|°°|BATQFTIM|°°|

°°Chapter 17: Running Around°°

Mickey was startled to say the least, there on the floor was a man chained up to the wall by his ankle.
"Sir, what happened to you, who did this-?!", the man than shielded himself from Mickey as he got closer,"N-No, please don't!. . . Don't hurt me please, I've done all I could for Joey. . .!", Mickey shook his head,"No, no. We're not going to hurr you, or tell you to do anything you don't want to do. . . Why are you chained up to the. . .?", the man was shaking, he looked like he hadn't seen the sun in days, he was white as a ghost, splattered with ink and looked like he hadn't slept in days,"Joey. . .  He. . . He hurt them. . . He killed my friends for his stupid machine and has been forcing me to create. . . For his machine. . .", Mickey looked around, realising the drawings looked like some of the monsters that they had seen; Inklings, that Sean guy and what looked to other monsters they hadn't encountered yet,"What about the pieces of the machine??", "Those were the items that belonged to my friends. . . They told to give their prized possession for Joey's God and. . . Well, they used to create the ink machine, but. . . He then had to have me, to create. . .", Mickey was shocked, so that means. . . Joey wasn't creating the monsters, the Ink Machine seemed to work for this man in front of him.
"Uncle Mickey, we should help him! Maybe he can fix the machine!"
He shuddered,"The pieces. . . You found them. . . Now; Joey is going unleash The Ink Illness and monsters. . .", Mickey froze, the man shifted uncomfortable and tried to wipe his glasses,"The Ink illness. . . It was Joey's failed attempt of creating something, several hundred or even millions people died. . . That was then, he needed me. . .", "He's a mean man.", the man nods at the child's words, Mickey knelt down to the man,"What is Joey planning to do with the others?", "Make them apart of his army. . .", Mickey froze, then they all heard screaming from deep within the building with some kind of roar nearly louder than the screaming.
"Okay; Sir, I'm getting you out of here, but you have to help us reverse the Ink Illness and stop Joey."
"O-. . Okay. . ."

=

"What the heck was that. . .?!?!?"
Felix and Oswald finally managed to catch their breath, from running for what felt like forever from whatever that was. . .!
"Looked. . . *pant* to be some kind of cat. . . That could drenched in ink. . .!", Felix stood up, coughing to clear his throat and helped Oswald stand up properly,"Where did it go though?", "Must have just scared us to separate us from the others. . .", Oswald nods, they walked down the hall and found themselves at a staircase,"What the. . .?", "How deep does this place go??", they looked down and it seemed to go down pretty far, guess the ground floor was to trick people and Joey Drew was definitely what Felix expected.
Then they heard gears turning and chains shaking,"What is that?", "Felix look!", they watched as the chains pulled out this huge looking machine.
"Is that. . .?"
"The Ink Machine. . .?"
They watched it being raised to the surface,"Okay, looks like we have to go up the stairs to find them.", Oswald sighed as him and Felix began to climb the stairs
"Play. . . Play. . ."
You had to be-
They turned to see the Demon cat back, Felix immediately pulled out his weapon,"Oswald go find the others, I'll hold it off.", "But-", "I'll be fine! Just go, now!",Oswald had no choice but ran on without Felix to find the others.
Felix glared at the cat ink creature that slowly approached him, he looked hungry and pissed at the same time, Felix held up the sword.
"Felix. . ."
Huh?
"You know me. Guess your boss or creation, were prepared-"
"It's me. . . Felix. . . Do you not remember me?"
Felix frowned, confused at the monster's words, he had never seen this creation before had he?
The monster than began to shift, the Ink around it began to bubble and making Felix step back in worry.
The creature was now slightly smaller, but still taller than Felix and it's shape was. . . Still a cat?
Then it got a new form.
It was. . . Some different looking cat, they had scars all over and patches of ink.
"Remember me now, Felix. . . Or did I scare you so bad that you forgot me?. . . The brian does wonders when a child is scared and confused."
Felix frowned, but the longer he looked at him the more he realised he had seen this cat before-no, he's met this cat before.
. . .
"Julius. . .?"
The cat smiled,"Yes, Felix. How could you forget your own twin brother?", Felix was stunned, shaking his head,"But. . . I thought you had died-", "Of course you did, too bad we were always separated because I was sick, otherwise you would have remembered me when I followed your team in the woods.", Felix shuddered, he knew someone was following them and it wasn't just his paranoia!. . .
"But. . . Then. . . Why or how. . .?"
"You wouldn't remember, not after I chased you out of the house that day, but thanks to my overgrowth of my body and the ink illness, it gave me the power that I couldn't resist.", chased out of the house?
. . .
Felix realised, feeling his heart stop for a moment as that sentence struck him.
The dreams. . .
The dreams of seeing his father telling him to run before he was pulled into a room screaming bloody murder, he then remembered running of the house and into the woods, something was chasing him before he made it out of the woods and ran right in Sheba.
. . .
Those weren't dreams. . . They were memories.

=

Oswald slammed open the double doors, he was on the second story but saw the others chained near the machine, no sign of his child or Mickey but he saw Joey,"YOU!", the man looked up like a mad man,"WELCOME TO THE SHOW, THINGS ARE JUST ABOUT TO BEGIN!!!!", the machine was running and ink creatures were keeping, Boris, Bendy, Cup and Mugs from getting back up and fight back,"YOU WON'T GET AWAY WITH THIS, YOU EVIL MAN!!", "Oh this is just the beginning, soon the Ink Illness will spread and my army will grow!!", Oswald felt his blood boil, this told him everything he needed to know about the Ink Illness.