The office of the Time Factory's CEO seated all seven sweepers from both Blinx and Roland's teams, all in chairs in a straight line facing toward the CEO's desk. from left to right sat Skye, leant back in her chair and looking at the wall beside her with her arms crossed; Skitch, sat upright and facing the desk with his hands clasped together in a professional manner; Blinx, bobbing one of his heels up and down whilst hunched over and looking at the floor; Roland, leant back with his legs crossed and his heels on the edge of the CEO's desk; Dafydd, whose head and ears dipped as he moved his head around the room nervously; Chesh, simply inspecting his gloves; and lastly Minden, who sat bored with his head in one of his hands. All seven sweepers waited in silence for the CEO to enter the office. The only noise being the uniform ticks of a small clock on the desk.
The door clicked open, and Roland dropped his feet to the floor as he leant forward to sweep his hand across the desk. As Roland sat back after sweeping the table, Skitch, Blinx, Dafydd, Chesh, and Minden all turned to see the CEO walk up to his desk from behind them. Standing behind his desk, he looked at a folder in his hands for a brief second before looking over to the two sweepers on the right. 'Chesh, Minden. You may leave, you are not to face reprocussions.' Minden nodded as they both stood up. Walking past Dafydd and Roland, Chesh patted Roland on the shoulder whilst Minden scratched Dafydd behind the ear. The two continued out to the door, gently closing behind them. The CEO waited to hear the door click shut.
The door clicked shut, and the CEO slammed his folder onto his desk as a sudden ice breaker. Looking at the remaining five sweeper, he began to shout. 'Have you all gone mad?' He furiously asked. His gravelly voice sounding akin to a growl. 'I have five counts of breaching the peace, two counts of assualt, and one count of possession of an unregistered blade. Now, could any of you care to give an explanation?' The CEO stared at the room in silence for a moment before Skye, still facing the wall responded to him.
'I just want Kevin back.' Skye mumbled.
'We've discussed this before, Skye, your request has been denied; and I will not hear any more on the matter.' The CEO sighed before pointing at the sweepers one by one. 'Blinx, Roland. You two need to get both yours and your teams' acts together. Your members depend on it. Skitch, touch another sharp object without permission and I'll have your apartment forcefully relocated and your possessions auctioned off. Skye, Another outburst like that and I'll have you transferred out of the Sweeper's corps. And you.' The CEO point to Dafydd. He bolted upright and looked at the CEO in fear. 'Bite somebody again and your employment here is terminated. Understood?' Dafydd nodded both frantically and nervously. 'Now, all of you, leave my sight.'
The five sweepers all rose from their chairs in unison, with both Blinx and Roland walking toward the door first. Roland opened it and motioned Blinx out in a firendly, albeit sarcastic way. Blinx waited outside of the office for both of his team mates to appear. behind Skye and Skitch, Roland and Dafydd both exited and turned to face the rest of their team. Chesh and Minden edged forward, waiting eagerly for Roland to tell them what happened. He stood still, building suspense, before finally announcing 'We live to sweep another day!'. Chesh and Minden cheered.
Looking back at Roland's team, Blinx began to walk away. Skye walking to his right, and Skitch to his left. 'That could have gone worse.' Skitch mumbled.
'If you ignore the CEO riling up one of our own, sure.' Blinx sarcastically replied. 'This was a nice reminder of why having emotions is a bad thing.'
'No. No. We can use this. Skye getting angry is just what we need. It makes putting her on lookout a fitting choice, given what we want to do.' Skitch pulled his hands higher than his elbows as he spoke. Skye darted an aggressive look at Skitch. She echoed back her role to Skitch in an annoyed tone. Skitch looked back at her and elaborated. 'You'd be better at fighting off anyone who tries to shut us down.'
'But the plan is to take a portal to your apartment, Skitch. Makes more sense they find you there than me.' Skye refuted. Skitch put one of his hands on his chin and quietly hummed for a second.
'Okay then.' Blinx interrupted, 'Skitch will stay behind in his apartment and keep watch. Skye will guard the portal on the other side, and I'll search for Kevin'. Both of Blinx's team mates protested. Their complaints overlapping and distoring each other. Blinx held his index fingers from both of his hands up to shush them. 'Until that point, Skye, head to Skitch's apartment and set up the power supply. Skitch? You're with me.'
.
A small while later, the vast corridors to the various gate rooms layed silent to a near deafening point, with the exception of one room. Emerging from Aniki's workshop, Blinx and Skitch carried a portal gate down the spacious area. Careful not to make too much noise.
Blinx held the portal behind him at a comfortable height, whilst Skitch needed to hold his end with a little more strength, bending his elbows and lifting the portal close to his head. Before long he pulled the portal over his head and propped it on top of his scalp. Feeling its weight bob up and down with each step down the corridor.
Nearing the end of the corridor, Blinx noticed a pair of sweepers hanging around a door to the gate room, blocked by yellow tape with black diagonal stripes and the words 'Danger, Do Not Cross' written at regular intervals. Blinx and Skitch continued to walk as if they had not noticed them. Skitch slid the portal off of his head and dropped his arms to his chest. He grunted as he did so.
One of the two sweepers called out Blinx's name as they walked past. Blinx stopped and sheepishly looked at the pair. 'H-hey. What's up?'.
The sweeper who called out to him started to get excited. He stood slightly shorter than Blinx, with a smokey grey fur coat. Both his and the other sweeper's jackets were maroon in colour, and their boots were black with bright white metal toes. 'I just want to say, you and Roland put one hell of a show on. I don't think I've ever seen so much chaos!'.
Blinx laughed nervously in response, before saying, 'Yeah, it was certainly action packed.' Blinx looked back to see Skitch waving his head to get his attention.
'Blinx, isn't that the world we swept the other day?' Skitch asked, juggling the portal in his hands to re-grip it. Blinx eyed the world code, before looking at the tape, and subsequently, the sweepers.
'Yeah, it is. What's going on here? I thought we were waiting until we had the right troops to go in.' Blinx's worry turned to suspicion.
The other sweeper replied to Blinx. 'CEO has asked us to shut this world down for good. Soon it will be cut off from the factory due to its instability. Honestly, this has been happening more and more recently.' The sweeper looked at the door in a sombre expression, before looking at Blinx and Skitch with a slight squint. 'Why are you two carrying a portal gate?'
Skitch groaned quietly as Blinx muttered in panic. He struggled to find an excuse. Right as Blinx was about to speak, Skitch drew the attention away. 'Aniki needs to tune the portal, but isn't able to come to the workshop. Jacket tear or something.' The unknown sweepers nodded slowly. Believing Skitch's untruth. Skitch slid his hands along the portal and pulled it up to his chin, 'So, if you wouldn't mind?'
'Oh! Yeah, sure, head on. We won't keep you any longer.' One of the sweepers replied. Blinx and Skitch continued walking down the corridor and towards the exit.
'I can't believe that worked.' Skitch whispered to Blinx. Blinx hummed in both confusion and agreement.