(1) Ink Distortion (BATIM/EPICMICKEY)

31- Fountain Pens and Fauvism

Mickey and Henry stayed behind Allison and Tom, trying to make small talk, which began in failure.

"So, um. Henry, right?"

"Uh, yeah. Henry Stein." Henry smiled at the mention of his own full name, something Mickey deduced he hadn't heard in a while.

"Well, I'm Mickey Mou—Ooh, you already know who I am." Mickey stopped himself, physically waving away his previous intentions of an unnecessary introduction.

"Heh," Henry forced a chuckle, "Yeah, I do. What exactly brings the Mickey Mouse down here?"

"It's...a long story."

"Oh. Wait, so do you mean it's actually a long story? Or is it a story you don't wanna tell?"

'It's actually a little bit of both, but...' Mickey contemplated to himself, before answering.

"I'll...spare you the vivid details," the Mouse began, and Henry, along with Allison and Tom (though discretely) gave Mickey their undivided attention.

"There's these mines in...a certain world, where forgotten toons are sent to, and maybe around a month ago—maybe even less—these mines collapsed." Mickey paused, waiting for some kind of reaction, only to receive a feeble nod of attention from Henry.

"Nobody was hurt—er—fatally, but at the very bottom of the mines, there was this really old projector screen. Oswald...he...well, long story short, he was the only one who believed Bendy would come through the projector screen, and he did."

Henry's posture visibly changed at the mention of a projector screen. It changed from hunched over and listening, to straight, and tall. Maybe even alarmed. Mickey disregarded the movement, and continued with his story.

"—And well, we kept him for a little bit to ensure his recovery, researched his origins, and found Sillyvision, and Joey Drew Studios. After that we went to Disneyworld, and scrounged around Walt Disney's office, and found uh..." Mickey thought for a moment. Was it really a good idea to trust these people with confidential information?

"Found what?" Allison broke Mickey's train of thought, her voice startling the mouse. He immediately looked in the direction of Allison and Tom, to see their frankly dead looking eyes staring eagerly back at him.

Looking for a quick recovery, Mickey said rather forcefully, "Nothing! We found...er...nothing."

Now, Mickey Mouse was not liar, and he knew this, so when the angel and wolf nodded and turned a blind eye, he was very much surprised.

"So, what happened after that." Allison inquired, with her back towards the rest of the group, leading the way.

"Oh, umm...You guys know about Alice Angel, right?"

"Yeah, i'm guessing you didn't have a very pleasant experience with her." Henry finally answered when no one else would.

"Yeah," Mickey repeated, "She found her way into our world, and began...I don't know what she was doing. Using a syringe to inject herself with...paint. That's the only logical explanation, if there even is one."

"Did you say paint? So, not ink. Correct?" Allison began combing through her ponytail again, a sign that she was thinking.

"Paint, yes. Our toons from where we come from, aren't made of ink, which I thought I'd said—"

"You did," Allison interrupted, "But it explains a lot."

"What do you mean?" Henry and Mickey both said in unison, casting each other (almost) smiles.