Once upon a time, two races ruled over Earth: humans and monsters. One day, war broke out between the two races, and the humans won. They sealed the monsters underground with a powerful magic spell...
Many years later, at Mt. Ebott...
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XENO - LV ?
The Beginning - 999:99
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The first thing Fei was aware of when he regained consciousness was a sweet smell all around him, and that he could tell he was lying down in something. He slowly opened his eyes to see golden flowers right in front of his face, and he raised his head away from them, blinking in confusion. He almost recoiled in shock when he saw there were several other people lying in what he now could tell was a field of golden flowers, some face-down in the flowers. His friends were lying nearby, just waking up themselves.
"Ow, my head...Fei? Where are we...?" Bart asked, sitting up and rubbing his head.
"I have no clue. Are...Are we all okay?" Fei answered, looking around.
"I would hope so," Citan said, standing up. "I don't think we fell, I'm not experiencing any aches or pains..."
He looked up, squinting. "...we would have fallen from high up if we did. I can hardly see a place where we would have fallen from here."
"Are chu sure?" Chu-Chu whined. "I don't feel chu good..."
"I'm positive. Though, I wonder who those other people are..." Citan confirmed, turning his gaze towards the other people waking up.
"Why are there so many flowers here?" a woman with brown hair and some sort of uniform wondered, pushing herself up from where she was lying face-down.
"Gaignun! Gaignun, are you okay?!" a boy with the reddest hair Fei had ever seen called, dashing over to a man with black hair also lying face-down in the flowers.
"Is this some secret area?" a girl with long blonde hair wondered, unsteadily standing up. "Weren't we just outside of Alcamoth...?"
"Hey, uh...are you guys okay?" Fei asked, hesitantly. "By the looks of it, I don't think any of us are familiar with this place."
"I would hope so," a boy with silver hair who looked about Fei's age answered. "Are you and your friends okay?"
"I...I think so, yes. I'm Fei Fong Wong, by the way," Fei said, nodding.
"My name is chaos. It's a pleasure to meet you, Fei," chaos greeted.
"Same to you, chaos," Fei replied before looking around. For some reason, he felt strangely at peace for once since before Lahan's destruction. He didn't understand, he didn't remember a field of golden flowers in some cave...
"Should we all introduce ourselves?" the woman with brown hair asked after a few moments. "It looks like we might be stuck together for a while..."
"A-Ah, we should...my name is Fei, and these are my friends Elly, Citan, Bart, Billy, Maria, Chu-Chu, Rico, and Emeralda," Fei agreed, gesturing to his friends in turn.
"My name is Shion Uzuki, and-"
Fei couldn't help but stare at Shion in surprise. "Uzuki?"
"Yes...? Is there a problem with my name?" Shion asked.
"Well...Citan's last name is also Uzuki..." Bart pointed out, looking over at Citan. Citan looked more amused than surprised, oddly enough.
"W-What? How? If you'll forgive me, I've never met you before, Citan..." Shion admitted.
"It's all right. I think it's simply a coincidence we share last names, that's all," Citan replied.
"A coincidence...I'll take your word for it. These are my allies KOS-MOS, MOMO, chaos, Ziggy, Gaignun Kukai and his son Jr, and..."
Shion sighed. "My older brother Jin."
A boy with blonde hair and something that Fei could only describe as an odd red sword on the boy's back took a shaky step forward toward the others. "My name is Shulk, and these are my friends Fiora, Reyn, Dunban, Sharla, Riki, and Melia."
"It's nice to meet you all," Billy greeted. "Would anyone have an idea as to how any of us got here?"
"Maybe teleportation? From what I can see, there's a hole high up in the cave's ceiling...I don't think we'd be walking around alright if we fell from that high up," MOMO spoke up.
"Sounds more likely than anything else. I just remember leaving Alcamoth, and then...waking up in these flowers," Dunban agreed.
"Alcamoth? Never heard of it, it sounds like it's from some fairy tale," Bart remarked.
