Missy's eyes were beginning to water from the wind whipping at her face as she plunged deeper and deeper into the tunnel. She could SEE him inching closer and closer, but part of her knew that this tunnel could only go so far down. Penn seemed to know, as well, glancing over his shoulder to check how much farther he had to fall.

"WHAT? NO WAY!" Missy shook her head and reached her hand a little farther. Her fingertips were practically brushing against his. "I'M ALMOST THERE!"

"I'LL BE FINE!" He glanced over his shoulder again, but Missy couldn't see anything but more darkness behind him. "JUST DO IT!"

Missy shook her head, even as it felt like her arm was about to pull itself out of its socket.

She was so close. She could reach him, she knew it, but... she could never hold him. He was too heavy to stop.

Missy shuddered, closed her eyes... and spread her wings, catching herself and beginning to slow her descent. Below her, Penn plunged into the dark.

Missy's eyes instantly snapped open again at the sound of something below her performing what sounded like a massive cannonball. As her descent continued at a much more manageable pace, she found herself emerging into a massive cavern. It was a huge lake of black ink, with an island in the center playing host to an even LARGER version of the ink machine. A square hole in the ceiling showed where the smaller machine was lowered to slot into the larger one, but it looked as if they'd drifted enough to the side during their plunge to avoid falling into the inner workings. With a sigh of relief, she began to glide towards the far shore.

Her answer came in the form of a splashing sound near the centerpoint between the giant ink machine and the shore. It was hard to spot a figure covered in black ink in the middle of a MOAT of the stuff, but she followed her ear until she was able to pick him out.

"Sure looks like it..." Penn muttered weakly, pushing himself up until he was standing with the ink reaching his waist. "It's more shallow than it looks... thank heavens for the 'soft water' trope."

"Good old cartoon logic!" Missy sighed with relief. "Wait... I thought cartoon logic didn't work on you? No fast healing for the status quo or anything like that, remember?"

"Guess this place is the exception that proves the rule," Penn muttered, beginning to slosh his way towards the shore. "That, or I'm still living on Minecraft rules..."

"Well, whatever the reason, I'm glad it worked!" Missy moved in to hug him, only to catch herself at the last second before she joined him in being an ink-soaked mess again.

Both of them froze, however, as a loud splashing sound came up behind them. The two of them slowly began to turn around.

It was a hand. A GIANT CARTOON HAND, white glove and all. It was bloated and swollen in places, with pustules and veins visible beneath the cloth and an inky black arm leading back down into the lake. It was at least a story and a half tall, maybe two including the portion hidden under the ink.

The hand seemed to disagree, reeling back and slamming down on where they were standing, forcing them to dive to either side.

"GET TO SHORE!" Penn screamed, diving headfirst into the ink and beginning to desperately swim away.

"YOU DON'T HAVE TO TELL ME TWICE!" Missy replied, her fear allowing her to close the distance in a matter of seconds. She slid to a stop on the wooden floor at the other side. She jumped up and down as she watched the wildly splashing figure of Penn trying to catch up. "COME ON, COME ON!"

Her heart leaped up into her throat when the hand crashed down again, this time firmly on top of him. When it emerged, its massive fingers were wrapped around him. He struggled back and forth, looking as though he were about to be crushed. Instinctively, Missy reached for her hat to grab her cards.

"Alucard, we need your help!" she cried, throwing the card in question out to summon her second-in-command. Just as he always had, Alucard appeared beside her, but Missy felt a chill of dread run down her spine when he didn't leap into action. She turned to look up to him. "A-Alucard?"

The face that was staring back at her wasn't Alucard. It looked like someone had erased Alucard's face and painted on the ink demon's, haunting smile and all.

"AIEEEEEEEEE!" Missy shrieked, stumbling backwards as the abomination began to advance on her, reaching for her with a white-gloved hand.

From behind her, a heavy-looking axe buried itself in Alucard's head, splitting him down the middle. The two halves bubbled and boiled, melting into ink and evaporating away before they hit the floor.

Missy spun around, but her savior was only marginally less frightening: He was another copy of Boris the Wolf, just like she had seen dissected upstairs. His expression was one of grim determination, with an extra belt strapped across his chest and a mechanical arm having replaced his right hand. The two of them stared at one another for a moment before he nodded over his shoulder, motioning for her to get behind him.

