1. Mobstale
A/N- Hey guys. After this one the author note is gonna be at the bottom (so you can skip it, all this boring stuff) So… I don't own this. Any of it. This game, this AU. Today's AU is Mobstale (as you probably guessed, based on the title), which was created by in-sideunder and nyublackneko on Tumblr. They're amazing, and I love them. Toby Fox is the lord of Undertale, though, so… yeah. 'm not Toby Fox
"ready?"
"AS ALWAYS, BROTHER." Papyrus summoned a bone, spinning it easily. Sans vanished, leaving him alone in the alley, guarding the warehouse door.
It was twenty seconds, at most. Papyrus heard a soft crunch, and the metal door swung open.
"NO GUARDS?"
"none yet. the next rotation should be through in five minutes."
"NYEH HEH HEH! IT'S GOOD TO KNOW I CAN TAKE MY TIME."
He ducked in around his brother, running towards the safe in the back. Sans followed, taking his time. His eye glowed softly, casting odd shadows on the stacks of crates.
The safe in the back was huge, nearly reaching the top of the warehouse. An overcomplicated series of chains and padlocks bolted it to the wall, with a blank pad on the front. Papyrus chuckled excitedly, prodding it with a beam of magic.
It blazed to life, flashing colors too quickly to see. If there was some deranged pattern to it all, Sans had no idea what it was supposed to mean. But that wasn't his job.
Papyrus watched the flashes for fifteen seconds, then snorted.
"WHY MAKE A LOCK THIS INTRACATE IF YOU'RE GOING TO BROADCAST THE ANSWER LIKE THAT?"
He flipped the lock over and began pressing numbers in as quickly as he could. 188292750387297359723692038.
For a few seconds, everything was silent.
Then the chains rattled and disappeared.
"ANOTHER VICTORY FOR THE GREAT PAPYRUS," he shouted softly.
"hurry, let's see what they've got for us this time."
Papyrus swung the door open and climbed in, feeling around. Dozens of little bags covered the floor, made of cheap material, but very heavy. He opened one up and poured out a handful of coins.
"payment. lots of payment. i'll bet these are headed for the temmies."
"OR MUFFET. YOU KNOW HOW HIGH HER WAGES CAN BE."
Sans stepped into the vault and whistled.
"this is at least 9000 g. isn't that her usual fare for taking someone out?" His voice rose several octaves, until it was a cruel, giggly squeak. "just 9000, sweetie. it doesn't matter who they are or how they try to hide, it'll be like they never even existed. teeheehee! wanna cupcake? where's my money?"
Papyrus kicked over a few bags, grinning. "YOU KNOW, IF THEY DON'T HAVE THE MONEY, THEY CAN'T PAY HER TO KILL ANYONE."
"we'll be savin' lives if we take it off their hands. greater good an' all, y'know?" Sans began scooping bags into his inventory, motioning for Papyrus to do the same.
"it doesn't have to be all of them, just as many as we can carry."
A door slammed nearby, and muttered voices drifted through the room.
Papyrus jerked up, sending bags flying. "DID YOU HEAR THAT?"
Sans swore. "the guards must be changin' early. let's go."
"Who's there?" shouted someone outside.
Sans kicked the door open. Three guards were standing there, their firearms raised. Two dogs and one monster with ten legs and a dozen eyes.
"heya, guys. hate to run, but you know how it is."
"It's the skeleton brothers!"
The arachnid whistled, and Sans could hear crashing and shouting from another room. He shrugged.
"who're you working for?"
"Fire!" barked one of the guards, and Sans vanished.
"heads up!" he called from the other side of the room.
Bones crashed down from the ceiling, draining the guards' HP. Sans didn't move, his right eye glowing.
The front door crashed open, and five more guards with guns ran through, surrounding Sans. The blue light flickered from his eye.
"Freeze!" shouted one of them. Another spider-type, two birds, two creatures with tentacles. Interesting.
"it appears you have captured me. drat. i guess now you'll deliver me to your boss to be tortured for information. who is your boss, anyway?"
"NYEH HEH HEH!"
The guards froze, their souls flickering blue.
"GUNS? NO. LET'S DO THIS THE OLD-FASHIONED WAY."
"didya stop and take a nap, bro?"
