Chapter 2: Storm

Great I thought as I tried to think of a plan to get away. Blinx beat me to it. Reaching for his sweeper, he whipped it out and hit the button on the top of the handle. A blue hue appeared around us and everything froze, signifying a Pause control. We jumped to our feet and broke off in a run. The Pause ended a few seconds later, and I could hear footsteps behind us. We kept running.

"Follow me!" I yelled as the Tom-Toms chased us. The border was only a few feet away, and we could hide there. I pulled my sweeper off my back to see what controls I had. Only a Record and a Retry. I want to save that Record incase we can't lose them. The snow was making it very hard to run. I saw a large snow drift ahead of us and ran towards it. The wind was picking up and snow was starting to fall, meaning we needed to lose them before a storm hit. Once we were over the peak, I dove into the snow, and pulled Blinx in after me. I covered him with snow so his fur wouldn't give us away, and I buried myself as well. The blizzard was really going now, making it hard to see.

"Where are they!?" a frustrated voice behind us said. Just then the Tom-Toms crested the hill and walked down, trying to protect their faces from the wind.

"It was only two, what's the big deal?" Clean Face asked.

"The orange one was Blinx! And the f/c and sf/c one was y/n!" Beardy yelled. "Blinx is the best Sweeper they have, and y/n is not only a dangerous one to us as well, but Blinx's apprentice! Not fully trained, but soon will be and has a lot of potential talent! To take us down!"

"Well do we tell the boss?" Clean Face asked.

"Of course not! That would ruin everything! We lost them now, so we better head back." With that, the duo went back to the arena. Once I couldn't hear them anymore, I dug myself out and helped Blinx as well.

"Apprentice? What were those two thinking?" I asked as I dug myself out of the snow

"They don't know our terms for sweepers in field training, like you. But you couldn't have thought of a plan NOT involving snow?" he asked as we continued digging.

"No. But we need to get out of this blizzard if we have a chance at finding the Goal Gate." And we walked back the way we came. But with the blizzard, we got turned around and lost.

"My communicator can't pick up a signal, or get a map," I said after walking for an hour, looking at my staticy screen.

"Me neither," Blinx replied. He sighed. "Guess we better find a place to wait out the storm." Just then, a Spiker spawned, and started rolling at us. Moving to the side, I drew my sweeper and activated it. As the Spiker uncurled, I shot it, making it resolve into two crystals. I let Blinx sweep them up, and his sweeper vibrated.

"Sweet. A Retry." We put our sweepers back, and moved on. It took half an hour to find a cave.

"When do you think the storm will let up?" I asked as we sat opposite each other inside an ice cave.

"No idea. In this world, storms can last a hour to an few days, due to the different air masses at the border. We could be stuck here a while."

"Might as well get comfy," I said with a sigh. We sat in silence for about another hour before I dozed off.

-XxXxX-

A cold wind blew across my face, waking me up. Looking around, I saw Blinx was sleeping and curled up into a ball. I sighed. The storm was still blowing around, but there were no time monsters around at least. I was about to close my eyes again when I heard footsteps. I stood up and crouched, activating my sweeper. What meet my eyes was a team of Sweepers in orange uniforms, signaling a retrieval team. Upon seeing them I put my sweeper away and woke up Blinx. The retrieval team walked into the cave with us.

"Signal the Factory," one of the Sweepers said. "We found them." Blinx looked at them confused.

"How long have we been gone?" he asked.

"A day and a half. When you didn't call in or return, we were sent out," another Sweeper responded.

"We need to get back. The Tom-Toms are planning something huge, and we need to stop it," I said. They nodded and led us out of the cave. We pulled down our goggles against the high wind and snow, and about two hours later, we reached the Goal Gate. I looked at the light as I jumped in and didn't see a rainbow tint. When the technician saw us enter, he sighed in relief and walked towards us.

"The CEO wants to talk to you two. But he said it can wait until you both get some food. And warm up," he said noticing my shivering. Even though our coats are made of high resistance material that also keep the wearer warm in sub zero temperatures, the cold still managed to freeze me a bit. And a glance at Blinx told me the same was for him too.

"Thanks, we'll be sure to get that taken care of," Blinx said, managing to not make his teeth chatter. And with that, we headed back to our dorm.

-XxXxX-

"So what you're telling me is that the Tom-Toms have been capturing time monsters and letting them dissolve into crystals, then collecting those crystals, but you're not sure where? And every entrance is guarded?" the CEO asked us. We got to his office half an hour after we got back, and it took another fifteen to explain everything to him.

"That's correct. They might also have patrols around, but we were spotted before we could check," Blinx said. Th CEO furrowed his brow in thought for a minute before he spoke again.

"We need to take action right away. I will assemble a squad of Sweepers, high ranked ones, and we can attack tomorrow. Blinx, y/n," he said, turning to face us, "I need you two to lead tomorrow."

"Ok then. Meet at 9 o'clock tomorrow night? We can use the dark as cover," I suggested. The CEO nodded at me.

"That works. Alright then. You two are dismissed." With that, we left the office and heads to our dorm.

"Do you think we can take them down?" I asked as I pulled out two packets for hot chocolate from the cupboard and milk from the fridge. Blinx didn't respond. "Blinx?" I said looking at him. He was staring at the floor with a blank look on his face. I've seen this happen before, and set what I had in my hands down. Walking over to him, I sat down on the bed and tapped his shoulder. I expected him to jump, but he didn't respond. "Blinx?" I asked, starting to get worried. He's zoned out before, but never this deep. I flicked his ear.

"Ah!" he yelled and jumped back on the bed, landing on his back.

"Calm down, it's okay," I said, trying to hide my worry. He had his hand over his chest and he looked afraid. He saw me and relaxed, closing his eyes.

"Sorry, guess I zoned out again," he said. When he made to get up, I pushed him down.

"You did more than zone out," I said. "You were completely out of it, and I couldn't get any response from you." He looked down at the floor. "What were you thinking about?"

"B1Q64. The final battle against the Chronohorn. That place looks like Momentopolis structure wise and," he stopped, I knew the rest. He barely managed to stay alive during that fight, and the journey to get there beat him around a lot too. I got a blanket from the bed and wrapped it around him. He's only like that around me, and keeping it bottled up inside himself won't help him. We need a therapist here. This job has dangers and clearly leaves scars on some, I thought as I stood up. Making sure he wasn't going to zone out again, I stood up and started making the hot chocolate.

Well how do you guys like the chapter? I know people probably aren't seeing this as the game is not popular right now, (maybe one day though, the future is very full of surprises) but I thought that this would be fun and wanted to share my idea for Blinx. Hope you all, if anyone is reading this, have a good week. Go get 'em fey!

-ThinMintE