The Sketch Survivors: The Enemy Among Us

The British are Coming

"We're really close," Soal was radiant with excitement, but Irene was not entirely so. The heavy backpack on her back was a tough weight, even for her; the invincible Irene Grammor, the Green Phantom.

They had crossed multiple lesser buildings of the Sketch Facility, through underground tunnels and empty meeting chambers, and as they neared the time machine, they had concluded the reason for the complete desolation of the Facility(ies): Lint Corp had evacuated to some kind of bunker, knowing that the British were on their bad side.

Finally, they had reached the desired time machine, the one that probably had once been fiercely protected by guards, yet even they had left the machine undefended in this time of crisis for everyone. Both Soal and Irene stopped to get a better look at this awe-inducing sight.

It was a truly massive chamber that greatly reminded Soal of the interior of a Ruin of the Ages, or the Map Room that Revaw designed to have no floor. This one, too, looked to have no floor, either. It stretched infinitely into a mysterious fog whose darkness deepened with the elevation as one fell. The room itself, if it could even be referred to as such, contained a dim, dreary, dark gray tone that permeated the icy air; just like the air of pre-Perimeter Fort Whal.

The room did have walls and a ceiling, however, in a cubical design. Each wall was nearly unnoticeable among numerous sheets of steel scaffolding. The ceiling was quite high up, of an almost black hue with its distance from the current, non-falling level of Soal and Irene. Speaking of which, the two stood before a rather narrow (around thirty feet wide) heavily supported bridge (that somehow stood 'without a floor') that led halfway across the colossal chamber. When it stopped, a short series of steps led to the center: the time machine itself, which Soal recognized as something he had seen from an old movie before the boarding school. The time machine looked to be something of a quadruple-sized telephone booth, or perhaps a piece ripped from an elevator. An easily visible power button dominated the far left of the front, with a large, electronic double door in the middle, supposedly the gate into a space that looked to fit about eight people; the interior of the time machine, from which commands of time and space were ordered.

"Well, this is it," Soal, overtly eager, beckoned for the weary Irene to follow him back, to cause the beginning of this harrowing chain of events. "Quick! It can't be long now."

Irene was hesitant. "Think about everything, Soal," she leaned on her knees, supremely worn-down from the trip, combined with the unidentified gift. "Is doing this... really the best thing to do?"

"I know Moth knows, Irene," he jumpily ran across the bridge, towards the time machine. "We can finally go free! And you shouldn't worry about the other Un-Characters. Moth says that the British will set them free, too."

"'Free' is all relative," Irene paced over to her accomplice as he awaited for her before the enticing power button of the time machine. "Soal, do you hear me? After all, I still have this gift waiting on my back."

"Of course," Soal drew a deep breath. "But there's no more time. We need to make a decision. Escape Lint Corp and save everyone, or stall here, and stand by as space and time are broken by our inactivity."

Irene fell silent for a long moment. Thinking that she would follow him anywhere, Soal faced the power button, and hovered his tense, gloved hand over it. "It's now or never," he meekly paused, expecting an eventual response.

However, something did indeed happen that he did not expect. He turned around, only to see that Irene had now been joined by dozens of other Revolutes, at her side on the bridge.