"B-But what about-" Before she could finish asking about Penn's safety, she realized why he had told her to get out of the way: amorphous blobs of ink were beginning to rise out of the lake and onto the wooden dock. They stretched and bulged into the shape of vaguely humanoid torsos, their arms reaching out and swiping in her direction as they began to advance.

With her faith in her magic shaken, Missy quickly decided to forego trying any more summons and did as she'd been told, flying up and behind Boris, only peeking over his shoulder as he began to hack and slash his way through the new monsters.

"Keep the searchers off of us, Tom!" A woman's voice called as she raced by. With one hand, she flung an object up towards the ceiling, pulling a rope along with it to catch on an ink pipe. Her momentum carried her up into the air and over the lake as her other hand drew a sword from her waist. As she flew past the giant hand, she plunged the blade into its back. She had already pulled it back out again and was swinging back towards them when the pain seemed to register and a plume of ink began to spurt from the puncture. The hand released its grip on Penn, letting him plunge back into the ink as it writhed in the air. The woman landed safely back on the dock, taking the head off of one of the blob monsters as she slid to a stop. The three of them watched as the bleeding from the hand petered out to a slow flow and it appeared to recover its faculties. It began to turn from side to side, as if searching for its lost prey.

"Be ready to fall back..." The stranger whispered, and the copy of Boris only nodded in response.

The hand stopped, turning towards them as if it had heard them. It lunged forward, and the smaller creatures all hurried out of the way. The three of them stepped back, trying to make sure they were beyond its reach.

That was when Penn emerged from the surface of the ink, now only a few short steps away from the dock. He raised one of his arms, which had what looked like a large glob of ink stuck to it. After a moment, the ink seemed to harden, taking shape into one of his expanding shields from Remnant.

The hand recoiled again as the sound of gunfire ricocheted off of the walls. More ink began to spray from its palm, and it writhed and shook itself. Finally, it retreated back into the murky depths. Penn breathed a sigh of relief, seeming to finally relax as he climbed up onto the dock. The smaller creatures appeared to become frightened at the large monster's disappearance and all skittered away into the dark corners of the room.

He tried to wipe away some of the remaining thick globules still stuck to him and cleaned his face as best he could before he finally seemed to register the presence of their saviors.

"PENN!" Missy threw aside all thoughts of keeping herself clean, rushing up and gripping him as tight as she could in a hug. "You're okay!"

"Thanks to our friends, here..." He held out an ink-stained hand to the two strangers. "Thanks. We probably would have been done for if you hadn't shown up when you did."

"You're welcome, but let's not get ahead of ourselves with friendship." The woman muttered, holding her sword at the ready. Now that Missy could get a better look at her, she could see that she looked like another of the characters she'd seen on one of the posters: Alice Angel. She was dressed in a short black dress, heavy-looking boots, and her arms and legs were both stained with ink that gave her the look of shoulder-length gloves and a pair of leggings. She sported a pair of small horns and a halo-like hairband that kept her locks pulled back into a tight ponytail. The most remarkable thing, however, was the fact that her face looked... human.

The Boris copy took a moment to clap the head of his axe against his metal hand, emphasizing their suspicions. Penn raised his re-created shield slightly, but his expression didn't change from the tired-but-grateful look.

"Well, either way, we owe you." He continued to smile and retracted his attempt at a handshake. "I'm Penn, and this is Missy."

The woman motioned to her friend, then herself. "This is Tom, and everyone calls me Alice." She glanced suspiciously at his recreation of his weapon. "How are you... doing that?"

Penn glanced down at the weapon, looking equally surprised. "Honestly? I don't know... I just was thinking how much I wished that I had my old weapon, and then there it was..."

"Is that one Immovable or Implacable?" Missy scratched at her head. "I could never tell them apart."

"You don't understand!" Alice cut them off. "The ink doesn't just make whatever you want! It has to either be molded by a machine or..." she lifted her sword, pointing it to Penn's throat. "Or used by the Ink Demon."