"I just remember performing a check-up on KOS-MOS before waking up here. Why would anyone want us here?" Shion pondered.
"Do we all have our weapons with us? We might have to fight down here..." Rico asked. A brief moment of silence followed as everyone checked over themselves.
"Seems like we have our weapons. Though, uh...Gaignun doesn't fight," Jr spoke up.
"I have a spare gun if he needs it," Billy said, reaching into his coat and pulling out another gun.
"Ah, it's alright, I prefer not to fight anyways," Gaignun admitted. Billy nodded and placed the gun back inside his coat.
"There's an exit over there," Ziggy noticed, glancing at an entryway nearby. "Perhaps we should travel together for the time being."
Everyone seemed in agreement as they started walking through the entryway, only to be stopped by a flower suddenly popping out of the ground. Fei couldn't help but stare at it: it greatly resembled the flowers they woke up in, but this one had a face.
"Howdy!" the flower greeted in a high-pitched voice. "I'm Flowey! Flowey the Flower!"
"...I didn't expect to see a talking flower here," Rico commented.
"Golly! You all must be new to the underground, right? Someone has to teach you guys how things work down here! Don't worry, little old me will be happy to help!" Flowey declared.
Shulk's eyes started glowing blue, and his friends looked at him anxiously. "Shulk?" Fiora asked, laying a hand on his shoulder.
"Ready? Here we go!" A small cloud of white pellets appeared around Flowey. "Down here, we share LV through little white...friendliness pellets!"
"What does LV stand for?" Jin asked, cautiously.
"LOVE, of course! You'll need LOVE if you want to survive down here!" Flowey answered with a wink.
"Don't touch those!" Shulk gasped, his eyes no longer glowing blue. "Those things will hurt you!"
"What? C'mon, I'm just trying to help you!" Flowey protested, pouting.
"I doubt you are...what are those things, then?" Dunban asked, pointing at the 'friendliness pellets'.
"I told you, they're friendliness pellets! Now, just hold still and let me-"
The pellets were knocked away with a fireball from Melia. She gripped a staff tightly in her hands, wings on her head flaring out-
Wings? She had wings on her head?
"Begone! If you want to hurt us, you won't get the chance to!" Melia snapped.
"C-Calm down, why are you acting like he's our enemy?" Jr asked, looking shocked.
Flowey scowled. "Is this a joke? Just run into the bu-friendliness pellets!" he complained, another cloud of pellets forming above his head. Melia tossed another fireball at the pellets, just barely missing Flowey. Flowey's face suddenly contorted into an awful sneer.
"You know what's going on here, don't you? You just wanted to see me suffer!" he snarled. A ring of pellets surrounded the group.
"DIE!"
Just before the pellets could harm them, they suddenly vanished, and a fireball knocked Flowey away. This time, it wasn't Melia who used a fire spell. A tall, goat-like being in a purple robe slowly approached them, wary.
"...what a terrible creature, attempting to harm such poor, innocent youths," the new person said, looking down at the younger members of the group.
"Thank you for saving us!" Fiora thanked. "We weren't sure what would have happened if you didn't stop that flower!"
"Indeed. My name is Toriel, and I am the caretaker of the ruins. Please, follow me," she ordered. Toriel turned around and started heading toward the other exit in the room. The group shuffled after her, looking around as they did.
The ruins seemed composed of mostly purple stone, ivy curling around walls and old pillars. The air smelled old and musty to Fei...a small, glowing point of light rested in front of a staircase leading deeper into the ruins, and Fei couldn't help but touch it.
Your journey here is just beginning. Get a move on, will you?
Fei looked around, confused. What was that voice that spoke in his head just now?
"Fei? You alright?" Bart asked, pausing in his tracks. Fei just nodded and hurried to catch up with the group.
"This will be your new home, young ones," Toriel spoke aloud as they entered a room with six buttons on the right side of the room, a lever on the wall.