A femur appeared in Papyrus' hand, just as the blue light flickered away.
The skeleton bounded towards them, dodging the bullets so easily it barely looked like he moved. He swung the bone towards one of the guards.
Sans winced in fake sympathy as it shrieked and dropped the gun, clutching its crushed hand next to its chest. Papyrus twirled the bone, grinning at the guards.
"WHO'S NEXT?"
The spider-like creature grabbed Sans by the neck and pressed its gun against his temple.
"Drop it or this one dies!"
Papyrus leaped towards the guard, and Sans vanished. Bullets ricocheted past him, hitting the lights in an explosion of sparks.
Papyrus smashed the side of its head with his bone. Black gunk was oozing from its temple, but its HP was a solid 3. He ducked. He rolled. Two more were down. A bullet grazed his arm, ripping through his sleeve without actually hitting the bone. Sans reappeared on the other side of the room, his eyes flashing. One of the remaining guards flew towards him, its mouth open, trying to scream but unable to move.
"what's all the money for?" The creature slammed against the wall, then slid to the floor.
"Ack!" It spat blood at him, its black eyes gleaming. "Once our boss finds out you did this to us-"
It froze again, and a bone flew out of the ceiling, slamming into its stomach. Blood and something more foul spurted through the hole in its armor. It screamed, writhing.
"who're you being paid to kill? what's miss muffet up to now?"
Another bone flew from the ceiling, then another.
"SANS! NO KILLING."
"i know, i know. i wasn't going to kill 'em." The creature's HP hovered around a shaky .8. "'d like to know what is going on here, though. muffet's base is on the other side of the underground. so why would they transfer something this big on the very edge of our turf?"
"BAIT?"
Sans glanced around, and his eyes darkened. "you're right. let's get out of here."
"NYEH!" Papyrus threw his brother over his shoulder and ran back the way they came, out the door, through the alley, behind half a dozen buildings into an abandoned warehouse about a block away.
Their home was a warehouse with a couch and radio in the middle and a cluster of kitchen appliances in the corner. Crates were stacked around the edge, some so dangerously balanced that strands of blue magic were the only things keeping them upright.
"home sweet-" Sans eye lit up.
Someone was inside.
Someone was sitting on their couch. Tall, with twisted, broken hands, a black coat, and a hat shadowing most of its face.
Sans instinctively shot a bone at the creature, and it chuckled.
"Good to see you too, little one."
It stood up, pushing the hat back. Another one of Sans' bones flew towards it, but it passed through without harming it.
"gaster," he growled. The creature grinned emptily.
"That is my name, Sans. And it's your name as well."
"WINGDINGS?" whispered Papyrus. "WE THOUGHT - I THOUGHT - WHY ARE YOU BACK?"
"Aren't you glad to see me, little brother?" His face was even more scarred then last time he had come through - long cracks running from his eye sockets - one over his forehead, one down towards his mouth. "Did you like the present I sent you?"
"that was you?"
"Of course. And no. I'm not paying that spider girl to kill someone, I'm perfectly capable of doing that myself." He chuckled, and another bone went through his chest, vanishing.
"SANS, STOP." Papyrus drifted forward and took his brother's hands. "WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING, WINGDINGS?"
Gaster sat back down on couch, propping up his feet on the radio.
"What I'm always doing. Research. I won't go in the details, since Sansy doesn't seem to app-"
"gee, i'm so uneducated and narrow-minded! why wouldn't i approve of you experimenting on children?"
"Details, details. My experiments will-"
"don't you dare say it-"
"GUYS, NOT RIGHT NOW." Papyrus glanced at Sans, and his brother stood up, the glow fading from his eyes.
"what are you doing here? you need to leave."
Gaster pulled one of Sans' cigarette cartons out of the couch cushions, carefully selecting a cigarette and lighting it with fire magic.
"Rumors have reached me. Horrible, nasty rumors. Normally such gossip would not interest me in the slightest, but imagine my surprise when I heard of the reputation my two younger brothers were building for themselves."
He took a long drag of the cigarette.
"From what I've heard, you've become the most infamous gangs in the west side of the Underground. Stealing from Asgore himself? Having never been caught? Maintaining a solid 0 EXecution Points, despite everything?" His eyes narrowed. "Adopting a human child?"