Penn raised his hands in a show of surrender as "Tom" raised his axe to the ready. "Woah, WOAH! Okay, let's just talk, okay? Because I just fell who-knows-how-many stories into a VERY shallow pool, then wrestled with a giant Master Hand like I was Steve Irwin in Super Smash Brothers, and I could REALLY use three seconds of NOT-CRAZY!"

Everything fell silent, the two strangers glancing at each other to confer. After a few seconds, Alice lowered her sword, though Tom kept his axe ready to swing.

"Well, you didn't disperse in the ink river, which means you're not one of the machine's progeny..." she muttered. "But that's not enough for us to trust you."

The two leaned in close to each other, Tom whispering something inaudible to Alice. She nodded and whispered in return at a slightly higher volume. "If they WERE sent by the ink demon, then it's certainly gotten more crafty VERY fast. It's feral, remember?"

"We-We're looking for our friend, we don't want any trouble..." Missy stammered. "We got separated by the ink demon upstairs, and now none of us know where we are!"

"Just one. A girl, Sunset Shimmer. She's..." he glanced at their surroundings. "Well, considering how far we fell, probably somewhere upstairs..."

Without warning, Tom lunged forward, swinging his axe. Penn raised his shield to protect them, but the axe missed them completely, coming down on top of a bold blob monster that had wandered back up behind them.

"No matter what we do, it's not safe to stay and talk here." Alice shook her head and turned towards the exit, motioning for them to follow. "Between the searchers, the demon, and the Whiteout, the safest thing is to keep moving."

Tom pulled his axe up out of the wood with a jerk of his non-metal arm. With his animatronic hand, he pointed to the two of them, then at his own eyes. The meaning was clear: I'm keeping my eyes on you.

As they followed, Missy settled back onto Penn's shoulders, now riding on just one side and leaning down to whisper in his ear directly. "So.. where ARE we? Who are THEY?"

"It's a long story..." Penn muttered, keeping his voice low enough for only her to hear. "But Joey Drew wanted the rest of the world to see his characters the same way he did. He wanted them to be REAL... That's why he built the ink machine. When the first attempt didn't work and created a soulless monster-"

"That's right. He moved on to... acquiring souls from where he could get them." He shuddered. "They're all that's left of two of his employees: Allison Pendle and Thomas Conner."

Missy gasped and covered her mouth. "That's awful!" Her exclamation was enough to get their hosts' attention. Penn shook his head.

"Don't be so dramatic. I've been told the bacon soup is pretty tasty, actually!" He reached up and patted her on the head. "You're the one who was talking about how hungry she was! You don't HAVE to eat it, but there's not much else down here."

Missy blinked, not understanding at first until his cover-up had sunk in. Wow, that lie was quick! Following his lead, she harumphed and folded her arms over her chest. "Fine, but I want something SWEET once we get out of here!"

The act seemed to be enough to persuade Alice, but Tom's gaze lingered on them longer. He clearly didn't believe them. Penn simply shrugged and shot him a silent look of What?.

With nothing to base an accusation on, he slowly turned back around and rejoined Alice in leading them through the maze-like underbelly of the studio. As they continued on in silence, Missy took advantage of the lull to reach out to Sunset.

"Well, I've got good news and bad news. Bad news is, we fell down a shaft all the way to the bottom of the studio, and there's a WAY bigger ink machine down here!

"Well, we ran into some natives who seem friendly enough, and Penn... she considered whether or not she could explain his sudden arming. ...managed to get us some firepower, so we can protect ourselves. We should start moving up soon, but it was a long way down."

"Well, I'm just glad you're safe. I found an elevator that seems like it can take me pretty far down, I'll try to meet you halfway."

Her focus was broken when Penn jolted to a sudden stop, nearly knocking her from her perch. Tom had held out a hand in front of Alice, forcing all of them to stop. She looked at him with a measure of concern.

Tom nodded, quickly glancing from side to side. He stepped up to a nearby janitor's closet, using his mechanical arm to yank it open in spite of the lock.

"Quick, everyone inside!" Alice motioned for them to follow her as she rushed inside. Penn and Missy didn't ask any questions, simply obeying and cramming themselves in as best they could. With that done, Tom walked inside, pulling the door shut behind them and closing it.

