The Sketch Survivors: The Secret of Lint Corp

Too Late

The robot meekly stood up, offering no resistance as it pressed a specific button on its arm, causing part of the back wall to open and reveal a concrete passageway. "This is the way," it pointed as its treads began to turn and steam rose from engines on its behind. Soal, sword in his right hand, trailed behind as his guide gained momentum.

The corridors were cold and hard, their gray surface equal on all four sides. Soal's head almost touched the ceiling, but as he ran further through the hallways, the ceiling was slightly higher. They met many intersections, and almost no doorways were encountered, but after minutes of running, there appeared to be something following them.

"Lawrence!" the voice behind them resonated through the chamber. Soal jolted to a stop and turned around as his robot leader did the same. The former Un-Character held out his sword to protect himself. There was Cheshire, this time with gas-mask wearing guards behind his back. Cheshire had his device in his pocket, but Soal knew he would use it when necessary. "Lawrence! We mean no harm. We never have. But you broke the Challenges' rules, and escaped our vision. No Un-Character has passed the trials that way before. We need to take you back, have you redo them the right way, and then all will be well," Cheshire raised his palms. They were approaching Soal, but he knew better. He thrust his sword in the air a few times and spoke.

"You're the ones tricking Un-Characters," Soal said, the decapitated robot cowering behind his back. "You're not going to take me home, if I had a real one. You're just going to keep me here, and likely kill me."

Cheshire and the guards made no response as Soal, alone, scampered out of the scene, and onto a new path in another fork in the corridor. Cheshire rung his fists, and yelled, "Guards! Round that boy with the others! He'd make a great subject, but he's certainly one of those Revolute types." Then he muttered something to himself as the guards rushed off after Soal. "And no Paper-Brain, either."

Soal darted away from the silhouettes of the guards on the walls. If any came close to him, he would probably slash away with his sword. He was growing mightily tired of war, but this was the kind of thing that would cause real wars. Not just fantastical struggles against Dark Soldiers and Hands.

Soal's Pure Light Mark from the Desks of the Armorillion shimmered as he trotted into a new room. He paused to admire the change in scenery, after brushing up against a glass wall, blocking off a shocking sight.

This room was very narrow horizontally, but vertically, it was about fifty feet tall. The glass blocked off something Soal never thought he would ever see.

All across the wide and tall room, beyond the glass, there was little space to move around in, but it contained, along the whole wall, hundreds and hundreds of Sketches; all posted to the wall and lined up in rows and columns. After Soal caught his breath, he realized that countless Un-Characters had been liberated and had fallen to these worlds. Just like the Great Sea, they had people and creatures that Un-Characters could relate to. People who had lives and lived and died... just like the kiwis. They fought Articuluses, encountered Interlopers, saw the Fourth Wall... everything Soal had done.

He swore he could pinpoint his Sketch, the one Moth designed, near the center, very high up. It would take two ladders to reach up that high. And you would have to first go through the glass, which was labeled as fireproof, waterproof and bulletproof. Oh, how much he would do to get back there...

"It may already be too late," Cheshire caught Soal by total surprise, he and his two guards standing behind him. "What if I told you that at this current time's fluctuation, about a week is passing for every minute we speak? When you finally can return, centuries would have passed, and nobody will remember you."

"They will remember me, alright," Soal remembered all of the kiwis and soldiers who fought alongside him. "And they remembered Moth for so long. Why would they not remember me?"

"Because the time is random," one of the guards monotonously said. "And because we designed kiwis not to have good memories."

"Oh, really?" Soal said, equipping the sword again. "My friends had great memories. And you designed yourselves not to have any. If you're going to punish me, you already know what happened when you tripped up on countless experiments years ago."

With that, he charged with the sword towards Cheshire, and flipped towards him with the sword, barely brushing up against his messy hair. However, before he could strike completely, both of the guards with gas masks caught him in midair and handcuffed him very quickly.

"You're not going to get away with this," Cheshire sneered, standing still and folding his arms behind his back as the guards pulled Soal away from the Sketch Collection room. "Take him to the Congregation."