The Sketch Survivors: The Enemy Among Us

A Spy's Tidings

For a moment we return our tale to Fort Whal, where a deep crisis is brewing.

Commander Ressel, the temporary leader selected by the Green Phantom, had sent out a division of his new Zillyroi army into the Facility to seize a supply of medicinal substances from Lint Corp's vaults, following the departure of Safer's Legion. Days later, as Revolutes toiled outside among the thundering Darklighted Gauntletes and Freights, the army returned with the containers of the substance, but without the medicine itself. Ressel was deeply concerned with their behavior- their eyes and skin were paler than usual, and many of them continued to collapse, awakening hours later with limited memories. With so much on his hands, Ressel had greater priorities than a division of alienating Zillyroise. He knew that Thronost would be disappointed in him. But Thronost's own survival was debatable. Also debatable was the reason he ignored the spread of symptoms from Zillyroi to Zillyroi, and, eventually, from Zillyroi to Revolute, and Revolute to Revolute.

The Revolutes' conditions were much more severe than those of their allies. Rather than whitening eyes, their eyes glowed intensely at times, and at others they displayed unstable behavior and intensifying bursts of violence. Ressel, receiving word of this contact-transmitted disease, attempted to react calmly. He scheduled a meeting with the High Committee in the original Map Room, but two of the Commanders displayed signs of the plague, and soon enough, there were five.

Revolutes all across Fort Whal were tasked with wearing Zillyroi-produced gas masks to avoid the virus. This seemed to slow the spread of the symptoms, but it did not entirely prevent them. Those who had already caught it gained an increasing blood-lust, and there was murder in the corridors of Fort Whal.

An army of these white-eyed, possessed Un-Characters organized an army to lay siege to Fort Whal. Even though it was a massive failure for the enemy army inflicted with the plague, with many loyal Legions being called in from outside to protect the stronghold, Ressel pressed on, and as the numbers of the diseased mounted, he was convinced it wasn't actually a sickness. Lint Corp had done this.

But how?

Ressel grumbled, pacing back and forth across the Map Room, dried blood staining the floor, and several chairs for the meeting table were knocked over. Abruptly, two bulky Revolute Warriors stormed into the room. Ressel drew his sword, aware that they might be under the influence of this mysterious curse, but they were not. "Please," he sighed. "I have much to work with. This is unne-"

The spies thrust another Revolute to the floor. This one was smaller, and frailer, and her wavy-curly blonde hair was stamped with blood, just as the floor she had been knocked to was. She coughed harshly, prompting a concerned response from Ressel. The two other visitors, specifically the taller one of the two, explained. "This spy has returned. There are many tidings from beyond the Great Shadow. Remember, Commander, knowledge is power." They then proceeded to march away and slam the doors shut, leaving only their leader and the spy together in the Map Room.

"I haven't all day," Ressel gruffly sighed. He had certainly had enough bad news with the plague that was sweeping western Iminentia. Things weren't going well, and a spy with more to tell would definitely add to that state of confusion.

"Where is the Phantom?" Renyrocrattus wheezed, and Ressel could see dust escaping her parched lips in the process.

"After you left," the substitute king explained in a hustle, "we used the Pure Light Amulet to subdue Lint Corp's Gauntletes. We dug through some Lint Corp papers only to find the key to our escape, and before reinforcements arrived, we sent a legion of the most elite Revolutes to locate three Sketches that have keys to open Death's Door; among them, the Green Phantom. I am your temporary leader. In the meantime, there has been a plague spreading around Fort Whal, and civil war has erupted. Satisfied?"

"Where is Soal?" Renyrocrattus asked nervously. "Has he gone with them?"

"Indeed he has," Ressel guessed, having previously been informed of who joined the Phantom on her quest. Apparently, Soal was the Commander. Ressel remembered Soal. He'd been that poor Commander who had recently joined the High Committee, and was immediately pushed into retrieving Iminentia in the real world. But Ressel still held an unshakable grudge against him. It was purely natural. Renyrocrattus smiled wryly, retaining her worried, battered face, but giving up that sense of complete hopelessness that dominated Fort Whal.

"Commander... ah... um... Ressel," Renyrocrattus embarrassingly struggled on his name, only for it to flash into her mind as it became most humiliating. "I have wandered the Facility and discovered disturbing information."

"Great," Ressel folded his arms in irritation. "Just tell me already."

"I must admit," she got to her knees, shining light on her wounded, bruised face. "you won't like to hear these tidings."

"I can take anything," he accepted the grave offer of foul news, unwary of their weight.

"Well, first of all," she began, "a mass-production of the Iminentia Sketch is underway so that Lint Corp can pile more Gauntletes and more troops into more space and destroy us."

"Ahh... o-okay," Ressel was rather doubtful that he really meant what he said. He was prone to occasional bursts of nervousness. "What else?"

"That plague you speak of is Polygmius, which has already started," Renyrocrattus swallowed hoarsely. Ressel attempted to conceal his distress behind an unyielding emotion. "And Britain has declared war on Lint Corp."