Sans snorted. "a human? that's ridiculous."
"I thought so as well. Surely my brothers, of all people, would never stoop so low. Yet..." His hand blazed with white light, and Sans lunged forward, dragged by some invisible force. His soul flew from his chest, and Gaster hummed, leaning forward.
"you son of a-" Sans ground out.
"Interesting. That's quite the Level Of ViolencE, little one. Yet the rumors seem to be accurate. It seems strange that only half of a story that outrageous would be true."
An odd shape loomed up in the half-darkness of the warehouse. A dragon skull, white fire pouring out of its mouth and eyes. Gaster only had time to look up before the energy erupted from the creature, blasting him in the face.
"LET GO OF HIM!" shouted Papyrus. "PLEASE, BROTHER. YOU DON'T NEED TO DO THIS..."
Gaster blinked, only 2 dropping off his HP.
"Using my own weapon against me, Papyrus? That's not really your style." The light flickered out of his hand, and Sans crumpled to the ground.
"listen, i have no idea what kind of lies asgore's people have been spreading, but there's no human here. papyrus kept a puppy for a while, a stray he found on the street, but it ran away."
Gaster chuckled. "Oh, Sans. Don't you remember the good old days? All the fun times we had?"
"you mean when we were living on the streets, right before you abandoned us?"
"Yes, back then. How I trained you, protected you. Back then, you used to be a decent liar."
Sans' eye flickered blue. "there's no human here. now get out of our house."
"YOU WANT IT TO EXPERIMENT ON, DON'T YOU?"
"Excuse me?"
"I SEE WHAT YOU WANT, WINGDINGS. YOU CAME BACK BECAUSE YOU THOUGHT WE HAD A HUMAN, AND YOU WANTED TO BULLY US INTO GIVING IT TO YOU. YOU MUST KNOW THAT I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WOULD NEVER STOOP THAT LOW, AND NEITHER WOULD SANS. AND I JUST WANT YOU TO KNOW-" his eyes lit up blue- "THAT EVEN IF WE DID HAVE A HUMAN, I'D DIE BEFORE LETTING YOU GET CLOSE TO IT."
"You don't know what they've done. What they can do. Their power... their determination... a single human has the ability to wipe out our entire race. And if I can replicate that power..."
"then you'd have the ability to control an entire race yourself. nice try, wing, but we're not fallin' for it."
"You have pretty morals for someone who's robbed every safe in the Underground," snarled Gaster.
"WINGDINGS, YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO THIS!" Papyrus smiled, trying to take one of his older brother's hands. "I KNOW THERE'S STILL GOOD IN YOU! STOP THE EXPERIMENTS... PLEASE?"
"I'll do what needs to be done," he said, and vanished.
Papyrus sighed. "I'LL NEVER UNDERSTAND HIM."
"i don't want to. every time i think about him i wanna throw up." Sans ground the cigarette butt under his heel, then kicked the sofa for good measure.
"I ALMOST FORGOT!" Papyrus ran towards the back of the warehouse and shifted a stack of boxes. A carefully placed square of carpet covered the handle of a trapdoor, which he yanked open.
"PUP? LITTLE PUP, ARE YOU DOWN HERE?"
"papyrus, that might not be the best-"
"Pap!"
He laughed, climbing down into the smaller, well-lit room.
"ARE YOU OK? WE WERE WORRIED!"
He climbed back out, a child on his shoulder. They were small, even compared to Sans, and wearing a well-scrubbed sailor suit.
A human child.
"i'm glad you decided to stay down there this time, kid. some pretty bad things might have happened if gaster had found you."
"Gaster?" The child clutched one of Papyrus's suspenders, and he pulled them closer.
Sans shook his head. "you don't need to know about him just yet." His hand tightened around the dog tag in his pocket - the one around Pup's neck when they had found them.
FRISK.
C-TEST
S2-WDG
They pushed up their sleeve, showing him half a dozen tiny, pinprick scars on their forearm. Sans' eyes grew dark.
"GASTER?" Papyrus' eyes glowed blue, filled with uncharacteristic fury. "I'LL-"
"you stay here with the kid," said Sans. His eyes were blank, devoid of any emotion. "i think i'm going to be coming back late tonight."