'Co-ordinates located, tweaked, and preloaded into memory. Adequate space provided for portal expansion. Power source located and to be connected manually when needed.' Skitch spoke aloud to himself as he darted about his apartment, checking various aspects and components of the freshly stolen portal gate. After his checks, he turned to Blinx and sighed, before looking him in the eyes. 'Everything here seems to be operational. Once I connect and power up the portal, the strain on the residential area's electrical grid is going to make us immediately noticeable.'
'I understand' Blinx affirmed.
'It'd be nice for you to let me come with. But, if it will help buy you time, then I guess I should stay. We better make this count. Start with the ship he fell into, that's the last place I saw him.' Skitch turned to Skye and started to talk at her. 'You ready over there?' Skye looked up from her sweeper to lock eyes with Skitch. 'I'll need you to be on your toes in there Skye. Our close range radios don't work through the gate.' Skye rolled her eyes and walked over to Blinx.
'We're ready Skitch, open the gate.' Blinx said. Skitch immediately turned around and walked to the portal gate, pulled open a panel, and yanked on a winding cable from the rim. Holding it with both hands, Skitch wandered to the wall, and squat down in front of a double socket. on that double socket was a bulky adapter, plugged into both sockets at once, with one larger socket ready. Skitch pulled the cable a little more, and in one solid motion, made the connection.
The socket made a loud buzz followed by a click that silenced it. The lights on the portal gate slowly illuminated until the room shone bright as day. The portal lifted off of the floor, and after stopping at waist height for a small while, began to expand, filling most of Skitch's main room. the middle of the portal bathed the apartment in a brilliant white light, and the air started to swirl, making a loud, rushing wind one would have to shout over. 'Good luck in there!' Skitch shouted. Blinx looked at him and gave him a thumbs up before jumping in. Skye looked at him with a deadpan expression and jumped in after Blinx.
The icy caverns Blinx and Skye explored a short while ago had changed drastically. The water level had risen a slight amount. The ceiling sat higher. The ledges on either side used to navigate now crumbled and impassable. In the centre, the front of one of the galleons poked nose up into the air. Blinx and Skye both jumped out of the portal and fell a large amount onto the floor below, mere inches in height above the ice cold water. Blinx looked at the disaster scene around him. His gaze turned to stares at the protruding ship. He judged that by the broken fittings, planks, and loose attachments that he found it to be the ship torn in half from port to starboard that Roland and his team had walked across, only now fallen from its perch and into the icy water beneath. Blinx looked around some more, and turned to the second ship along, some distance in the air on the right hand side; at least, what was left of it.
The entire ship had been splintered in half around a giant icy spire that had fallen onto it. The spire's exposed wall was the perfect angle and texture for Blinx's boots to grip, and the major structural damage to the galleon proved as the perfect way in. Blinx still needed to get to the spire, however, so he continued to look, and found the left hand side of the water to have a large number of small, roughly foot shaped protrusions poking out of the perilously cold water. Blinx gulped in dread, before walking to the edge of dry land that he was stood upon, with the stepping stones in front of him.
Blinx took a deep breath and in quick, deliberate movements, hopped from one stone to the next. Alternating which foot touched a stone and which would be held into the air. With each stone he would awkwardly have to adjust his balance to before hopping to the next one.
Blinx reached the end of the stones and needed one large final jump to cross to the spire. He paused, noticing his body had flashed red. He looked at his clothing for a few seconds for the flashing to wear off, and recomposed himself. He bent his knee, spread his arms wide, and eyed the spire, and in an instant, he leapt forward with his full strength. His body tripping forward as he landed on the edge of the spire, his shins slamming onto the side wall.
Climbing back to his feet, Blinx dusted himself off and walked up along the side of the spire, getting closer to the broken ship his lost teammate was last seen in.
Reaching the ship, Blinx noticed some large planks that had dislodged and become loose on the floor of the ship. Acting on instinct, Blinx placed the longest planks onto the spire and let them slide down to the bottom. As the planks slid, he called out to Skye. Still waiting at the platform they landed at, she heard him yell 'Make a bridge across with these, I don't want to jump with Kevin on my back.'. Hearing Blinx's instruction, Skye started effortlessly hopping across the stones herself, making the final jump onto the icy spire without issue. Blinx slid the last of the long planks down the spire and continued through the bowels of the ship. The spire crashed through the floor with the two pressure plates and their connected metal door. Blinx was struggling to see anything of note in the ship at this floor. That was, until he saw a smaller, sweeper shaped hole in the opposite wall of the ship, and an icy tunnel, lit in a warm orange on the ice around it. Blinx edged towards the tunnel in a crouched and careful manner.
The tunnel only stretched for around fifty feet, with a set of steps climbing to a very large opening, a cave chamber with a couple of higher floors, and many exits, all inorganic in shape. The centre of the chamber sat a large bonfire.
The bonfire was surrounded by a collection of hooded figures, all obscuring their faces, all holding trays of food, and all eating together in a social manner. A distance further from the fire, facing away from Blinx, sat a single uncloaked feline, bound in ropes, sat on their knees, and quietly humming in strained, delirious tones.
The uncloaked feline had unkempt green fur and his ears drooped to the sides of his head. his clothing consisting of, amongst other apparel, a familiar blue jacket. His general physique, despite being confined in bondage, immediately stood out to Blinx. He recognised the tune the feline hummed as being the song that played in Jimmy's shops back in the Time Factory. The feline's bindings wrapped his arms behind his back, his legs together and his thighs to his calves. Even his tail was held in place.
Blinx almost crossed the stairs into the chamber when he noticed one of the cloaked figures start to walk around the fire, holding a tray with scraps of food still on it. Blinx quickly and quietly dropped onto his stomach, using the stairs as cover in hopes of being undetected.
