Chapter 10

We walked onto the CEO's office, silent as we waited for him to start. He looked up from the monitor he was watching and took us in.

"Well you all certainly had quite the road trip," he said sarcastically.

"Well, this is what happens when you're a Sweeper," Arch replied.

"Anyway, we came in to let you know that we discovered a few things while on B1Q64," Blinx started. "One, time monsters that we originally defeated, like the Chronohorn, are reappearing with increases in strength and intelligence. Second, we figured out how to use time controls without our sweepers." The CEO's eyes widened at that ever so slightly.

"Really?" We nodded. "Anything specifically needed for it to happen or is it random?"

"We need to say the name of our control. Y/n has Rewind, Blinx has Record, Arch has Slow, Tama has Retry, and Twitch has Fast Forward. I'm not going to say mine because it'll activate then," Bandit said.

The CEO sighed. "I guess that this means that we're going to have bigger problems?" We didn't know. "Go and get cleaned up, and rest. We'll need you six later if something else pops up, though I doubt that this can get much worse." We left at that.

Everyone we passed on our way to our rooms were also scuffed up a bit, but not as nearly as us. We arrived at the Living Quarters a few minutes later. Entering our dorms, we each grabbed a snack and went to our rooms. We crashed as soon as we laid down, not even bothering to undress.

—

"What the heck?!" I said as I was woke up by an alarm going off. I jumped out of bed, banged into the counter, and fell into Blinx. Just then Team Night Kings came running in, Twitch tripping over my legs.

"Come on!" she said as she got up, also yanking Blinx and me to our feet. We all ran out to the main hall as the alarms were still blaring.

"Emergency announcement from Management. Bosses from B1Q64 incidents and other, new boss monsters are popping up all over the worlds. Time is freezing-" Again the billboards turned off and power went down.

Again? It's barely been a day!

Calm down Twitch Bandit said. We need to see what we can do about this. We took off towards the generator room, and froze.

In front of us was a barrier, flashing colors. The Sweepers and other Factory workers tried to get through, but were repealed. We also tried and the same thing happened. The barrier lit up suddenly and we shielded our eyes. When we opened them, the workers on the other side were all frozen in time and looked to be in a trance. The barrier disappeared and we rushed to them. We tried to rouse any reaction out of them, but anything we tried failed.

It's like they turned into colorful stone Tama said.

I'm just surprised that no one has noticed our glowing eyes yet I said.

Don't say that Blinx replied. You'll jinx it. Thankfully, that didn't seem to be the case.

The power suddenly flipped back on and the boards were airing static. Then it went to a transmission from the CEO.

"This is an announcement from Management. There appears to be a disruption in the Factory itself. I believe you all have discovered what that is. I regret to inform that we have lost an eighth of our Sweepers and other workers to this. We will not stop working to resolve this." An operator came up to him and whispered something into the CEO's ear and left as the later of the two nodded. "I have also just received information that the worlds in that part of the Factory are now disconnected from our time flow. And Sweeper teams there are also frozen and are unable to return at this time. But I still expect all remaining forces to work as hard as they can till this is over. You will receive new assignments on your communicators. Best of luck everyone." With that the screens went back to static before flipping to the Time Factory logo.

Everyone looked to their wrists and checked their new assignments. Team Night Kings, Blinx, and I were all assigned to a world called the Dream World. Looking at the file for the world, it's apparently a place where dreams spring up, nightmares lurk in the shadows, and it's always night. Illusions can be caused by the nightmares, and boss monsters can also have this power. Normal ones don't though. The world was ranked at A+, meaning it was only for the elite Sweepers.

"Not again," Blinx groaned. We looked at him curiously. "Long story."

We decided not to push him, he probably wasn't going to be comfortable talking about it in the open. We just started walking to the gate, as the moving conveyor belts were turned off. Other workers got to work moving the frozen ones out of the way, but only a minority. We started walking to the gate.

It took about five minutes to get there, and we were the only ones in the room other than the technician that operated the gate. We jumped in and landed in a valley surrounded by gentle grassy hills. The sky was clear and full of thousands of stars, and a full moon. A gentle breeze was blowing , and all in all it was peaceful. But we were all on edge.

"So what do you think we'll find here?" Tama asked.

"Hopefully, something that can tell us why this is happening and how to stop it," Bandit said. "At least destroying the monsters delays time disasters. Do what we do, and stay alert." With that we started walking.

We walked for about half an hour, only encountering a few chronoblobs. We dispatched them quickly. Then something black and goopy jumped out of the grass. It looked like a five year old made of slime, but no hands, feet, eyes, and a stretched head (if you play Kingdom Hearts, it looked like slime covered Flood Unversed). Blinx stopped us, and activated his sweeper. We followed. We stayed like that for a moment before the thing leaped towards us, and separated into six balls of goo. We fired, but it just created more gunk. The debris landed on us and inched up our coats.

"Whatever you do, don't fall unconscious. Then this nightmare will have control over your sleep until you defeat it," Blinx said as the now identified nightmare goop tried to crawl up my face. I scraped it off, but still some remained. The stuff now on my hands stretched to reach the stuff on my face, and it rejoined onto my face. It decided to cover my nose and mouth, preventing me from breathing. I tried to get it off, but it wouldn't let go. I tried to use my sweeper or my control, but I couldn't speak and I was too dizzy to use my tool. Eventually I fell and the last thing I heard before I passed out was the four thuds of the others.

Well, what would you think the nightmare would show you? I know everyone has different fears, and this story has you as the protagonist, so I'll see if I can put it in if you let me know. And a big thanks to anyone reading! I was honestly expecting no activity, but I got a surprise there. Thanks a lot! And another thing guys? We're into the double digits! Again, big thanks, and have a good rest of the week! Go get 'em tigers!

-ThinMintE