Missy waited for several seconds in perfect darkness before she couldn't contain her curiosity any more. "What is i-mmph!" She was cut off as Alice's hand pressed over her mouth. A gentle push turned her head downwards towards the bottom of the door.

She felt the change before she saw it. It was an electricity in the air, one that made the hairs on the back of her neck rise and her teeth tingle. Her eyes widened as the crack at the bottom of the door began to glow. White light, REAL white, not the beige that served as "white" in this world, began to glow through the crack, growing brighter and brighter by the second.

As the light poured in, Tom moved to the side, clearly trying to avoid it. Penn only barely managed to follow his example before the light managed to reach his feet, and Alice did the same. They could all hear a crackling hiss. As more of the white light entered the room, Missy began to see black specks beginning to appear in it. Eventually, it became a mass of what looked like TV static cast across the floor. The tingling sensation grew stronger by the second, crawling across her skin like pins and needles. The hiss began to resolve into a single pure tone, ringing at a deafening volume that didn't seem to care whether or not she clapped her hands over her ears.

Just when she was ready to scream, the static began to recede, as did the stinging on her skin. It felt excruciatingly slow, but eventually they were once again standing in darkness. They all waited again until they couldn't hear or see any sign of it, and Tom leaned forward and cracked open the door to peek through. After a moment, he nodded and stepped out, motioning that the coast was clear. As they entered the hallway again, Missy could see a new addition: a streak of white on the walls and floor where the sepia had been completely bleached away. The outlines of the boards were all smeared and blurry, as if a halfhearted attempt had been made to erase them.

"What WAS that?" Missy hissed, still not daring to raise her voice above a whisper.

"We've been calling it the Whiteout..." Alice shook her head. "We don't know what it is or where it came from. It just appeared a few hours ago, but it's been eating away at our world." She reached up and brushed her fingertips against the blanched area. "It could be some kind of antithesis to the ink demon, or something worse, we don't know. All we know is that everything it touches winds up... white. Blank. Gone."

Just a few hours ago? But that was right around when... She glanced over at Penn. His face looked inscrutable, but she'd seen his "bluffing" face in enough duels to know that he was feigning his ignorance, he was just as frightened as she was and had certainly come to the same conclusion.

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Sunset kept a tight grip on her saber as she stepped back into the elevator. Talking to the twisted angel had left her with a lot to think about.

She glanced over the controls, trying to make sense of the many buttons and their contradictory labels before settling on the lowest one on the panel. The elevator shuddered and shook before beginning to descend. It was nice that, even without their phones, she and Missy could keep in touch, but it wasn't enough. They needed to regroup.

As the elevator continued downward, a massive shudder traveled through the building, causing her to lurch to the side and grab at the wall, eyes wide and fearful. The elevator stopped for a moment with a screech, and everything seemed to go silent.

A sound like the cracking of wood split through the air, forcing her to clap both of her hands over her ears. She didn't dare to take them away until the elevator was moving again. Her eyes widened as she watched the far wall passing by.

There was a crack. It was huge, starting as a fissure in the wall, then splitting out into a branching web of glowing white lines. Slowly, she approached the wall, trying to see into the white light... but there was nothing on the other side. Drawing too close made her skin tingle, and she soon decided to keep her distance from the strange phenomenon.

It's not just a crack in the wall, it's... something else. A crack in REALITY... She felt a chill run down her spine as the understanding of what was happening set in. I thought- after Remnant, I thought this sort of thing couldn't happen! We're supposed to be able to CHANGE things!

She turned away from the fracture, shaking her head. She knew that if Penn were here, he'd tell her not to worry herself with what she couldn't do anything about. All the more reason to get out of here as fast as possible, I guess...

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Isis was uncertain how to proceed. She'd lost contact with all of the connected devices that had entered the portal. Sunset Shimmer and Missy's phones had gone offline after a declaration that they were "coming in hot," which she had taken to mean "with a hostile entity in pursuit." This was especially worrisome, but before Sunset's device had gone offline, she had still been receiving life signs, meaning it was unlikely they had perished. Unfortunately, she had been ordered to remain where she was and guarantee that Penn did not return and leave them without answering Sunset Shimmer's questions.