The cloaked figure stopped in front of the bound feline and abruptly dropped the tray. Its clanging sound ringing through the cave chamber and its tunnels. A voice behind the cloak began to speak. A female's voice, blunt and controlling. A clear leader of the group.
'Eat.' She commanded. 'You're no good to me dead.' The bound feline looked up at the closed hood and grunted in discomfort, staying otherwise silent. The cloaked figure waited for an agonisingly long half minute before continuing to speak. 'You know the rules. Rescind your employment at the factory, and you'll be free to go... Just remember that no matter the decision you make, that portal you came in is not out there waiting for you.' The cloaked figure squatted down, matching the bound feline's height. 'I know you're not going to starve. Just like I know you will never again see your beloved as you remember her.' She removed her hood, causing the bound feline to jolt back. 'Just you wait, Kevin. You wait and you will see for yourself that I'm right.'
The freshly uncloaked female had long, unbrushed black fur in tufts atop her long, pointed ears; one of which darted straight up, and the other darting out to side. Her head's fur congealed to a mane from the top of her head down around the bottom of her hood. Her eyes were a familiar piercing light blue, with pupils shrunken in size compared to others, the top and bottom tips having a sharp, clear smear pattern on them, the smears shaped like the blade of a scythe, arranged from tip to hilt in a clockwise rotation. She wore her eyes in a wide gaze, with one having their lower eyelid raised a little higher than the other. Her lips bore a smirk, the edge of which traversing far up her cheek. The previous words she spoke to Kevin were followed by a chuckle that soon developed into a toothy laugh. Her teeth seemed otherwise normal, with the exception of a small, but noticeable gap between all of her teeth and the round shape the gums would normally form at the base of someone's teeth had vanished. Replaced with a straight line that the teeth all hang and jut securely from.
As she laughed, the unhooded female stood up. She slowly killed her laughter and looked at him in a proud manner. 'Now then, jester. I think it's time for a song. Make up something new this time, hmm?' She turned and walked back to the crowd, and Kevin began to pull together his voice. Clearing his throat before riffing lines about the female just in front of his face a moment ago. She didn't respond negatively to his lyrics, instead giving a smile as she shook her head, rolling her eyes in an almost pantomime fashion before looking back at the group, still wearing their hoods and obscuring their faces. She stood average in height, sometimes with a slight hunch and other times her torso puffed out in a more intimidating stance.
The female suddenly motioned her hand towards one of the tunnels the main chamber had connected to it, and the crowd of hooded figures slowly followed her into the tunnel. Seeing the chamber empty of all life apart from Kevin, Blinx saw his chance, and silently walked over to Kevin, kneeling behind him to untie him.
'Shh. Don't make a sound.' Blinx whispered into Kevin's ear. 'Let's get you home. Thank the goddesses you're alive.'
'Blinx?' Kevin perked up his ears and pulled his arms close together. 'Heh, I guess she never banked on you being loyal to your team.' He whispered back. Blinx managed to get the knots undone behind Kevin's back and pulled him to his feet. The ropes loosening and dropping as Kevin stood. Blinx placed a finger over his own mouth, then used the same hand to motion to the tunnel he entered from. Kevin nodded silently, the two of them walking back to tunnel.
Through the tunnel, the pair made their way back to the broken ship, and approached the fallen spire. Blinx peered his head out of the hole to check on Skye.
Skye had just laid the last plank down on the stepping stones, clearing the path for Blinx and Kevin to meet her. Yet before they could take the step onto the spire to descend from the ship, the portal above Skye flashed a white light again, dropping a squad of four guard sweepers onto the small patch of land she stood on.
Almost immediately, Skye retaliated with heavy aggression. She swung her right arm behind her, striking one guard in the chest, winding him and forcing him backwards. She then pulled her arm straight out in front of her, pausing the approach of two guards in front of her; using the same hand, she swung for the guard beside her and slapped him with the back of her hand. The force from the slap knocking him off of his feet.
Seeing the violence escalating, Blinx pulled Kevin onto the spire and sat next to him, preparing to slide down together. Blinx and Kevin nodded their heads in unison to a count of three before letting go. Blinx began to slide as he noticed a black, gloved hand reach for the back of Kevin's neck. Blinx swung onto his belly and fiercely clasped Kevin's leg. Holding his leg, Blinx anchored and leaned himself back, coming to a stance. He stared at who was holding back Kevin to find the black furred, blue eyed female, firmly holding the hull of the ship with one hand, and Kevin's jacket with the other. She gnashed her teeth and growled as she tried to pull the both of them back up into the ship.
Kevin looked down at the commotion at the bottom of the spire, and saw Skye holding her own against the guards. Skye looked back at the ship for a split second and immediately locked eyes with Kevin. The eye contact froze them both in place. Skye's face became over run with a look of relief. She lowered her fists and let her guard down, immediately being tackled by two members of the team of guard sweepers. Kevin gasped, and started writhing, trying break free. Blinx grunted, desperately holding on and trying to pull Kevin away from the female refusing to let him go.
Blinx suddenly felt his feet kick out from under him. One of the two guards not apprehending Skye had noticed Blinx, and fired from his sweeper a weighted rope. Blinx fell on his stomach and smacked his face onto the ice, loosening his grip and forcing him to slip down the spire, careening down into the capture of the fourth guard sweeper.
Kevin, still desperately struggling to get loose, had been sharply pulled back into the ship, dropped below the ice spire, and out of sight. Watching his rescue fail right before his eyes, Blinx screamed out in anger whilst both he and Skye were helplessly taken back to the portal.