The departure room had deep lilac vines extending from a circular pool of clouds in the center of the room. Each vine glowed with dim purple light. Upon entering, the lights started glowing brighter.
A small, chubby purple bee appeared from the far end of the room, dragging a small cart filled with microsized clothes. It moved closer to #212 and spoke something into his ear.
Sir Jamun says
"Everyone must wear these clothes. They will protect your bodies from the pressure and heat of entering the gateway."
Sir Jamun leaned in and buzzed some more into #212's ear.
"He says you must never take the socks off because the feet get tingly and the tingle never goes away. It diminishes; it never disappears, and he is quite insistent on this part."
"So how do we fit into these clothes? Can you ask Sir Jamun?"
#212 whispered into Sir Jamun's ear, and he visibly got angry over this. He walked to the other end of the room and opened a compartment in the wall. Took small metal straws out and signaled to his friends, who also looked visibly frustrated now.
Then, together, they all walked to the microsuits, and with the straws, they started blowing into them. The whole scene looked comically funny.
#212 looked at the team and said,
"The thing is, Team Shaitoot out rightly denied doing this in the first place because the suits they had to blow into were too big. But they were the only ones who could really do that, so Queen Golden had to personally descend here and insist with the leader. He is a very persistent bee."
Meanwhile, the microsuits kept on expanding at an alarming rate. Soon, a few buttons and hooks came into view. It was unreal how such small, chubby, angry bees could blow so much air out. The suits were now ready and laid on the ground.
Then a few more bees flew out and started rubbing the dust off the suits, although they had practically no speck on them. But the Shaitoots were a proud unit. They did things properly, unlike some certain bee-defending unit that was all over the place.
Jamun leaned into #212 and asked something, then #212 took off his little helmet and gave it to Jamun.
And then a deep, raspy voice resounded in the room.
"You will be given a set of infused helmets that you must never take off as long as you're traveling through the gateway. If you want to keep your heads on your shoulders. The team Shaitoot wishes you all good luck, and we hope you accomplish whatever you are set upon."
"May I ask your name?" Khadija leaned down and asked the small bee.
"No." It took off the headphones, gave them back to #212, and jumped over the pool of clouds.
Soon the room was filled with small, chubby purple bees, and they swirled around everyone. Their maneuvers spoke of professionalism and pure skill. They were also very insistent that the team let them do their job and not interfere in the clothing process at all, so on more than one occasion, they looked at Isra angrily, who couldn't help but keep her hands steady.
Then the team, guided by Jamun, walked to the cloud gateway, and he stopped and looked at them for an awkward, long moment. They all looked at him.
Jamun took off the headphone from #212 and said
"What are you waiting for?.. Jump."
And then they all jumped into the cloud. disappearing.