"d'ya see that, kid?"
Frisk told him that they did see it. High above them, a glint of light was visible in the sky. Sans, Frisk, Undyne, Alphys, and Papyrus stood not far outside the only entrance to Mt. Ebbot, where the Barrier had once held all of monster-kind captive in Ebbot's sprawling caves.
Now, the Barrier was gone, and the monsters were free, all thanks to Frisk. Undyne and Alphys had asked Frisk, Sans, and Papyrus to come back with them and grab some things from their old homes, things they hadn't originally cared enough to bring. But Alphys' body pillows and Undyne's massive collection of cooking equipment, among dozens of other odds and ends, quickly became missed up on the Surface.
Sans and Papyrus had also agreed to come with them, since they had things to retrieve as well, and Frisk was happy to help them carry the stuff. But such items had rapidly forgotten at the appearance of this object in the air.
None of them knew what it was, but that wasn't surprising. Airplanes had confused them at first as well, and they had proved to be simply average Surface technology. Perhaps this was the same kind of thing. Frisk told them that they didn't know what it was, but they had been quite isolated when they had lived on the Surface. Besides, they'd been Underground over a year. Things could change.
Soon it became clear that the mysterious object was coming closer, quite quickly in fact. They could now make out its general shape. One relatively circular base, from which five long protrusions extended. It came a few miles closer, and Frisk shook their head, before squinting. They were about to say it looked like a hand, but stopped. That was dumb. Moments later, Undyne spoke up.
"Hey! You guys, is it just me, or does that look like a hand?"
"yup. i see what you're getting at."
"INDEED! IT LOOKS VERY MUCH LIKE A HAND! BUT… ISN'T IT TOO BIG TO BE A HAND?"
"P-papyrus, i'm p-pretty sure it's n-not an a-actual hand."
Frisk ignored the others, and kept watching. Suddenly, they spoke up. They noted that it had picked up speed, and was now obviously heading directly for them. Sans closed his eyes a bit, grimly. He wasn't sure what this was, but he had a very bad feeling about it. Papyrus, on the other hand, was in a wonderful mood.
"WOWIE! IT'S COMING RIGHT FOR US! I BET IT WANTS TO BE FRIENDS! HELLO, GIANT HAND! WE'RE DOWN HERE!"
"hey, pap, don't get your hopes up. not everything is friendly up here."
"Yeah, Papyrus! But don't worry! If anybody tries to hurt us, I'll take 'em down! Nobody messes with my family!"
"R-right! B-but… i suppose U-undyne is better suited to the… h-hero thing than me."
Frisk reminded them the term was heroine. They'd been going to school with Toriel for too long to ignore grammatical errors.
No one noticed. The massive hand, made of metal, was touching down on the ground. It curled into a fist, before opening up and revealing a small blue bubble in it's palm. The bubble emerged, rolling down the hand's fingers, until it was right in front of the quartet of monsters and their human companion. Frisk moved their fingers a bit, a nervous habit, as if to get their blood flowing, so as to better FIGHT.
Sans put his hands in his pockets and his smile went down just a tiny bit, as his brother Papyrus took a step forward. Sans made a tiny motion with his head to request that Papyrus stay back, and the taller skeleton complied.
Undyne smiled and clenched her fists, as Alphys took a step back, almost hiding behind the warrior.
The bubble opened, before disappearing suddenly. Then again, the bubble itself wasn't what interested those gathered at all. It's contents were what made it interesting. And 8-foot-tall woman, boasting orange skin and massive, billowing pinkish white hair. Her nose seemed to be a yellow crystal, glowing a bit. Her body was ringed a bit with stripes of a darker orange.
These were the interesting attributes that Papyrus, Undyne, and Alphys paid attention to.
Sans and Frisk were focused on two other questions. First off, Frisk was trying to figure out what this mysterious being was. That she was female was obvious, and she was of a humanoid shape. But she couldn't be a human. She was the wrong color altogether, and, besides that, was much too large to be a human.
On the other hand, she couldn't be a monster either. She had come from the sky, not from Ebbot, and there was no way she could have lived down there with no one knowing anyway. She was also more human-looking than any monster Frisk had ever seen.
Sans had his mind on a very different question. Where the hell did she get all that EXP?! Literally, she was dripping with it. She'd evidently killed more people than anyone Sans had ever seen in his life. Not even Everlanst or Sans' father had this high a body-count, and they had been in the front-lines of the Human-Monster War.
Sans fists clenched inside his jacket pockets. He stepped in front of Papyrus, but did it in such a way that it seemed a casual motion rather than a hostile one. He waved to the newcomer.
"hey, buddy. howzit goin?"
The mysterious woman turned too look at Sans and smiled.
"Just fine, buddy. I expected to see some pathetic creatures here, but you guys surely know how to impress. What've we got here? Two skeletons, one short and fat, and the other looking like a broomstick on legs. A little kid that makes Rose's new form look like a titan. Some kind of fish out of water that I could smell from space. And what's this? A little cowardly lizard, hiding behind her fishy buddy."
"Hey, listen up, punk! Nobody talks about Alphys like that!"
"Ooh, I'm soooo scared! What are you gonna DO about it, fishsticks?"
"I'll TELL you what I'm gonna DO, Bride of Frankenstein! I'm gonna suplex you into a rock, beat you till you're a 70s-colored pulp, and then shove this SPEAR right up your-"
"WAIT! NOBODY FIGHT! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL FIND A NONVIOLENT SOLUTION! HELLO, STRANGE TALL PERSON! WHAT IS YOUR NAME?"