Without flying in another drone, which would certainly draw Administrator Noir's ire and a countermanding order (she was still "in the doghouse," as the saying went, for losing a HENVEX unit in Remnant), she had no way to investigate their failure of communications without using the unit currently assigned to guard duty. She could construct a new one specifically for the purpose of entering the portal, but without a highly conspicuous emergency supply launch it would take hours to arrive.

With no other recourse, she was limited to examining the portal from the outside.

She had taken several measurements, including finding the world's resonance frequency. It was subtle, but she had discovered that every dimension operated at a slightly different frequency of matter, which acted like a signature of sorts. It was nothing that could affect the laws of physics on a grand scale, at least so far as she had encountered in her mapping efforts. It only affected similarly low-frequency transmissions, such as her drone signal or, presumably, Missy's bond keeping her tethered and energized in this world. This portal's resonance, however, presented her with a unique scenario: while comparing and cataloguing the resonance frequency, she had found a harmonic frequency in her logs. They were not identical, but caused constructive interference with one another, resulting in both being boosted. She would have to test it in the future, but theoretically, this could lead to yet another field of study: multiversal harmonics. Fitting individuals and worlds that matched one another in this manner could prove beneficial, though she would almost certainly require more data on the matter. The idea of individuals being able to find a universe that "suited them" was uniquely appealing, though.

The other important reading, however, was less promising and much more worrisome: the Kant Counter. The device was not of her own creation, she had... acquired the plans for it, along with a few other useful tools, from a secure server on the SCP Foundation's network. (It had NOT been easy to find without revealing herself, but there were digital entities in containment at the foundation that had aided her in exchange for her help in orchestrating gaps in their containment.) The Kant Counter was a device capable of measuring the strength of local "reality" in a measurement known as Humes. After Mount Ebott, she had made a Kant Counter standard issue on exploratory drones. The baseline of their current campsite had been measured at 87 Humes. A slightly high variation, but nothing noteworthy. An examination of the portal, however, gave a much lower reading of only 50 Humes. It had been steadily declining since she had started measuring, but precipitous drops had been occurring more and more frequently. The lower a universe's Hume level, the less "real" it became, and the more threat that was posed of the universe disincorporating completely. Of course, this also came with its own set of costs and benefits, but none that she could leverage to her advantage or relay to her companions.

As she continued to monitor the drops in Hume level, her weighted costs and benefits of bringing down Administrator Noir's wrath against trusting the judgement and skills of her teammates moved more and more in favor of launching a new exploratory drone to re-establish connection with the rest of the party. For the moment, however, she remained vigilant, dutifully fulfilling the orders Sunset Shimmer had given her.

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"Yeah, and we'd really like to just find our friend and get BACK out of the studio..." Penn replied, rubbing at his neck. "No offense, but while this is a nice place to visit, I wouldn't want to live here."

That managed to get a light chuckle out of Alice. "None taken. We'd all escape this place if we could, but once you're in the ink's clutches, it's not so easy to get back out of them..." She took a moment to look down at her hands and clench them.

"Well, we've got another friend who's pretty smart, Isis! Maybe she can figure out a way for you to come, too!" Missy suggested.

"That's... very kind of you. If she could, then we would all owe her a great debt." Alice shook her head wearily. "But I wouldn't get my hopes up. As long as the ink demon controls this place, none of us will be able to leave."

Penn made a face. It was another face that Missy knew well. It was his "considering a risky card" face, usually reserved for making his big plays when he didn't know his opponent well.

Those words brought the entire company to a screeching halt. Alice and Tom both turned around, eyes wide. Penn raised his hands defensively again.

"It's not EASY, and it means we're going to have to retrace some of our steps, AND you're going to have to wait until we're OUT of the studio to try it..." he rubbed at his neck as he glanced to the side. "It's something I... noticed in Joey Drew's book. Bendy... well, he saw his own beginning, but because Joey refused to ever admit defeat, he never saw-"

"Yeah. Joey said that if he ever aired the final short saying goodbye, it would be like his dream had finally died..." Penn was lying through his teeth, but Missy had to admit it was convincing. Definitely more convincing than "I saw this in a video game once."

