A large door opened in a dark room filled with silence, filling it with the outside light, and a quiet creaking from the metal frame. Blinx entered the dark room and, as quiet as he could be, closed the door behind him.
Allowing himself a moment for his eyes to widen and adjust, Blinx began to walk through the room. Each second he stayed in the darkness, the more he could see. What he saw was the size of this room being more suited to that of a warehouse, filled with bits and pieces of miscellanious machinery and parts. Stacks of broken sweepers filled a lot of the shelves near the entrance, with other machinery for use inside the time factory using shelves found further in the room. Various motors, clocks and mechanisms were strewn across the floor and the feet of the shelving. Blinx scanned his eyes across as much of the workshop as he could. Desperate to find a workstation of some kind that could have the instruction manuals he needed.
Far down the corridor of shelving at this point, Blinx heard a loud creak, and a large beam of light began to slowly peer across the gap. The light emerged from the door that Blinx himself entered through. The light would stop mere feet away from Blinx as the door shut itself again. Blinx needed to wait a second. His heart racing, and his breaths rapid from panic. He took a moment to breathe deeply, and turned around again to resume his search.
Finally, a glimpse of hope. His wide eyes spotted a long and tall set of shelves filled with portal gates in an array of physical condition. Blinx immediately started scanning across these gates to see if any paperwork had been left behind.
After fruitlessly scanning the shelves, Blinx caught eyes on a toolbox sat closed on the floor, with sheets of paper stapled together on top of it.
Without warning, all of the lights in the warehouse instantly sprung to life, filling the room with a sudden influx of brightness that made Blinx grunt in a slight pain, his un-adjusted eyes shorting out for a second.
'Naughty, naughty' A voice from the distance boomed. Blinx turned around to see who was behind him, holding his gloved hand over his forehead to cover his eyes, still constricting into slits. He saw the one sweeper that he didn't want to deal with at this point. Tall, dark furred, spiked collar, open sleeveless jacket, and long tufts of fur on his shoulders, ears, and scalp. Once again, Blinx had been interrupted by Roland, who was walking up to Blinx in a slow, swaggered pace.
'So are you following me, now?' Blinx asked, displeased at the company he found himself with. Still shielding his eyes.
Nearing the shelves next to Blinx, Roland chuckled for a second before giving him an almost flirtatious smirk. 'I should be asking you the same thing.' Roland pulled a small toolbox out from his jacket and, without looking, tossed it onto a shelf. 'I'm just here to give back something that belongs to Aniki. And judging by you sleuthing around with the grace of a Tom-Tom, I'm guessing you're here to do the exact opposite... hmm?'
Blinx pulled his hand down from his face and immediately rolled his eyes. Roland interrupted Blinx before he could even speak. 'Hey, I get it. You want Kevin back. His girlfriend is not at her peak because of that, and your little scarred friend has been through this all before.' Roland approached him further, getting to an almost imtimate closeness. 'But do you think it's worth it, kitten?' Roland whispered, his teal eyes seeming to reflect off of Blinx's orange fur.
'I'll let you know if I want your opinion.' Blinx coldly replied, turning to look at the toolbox, and scan across the page the papers left on the top. Roland hummed himself a small laugh before looking beside him at a conveniently placed file cabinet. He noisily pulled it open, and fluttered through the papers inside. Blinx turned to see the source of the quick flurry of noises. Roland stopped about halfway through the cabinet, pulled out a collection of staples sheets, and held the hand he pulled them out with towards Blinx.
'Three days.' Roland gently warned. 'You have three days before Aniki begins to panic. Use the time wisely.'
Taking the documents out of Roland's hands, Blinx scanned over the front page furiously, to find it was not only blueprints for a portal, but the particular chapter on how to program one. He looked back at Roland, to see him stood with his regular smirk, crossed arms, and slight lean to one side. 'Why do you want to help me?' Blinx asked, in a deadpan tone.
Roland shook his head a slight amount, keeping his smirk. 'I happen to admire you. You're risking your job for what you feel is right. Just like when you risked everything to save that lovely little princess of yours.' Roland tilted his head and raised his eyebrows 'Do you two still talk?' He asked innocently. Blinx drooped his arms straight down and walked past Roland towards the exit of the warehouse.
'I don't want to talk about it.' Blinx mumbled in response.
Roland followed Blinx out of the warehouse, which lead onto the conveyor belt corridor that all the gate rooms back onto. The two sweepers speachlessly walked along it to the very end, where a giant, arched door stood. Above the door layed a whole floor, overhanging around two hundred feet out from the exit. Blinx and Roland walked through the arched doors and into a giant 'round', a circular space with large stairs orbiting the centre that takes tge sweepers down to the residential area. This circular space housed twelve of the large arched doors around its edge, each positioned around a hundred feet apart. The middle of the round had a glass roof that shined directly onto the floor below. With this light being shadowed fifty feet away from the doors by the floor above, curving around to circumference, with small one-man metal stairs along the wall between the doors.
The two sweepers closed the gap to the stairs, the natural light warming their furs. In the absolute centre laid a glass sheet, with a large clock inside it. The stairs to the residential area staying along the clock's outer edge.
Finally, the pair walked down the three storey staircase to the residential area, the bottom floor being all the recreational and business locations for anything an employee of the factory can desire, with the two floors above being purely for the Time Factory employees to sleep. The inside circumference of the stairs had a smooth ramp to allow wheels to come up and down as needed, forcing Blinx and Roland to walk along the centre of the loop. As they descended, Roland spoke to Blinx once more.
'I should give you some thanks, really.' He looked at Blinx with a smile, who only hummed to continue the conversation. 'If it wasn't for you running in and saving that world all those years ago, I wouldn't have built the confidence to become a team leader and be your equal.'
Blinx made a cheeky grin, 'I guess everything has its good and bad'. Roland laughed at Blinx's dig, his smile widening in content.
The two parted ways at the bottom of the stairs. Blinx moving straight to one of the little alleyways between the ground floor shops, climbing stairs tgat would take him up to the apartments. His boot steps bellowed a dull thump along the quiet corridors, until he finally made it to the apartment in question. He entered without much announcement to find Skye and Skitch sat next to each other on the bed, listening to another one of Kevin's songs on tape. A song he titled 'Mystique beyond'.
Skye stopped the tape when she noticed Blinx standing in front of them. 'He's not bad.' Blinx acknowledged. He tossed the stapled sheets of paper at Skitch, giving him the order. 'Here. Those need to go back in a couple of days. I'll cover the photocopy charge tomorrow, but for now, see what you can find out on your own.' Skitch affirmed Blinx's request amd quickly left the apartment, papers in hand. Blinx looked at Skye with slight concern. 'You going to be okay in here?' He asked. Skye nodded with a weak smile. Blinx nodded back before turning around and leaving her living space.