"I'm Jasper, and I'm a Homeworld Gem. I'm here under orders from Yellow Diamond to take this mountain as our base for the conquest of Earth. So how about you get out of my way and make this easier on all of us?"
"I'M AFRAID I CAN'T DO THAT, JASPER. I'M GOING TO HAVE TO INSIST THAT YOU DON'T TAKE OVER EARTH. WE JUST GOT THIS PLACE BACK!"
Jasper took a step closer to Papyrus, a gesture he took as a motion of friendship. He put out his arms for a hug and stepped forward himself. Frisk was getting an ominous feeling. No one, no one, was this easy to SPARE. Certainly not some mysterious, crystalline, space-conqueror.
"Hey, chump! What are you doin' getting closer?"
"ACCEPTING YOUR GESTURE OF PEACE, OF COURSE!"
"I never said I'd make peace!"
Papyrus still walked forward.
"WHAT? I CAN'T HEEEEEEEEAR YOU! I SUPPOSE I'LL JUST HAVE TO COME WITHIN HUGGING DISTANCE BEFORE I CAN MAKE OUT WHAT YOU'RE SAYING!"
Jasper facepalmed and remembered that she'd been told monsters were stubborn. They had quite a bit of sheer force of will. What had they called it? Perseverance? Willpower? Stubbornness? No, none of those were right… whatever. Well, she supposed she'd have to make her point a bit more forcefully.
Papyrus finally got within an arms-length of the towering Gem.
"I told you! I do NOT come in PEACE!"
Swinging a massive backhanded strike, Jasper caught Papyrus brutally on the side of his head, sending him flying with barely a slap.
Frisk gasped.
Alphys squealed in surprise and fear.
Undyne took a step back, before bracing herself.
Sans, meanwhile, just looked on and kept smiling. The only difference, of course, was that his eyes had gone completely black.
"hey, lady."
"Yeah, spooky scary?"
"did you just do what i think you did?"
"You mean punt that little twerp twenty feet through the air? Yeah, I did."
"i mean did you just hurt my brother?"
"… If he was your brother, yeah, I guess? Don't worry, he'll wake up in a couple of hours. Assuming you get out of here right now."
"that was a big mistake."
"Oooh, I'm sooooo scaaaar-"
Jasper was cut off in mid-sentence as she was suddenly hurled backwards at huge speeds by some mysterious force, slamming her into a boulder. As she got to her feet, disoriented, she saw a floating, monstrous skull, blue flame billowing out of it's eye. She only had an instant to contemplate this before the gasterblaster fired off a tremendous beam of energy, knocking her to the ground. When she got to her feet, there were scratches down her body, a pain in her soul, and rage in her eyes.
"LAPIS! FIRE THE CANNON AND BLOW THESE IMBECILES TO KINGDOM COME!"
Sans had rushed over to Papyrus along with the rest of the monsters and Frisk, and knelt at his side, ignoring the injured Gem. The massive hand that had landed earlier began to float in the air, almost reluctantly, before pointing it's index finger at Papyrus' prone body, surrounded by his friends and family. A beam began to form from it. Frisk, very experienced with dodging beams, noticed it first. They screamed a warning and dodged the attack so fast that they might as well have teleported out of the way. Alphys ran for her life, but tripped, hitting the ground hard. The ship fired as she tried to get to her feet. Undyne realized she wasn't going to get out of the way, and dived in the beam's path to protect Alphys.
Sans, meanwhile, had a serious dilemma. He could easily dodge the attack under normal circumstances, but that would doom Papyrus. His only way to save his brother was to telekinetically hurl him out of the way, but he had to concentrate to do that; exposing himself.
Never mind. That wasn't a dilemma. Sans tossed Papyrus out of the way. An instant after Sans took this action, the beam hit, throwing him, Alphys, and Undyne backwards in a blast of explosive energy.
Frisk rushed to the wounded Sans' side, as Undyne knelt over a concussed Alphys.
Frisk called Sans' name, and he smiled sadly up at them, his lower body blasted to pieces.
"h-hey, k-kid. don't… w-worry about me… heh. i've been through… much worse. t-take care of papyrus for m-me… ok?"
Sans laughed painfully.
"one more thing. u-undyne?"
The warrior turned from Alphys to the obviously much more seriously wounded Sans.
"Yes? Sans!"
"heh… do me a f-favor, kay?"
"Anything, Sans! What do you want?"
"just… one thing… k-kick her ass."
Sans winked then, closing his left eye. Undyne clenched her fists.
"I will, Sans. I swear."
"heh. that's for sure. i'm rootin' for you too. g-g… give… g-give alphys a g-g-get well c-card and some nice f-food for me… you… can just p-put it on my tab. hey. don't w-worry. i h-had a good life. to tell the truth… it was… it was…"
Frisk cried out for Sans.
"W-what is it, Sans? C'mon, speak to me!"
"it w-was… a blast."
The instant Sans let out his final pun, his magically-connected molecules gave way, and he scattered into a billion pieces of dust.
Frisk, for the first time in their entire life, burst into tears, sobbing over Sans' dust. Undyne's eyes, too, were watering as she looked at Papyrus' unconscious body with despair.
She had no idea how they were going to tell him. In an instant, his brother, and one of her best friends, snatched away, forever.
She turned to Alphys, unconscious and badly injured. With 3 AK and 3 DF, the beam had almost carved through her 420 HP. Having thought about it, Undyne realized that this particular number had likely been chosen by Alphys, given that a monster could change their own HP, within limits.
She shook her head and it suddenly hit her.
Sans was dead.
Alphys was almost dead.
Papyrus was almost dead.
Frisk was devastated.
And she?
Undyne?
She was furious.