Tom snorted dismissively and turned to go back down the hall, but Alice seemed to be pondering the thought more. "You think... if we show Bendy the final reel, it could end him, as well?"

Penn nodded. "There's only one problem... if it really IS his weakness, he's going to keep it in the safest place he can think of: the giant ink machine."

Tom turned back, grabbing at Alice's arm, but she pulled away. "Hold on! This idea sounds crazy, but we've tried everything else! If that's what Mister Drew's book said, it could be our chance! He's the only one who truly understood anything about what he was creating here!" She motioned to their ink-soaked clothes. "Plus, they're the only ones who could get through the ink river to find it. This could be our only chance."

Tom glared at Penn for a moment, audibly sighing and lowering his arm from where he had been poised to pull at her again. He took a moment to motion to the two of them, clearly dubious.

"We don't need to trust them for long, just long enough to get that reel." Alice looked back to them, decidedly less friendly now that her hope had been tempered by Tom's skepticism. "After that, we'll get you to the elevator and never cross paths again. Right?"

"That's the plan, at least..." Penn shrugged and nodded in agreement. "The thing is, if we want to get past that thing guarding it, we're going to need to find our other friend. She's got a weapon that could help us." He grinned and pounded his fist into his palm. "She could make mincemeat of that thing, I'm sure of it!"

Missy grinned and leaned in closer. "If she knew that she could do something to help people down here, she would have jumped down that mineshaft right after us! That's just the kind of person she is!"

Alice and Tom exchanged looks again, then smiled. "Alright, then. It's not much farther to the service elevator shaft. Let's see if you're right..."

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As promised, it didn't take long for them to reach the elevator, and judging by the sounds coming from above, Sunset was already on her way. The four of them all waited, some more patiently than others. Penn and Tom both made motions as if to check a watch, although neither of them were actually wearing one. Personally, Missy took to pacing in the air in front of the elevator's entrance, silently thanking the powers-that-be that her own powers hadn't been hijacked in the same way as her cards.

After what felt like an eon, the box rattled to a stop at the bottom floor, revealing a somber-looking Sunset standing inside. She seemed surprised at their new companions, but she seemed to be withholding any comments for the moment.

"SUNSET!" Missy zoomed ahead, not giving her a chance to leave the elevator before she was already wrapped up in another hug. "You're a real sight for sore eyes!"

Sunset gave a wry smile as she patted Missy on the back. "Right back at ya, partner..."

Missy turned to look over her shoulder, beckoning Penn into the elevator. "Come on, you know you want in on this!" Penn started to move forward, but something else caught his eye, causing him to stop again. Missy glanced up, seeing the uncomfortable look on Sunset's face that had made him stop. "Oh, come ON, Sunset! Again? NOW?"

"Well, it's good to be back together..." Penn shuffled awkwardly. "I have a plan, but it's going to need all three of us to work." He sighed and reached into his pocket. "I wish it could be all FOUR of us, but, well... No Isis." he held up his ink-soaked phone, and Sunset and Missy did the same. "Still, I think it could help the people here get free of the ink demon, and I figured that if you were here, you'd say-"

"That somebody HAS to do something?" Sunset smiled and rolled her eyes. "Come on, tell me something I don't know! When DON'T you have a plan?"

"I'll explain on the way..." He motioned to their new "friends." "This is Alice, and this is Tom. They saved us from a monster, but we're going to have to get past it again to get what it's guarding."

Missy finally let go of Sunset, happily floating between her two favorite people, but something was eating at her stomach, a gnawing anxiety. Sunset was smiling on the outside, but the only emotions Missy could feel from her were worry and guilt, and when she tried to poke deeper, Sunset's mind closed up tight, refusing to let her rummage around her memories.

She was hiding something, possibly trying to forget something horrible she'd seen or some brush with death from them until they were in a safe time and space to freak out, but... it didn't feel right for there to be a secret between the two of them.

"I'm all ears, bud..." Sunset smiled, and Missy couldn't help noticing that she STILL refused to call him "Penn" to his face.

The Multiverse in a Nutshell

by Pennington Inkwell

A Date with an Angel