The other side of the portal took the sweepers back to the Time Factory, in particular, one of the gate rooms it holds. This gate room contained a wide open area complete with an astonishingly high ceiling, an entrance on the circular side wall; and, aligned so that the entrance bisects it perfectly, a promenade. This promenade hugged around half of the circumference of the circular wall, and jut out about ten feet from the wall. At the centre, aligned with the door, the promenade meets a catwalk, this catwalk stretched to the middle of the room. With the portal around twelve feet further along, closing in on the far side. Inside this gate room stood several time sweepers, mostly toward the promenade. Talking amongst themselves.

The portal suddenly lit up, beaming a brilliant white light into the air like a floodlight. Through it was Roland and Blinx, soaring into the air. Their flight stretched higher than normal from the extra momentum that carried them in. Roland wailed out in thrill, still grasping Blinx firmly around his chest. Blinx met Roland's wailing with his own vocalisation. Repeating the word 'woah' multiple times. Each time getting more and more urgent and frightened. The pair reached the peak of their ascent and began to fall back to ground. Roland focused on the ground. Tensing his arms, preloading his elbows and biceps, Roland tilted forward, anticipating the landing. Blinx's words gave way to flails and screams. Finally, Roland stretched his arms out and up, thrusting Blinx away from him, using the change in his momentum to slow Blinx's fall.

Roland landed on his toes and immediately collapsed into a forward roll, the strain transferring across his whole body. He came to a halt on all fours, with his right knee tucked under his sternum. He looked up towards Blinx, and saw Blinx attempt to stomp his landing. This attempt would lead to Blinx slipping, and falling over onto his face. Roland giggled for a split second.

Roland looked behind him toward the portal to find it starting to vibrate. The vibrating soon met with a harsh, high pitched alarm. The alarm rang faster, and higher pitched, the vibrating soon gave way to unstable shaking. Roland gasped. Using his tucked leg to push himself forward, he thrust himself onto Blinx, smothering him to the floor.

The shaking portal exploded with violent force. Filling the room with overwhelming noise, fading to echoes reminiscent of a sea shore. The explosion scared the other sweepers in the gate room, all flinching and staring at the commotion. Everything calmed down shortly there after.

Roland began to chuckle to himself. 'Oh man, I haven't had that much adrenaline in years.' He started to extend his right side, slowly setting up an awkward roll on his left side.

'Glad one of us enjoyed nearly dying today' Blinx responded unenthusiastically. This quip tipped Roland into full laughter for a few seconds, causing him to unshell an otherwise untouched Blinx, and roll on his back. Two of Roland's team rushed toward him, as did Skitch and Skye for Blinx. Roland's team offered a hand each, both peeling him off the floor without issue. Skitch grabbed Blinx's arm and tugged it, helping Blinx onto his feet. Roland's team, reunited, started to chat amongst themselves as they walked back to the promenade. Roland slinging his arms round the shoulders of his teammates.

'Blinx, have you seen Kevin?' Skye immediately asked. Eyes wide with worry. Hands nearly trembling. Ears angled straight up into the air.

'I haven't, I thought he was ahead of you two.' Blinx responded, confused. Skye's physicality changed, her fur seemed to stand up on end, she stood with her limbs far apart and her head hunched over. She began to pace, walking in a circle, her hands moving all over her head. Blinx noticed her being close to breaking point. He looked over toward the promenade, to see two portal Operators talking with Roland and his team. Blinx marched toward them.

Roland's team stood three sweepers wide, with the fourth behind the furthest sweeper. Their formation slightly concave, seeming to nearly try to surround the pair of Operators. Roland stood in the middle of his huddle; arms folded, spine arched back. His voice to the Operators lacked some of the soft qualities that he had shown Blinx. The Operators responded to Roland with small sentences and plenty of nods. Blinx closed the distance between himself and the gathering of time factory staff. Calling out to the Operators, 'We need to go back into the ice caves.'

All six of the time factory employees looked at Blinx. The member of Roland's team that stood closest to Blinx immediately smiled. His white teeth standing out against his tabby light and dark purple fur. 'Hey, Roland, you were right, he IS just playing hard to get.' The sweeper said, patting Roland's arm. Blinx scowled back at the sweeper.

'Seems so, Chesh.' Roland responded, not breaking eye contact with Blinx. 'Sadly, I doubt my boys want to go back in there.' Roland said directly to Blinx.

'Lucky enough that you weren't invited, then.' Blinx replied with glints of sarcasm and coarseness. The inner most points of his eyebrows pulled away from his eyes in an attempt to match the same kind of sassy attitude that Roland would use. Blinx turned his head to face the Operators again, resetting his facial expression. 'We're down one member here, we need to get back in to find him.'

Both Operators became physically uncomfortable, looking at each other with angst. They hummed worriedly as they did so. Blinx asked them what the matter was, and one finally piped up. 'We can't open another gate into the caves.'

Blinx immediately demanded a reason why, scaring that Operator back into silence. The other spoke up in his place. 'Our spare gates are still under maintenance, Aniki hasn't got the manpower to speed up his work. And considering how you're connected with that lost sweeper, protocol states we need a third party to find him. Even Roland can't go back in, as he was on the same mission.'

Blinx's expression turned from a slight anger to worry. 'Haven't we still got emergency gates for use in rescue missions?'

'Those can only be triggered by flares on the other side of the gate. Unless it gets set off, it won't open an emergency gate. And, protocol also states it can only be activated by team leaders.' This response from the Operator filled Blinx with dread. His ears drooped, pointing out the sides of his head.

'We can't just leave a team member behind. It's not right.' Said Blinx, voice becoming more desperate. Skye and Skitch had caught up to Blinx, standing behind him.

Roland looked to the side for a fraction of a second, parted his arms, and slung them by his sides. 'Blinx has a point there, what options are there for our lost sweeper? He'd surely freeze without help.'

The Operators looked at each other, before turning back to Roland. The first one replied in a sombre tone, 'the best we can do is hope he finds some heat.'

Blinx snarled at the lack of action, and pushed through the group in front of him, walking toward the door leading out of the gate room. Skye nervously looked at Skitch, who met her gaze with his own. She slowly started to follow Blinx, hands level with her chest, her right fingers rubbing the tops of her left in an anxious motion. Roland raised his hand and clicked his finger, motioned his head toward the door, and walked to the door himself, with two of his teammates following. Leaving behind the tall, white, scarred sweeper. Skitch stepped forward, standing side by side with the sweeper. The tall sweeper broke their silence 'You think your buddy is alive?'

'Y'know.' Skitch started, pausing to think. 'Kevin is smart, but he's not exactly clever.' Both sweepers stood still, looking at Skye walking out the gate room.

'And if he isn't found alive?' The white sweeper asked.

'Honestly? We'd be looking at two vacancies in our team.' Skitch responded. Looking up at the sweeper's face before looking forward again.

'Perhaps we could get what's left of our old team back together, mixed with Blinx and some new blood.' The sweeper suggested. Skitch hummed in an almost excited agreement.

'Maybe it's best,' Skitch began, 'if we don't tempt fate.' Skitch continued, turning to look the white sweeper in the eyes. 'Don't you agree, Minden?'

Skitch and Minden began to walk to the exit of the gate room. As they did so, loud clacks and whirring echoed across the room, and the catwalk in the centre slowly began to rise to its default position. In sequence each step would reach their height and get left behind as the rest of the catwalk continued to rise. Finally coming to rest, the catwalk overlooked a large drop onto a gap once filled by a portal gate.