came across Joey's attack dog. The creature had gotten a cloak from somewhere and was standing listlessly.
"Don't just stand there!" he snapped at the creation. "We must plan our next move!" He looked up at the ceiling. "You better have something planned, Drew."
He didn't even take two steps, when a large hand fell on his shoulder. "Oh, I'm sorry," a deep, dark voice crooned. "Joey isn't in control anymore. And I don't need your services."
The last thing he ever felt was a large hand closing around his head.
-MToLaCNBatIM-
The avatar threw Wilson's corpse into a nearby puddle. "Well, that was satisfying," he said. "Now I get why Joey always like one-liners."
He raised his arm, watching the ink slowly creep back up it. "However, dealing with those heroes won't be as easy. I can only do this trick a couple more times before that cat catches on."
He started pacing. "What I need is something to keep them busy," he mused. "Something to keep them off guard and overwhelmed. What I need is an army..."
He then spotted a large tank, like the one back on his true body. Curious, he pried the lid off and looked at the contents.
"Oh, yes," he said, reaching in and pulling out a handful of chromatic ink. "This shall do quite nicely."
The Ink Machine started to laugh maniacally as the studio around his avatar started shaking.
-MToLaCNBatIM-
Joey Drew was a lot of things. A dreamer, a fearless leader, a great visionary. But above all else, he had to have control. Control of his studio, control of the lives of his workers, control of the Cycle.
Which is why it irked him to no end that his desk was currently some unknown kind of tree, with paper-white bark, and inky-black leaves. It had suddenly grown from his desk when Wilson did the ritual on the girl.
Joey nearly growled. He should have known that Wilson would mess something up. And now, with his desk messed up beyond belief, he was unable to edit the Cycle! He wouldn't be able to make any emergency changes!
All that he could do was hope that the trap still worked. But it should still be hidden. And even if the Archivist had found it, there would be no way that she would be able to warn the others!
Right?
-MToLaCNBatIM-
The reel finished going through the projector, but Dot paid it no mind. She was too busy processing what she had learned.
She had figured out what the focus was.
She had to tell them before it was too late!
She leapt up from her seat, ignoring the creaking of her fragile glass body and ran to the Archive doors. However, she ran into a problem as soon as she opened them. The passage in front of the opening was gone, leading to a long drop.
On the other side of the crevasse was the Ink Demon. He waved at her mockingly before bounding away.
Dot looked down the long drop. She couldn't see the bottom, and thanks to her glass body, she would likely shatter if she tried to leap the distance. The Ink Demon had isolated her from the rest of the studio.
Fortunately, she had one more trick up her sleeve.
Dot closed the doors and walked into another part of the Archives. This one looked more like an observatory, one that was built underground. A large telescope-like object stood in the center of the room, cover in sigils and other symbols. A circle was drawn on the floor before a chair.
She stood on the circle and pulled the quill from her head out. She looked at the golden ink on the tip. "Enough for one more word," she said. "Good thing one more is all I need."
Her eyes lit up gold and her spirit stood in front of a message she had written a long time ago. Raisin her quill, she crossed out two of the words and wrote in the new one.
Ink spent, she fell bonelessly into the chair she had stood in front of, unable to move with her body emptied.
She had done all that she could. Now, she had to hope that they saw and understood her message.
-MToLaCNBatIM-
The man inside the mascot costume had been a lot of things. A liar, a mooch, a pathetic coward, a bitter old man. But above all else, he was a fool. A fool that drove away his friend. A fool whose empire collapsed. A fool who understood too little, too late.
But he had gained much more. He was now a father, an uncle, a man determined to fix his mistakes. As he watched his daughter and his old friend interact with the young children, he knew what he had to do next. It might kill him, but he would deserve it.
"We cannot rest now," he said, causing the surrounding conversations to stop. "We still have much work to do."
Almost all of the studio residents started. "Joey?" Henry asked.
Mascot Bendy took off his head, revealing a sepia-toned man with a sharp mustache. "Hello, Henry," said Joey Drew. "I imagine that you have a lot of questions. You always do."
…
…
The fourth Interlude is complete.
Ladybug will return.