"I'm sorry, what? New home? We already have a home!" Jr protested.
"Even so...in the ruins, you will encounter puzzles, which are ancient fusions of door keys and diversions. You will need to solve them, so please adjust yourself to the sight of them," Toriel explained. She walked over four of the buttons and pulled down the lever, opening the door before beckoning the humans onward into a room with several bridges over some water, with a set of levers on a wall and spikes blocking the farthest bridge.
"Ms. Toriel, we apologize, but we'd just like to go home as soon as possible," Melia explained. "We have people waiting for us..."
Toriel seemed to disregard Melia's comment, and looked down at Maria, Billy, Emeralda, MOMO, and Jr. "Now, young ones, I have labeled a set of switches up ahead for you to press to solve this puzzle."
Jr seemed visibly annoyed at being treated as one of the younger kids of the group. Fei was slightly amused, he could hardly be much older than Maria...nonetheless, he walked over to the switches with the other young members of the group and activated them. The spikes retracted into the floor, and Toriel seemed pleased.
"Well done! Follow me, please," she praised, leading everyone into the next room. A training dummy was lying in the room, and Jr's eyes lit up.
"Oh cool! Does this mean we get to practice our fighting skills on the dummy?" he asked Toriel, drawing two guns from their holsters. Toriel looked alarmed, and almost moved to swipe the guns.
"No, no! The dummy is not for fighting!" she explained. Jr pouted, reluctantly placing his guns back in their holsters.
"As humans living in the underground, you may be attacked by monsters, but fear not! When you are approached by a monster, you will enter a fight. When in a fight, strike up a friendly conversation," Toriel explained. "Try practicing with that dummy."
The kids walked up to the dummy. MOMO coughed nervously as she spoke, "Um...hello?"
The dummy doesn't seem much for conversation, a voice in Fei's head commented. They probably should have beaten it up.
Toriel beamed. "Very good, young ones!" she praised before leading the humans into the next room. It seemed to be a long hall, gray pillars lining it.
"Now, for your next task-"
"Toriel, I'm sorry, but...you have ignored asking about us going home since we got here," Gaignun interrupted. "We would like to know how we..."
He was simply responded to with a cool look from Toriel mid-sentence, and he fell silent, face starting to grow red.
"I believe you need to show a bit of patience. I could pester you about why some of these children have weapons, but I'm choosing not to," Toriel pointed out, folding her arms.
"My apologies," Gaignun replied, softly.
"As I was saying...you will have to make it to the end of this hall without me in this task, young ones. I will be waiting at the end of the hall," Toriel informed before hurrying away.
Jr turned to Gaignun, a furious look on his face. "She's patronizing us! And she's treating you and the others like...like...!" he complained.
"I know, but we'll have to put up with it for now," Gaignun reminded. "I wonder why, though..."
"We probably should get going, Toriel must be frustrated as is..." Shion prompted. The party made their way down the hall, Toriel out of sight. Everyone had just reached the end of the room when Toriel stepped out from behind a pillar.
"I apologize, young ones. I wanted to see if you you could handle yourselves without me. I need to leave you for a while," she explained. Toriel took out a small, rectangular item with a black screen on it and handed it to MOMO.
"What's that?" Fei asked, glancing over at it.
"A cell phone. I will call you if something comes up," Toriel simply said before leaving.
"A cell phone? I...suppose that's used for communication?" Dunban asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, they are," Shion answered. "I get the feeling she doesn't trust us."
"She's treating us like little kids! She doesn't think we can handle ourselves!" Jr grumbled.
"I don't like it either, but what can we do?" Maria asked. "We might have to put up with it until we get home."
"Still! I'm used to that kind of crap at the Foundation, but...ugh!" Jr huffed.
"Easy, Jr. We should try to make our way through the ruins," Ziggy suggested. "Better than staying here and waiting for her to come back."
"Right, then...!" Jr agreed before the party of humans began to walk deeper into the ruins, unaware of another pair of eyes watching them.