The whole thing was spur of the moment, not really planned out, but sometimes you just gotta do whatever you think you should. Maybe it was the whiskey he had that made him more daring, but he went to Shadow and suggested him a deal. Which, to his own surprise, Shadow had accepted.
He still couldn't quite grasp that nobody got the "Shadow the hedgehog" reference, calling him pretty much a grim and angst ridden clone of anon to his face. The others were taking the Shadow at face value instead of "Shadow the edgehog". If he still played that game to insult people without them noticing, he'd have earned at least fifty points, pretty much ensuring victory.
Squirrel is waiting in the floor of the guest rooms, his strings in place, waiting for Coopio to come out. As soon as the door started to open he used a short burst of non damaging bones to stick the string to the other side of the door.
Thirty minutes earlier...
Undyne was sitting at the piano and played all along the watchtower to which Squirrel was humming to even though he didn't know the melody that well.
Whiskey glass in hand he had a terrible idea. He pushed record on his headset.
* log entry number one.
Yeah, log entries are cool.
* so, i'm gonna document all of this in case someone messes with my memories.
You could never be too careful with all those OP motherfuckers running around.
* if you found these headphones somewhere outside the bar of all sanses or my own home timeline, i've probably been dusted.
* what i did was for the good of all.
He couldn't keep a straight face at that and had to laugh.
* if you're hearing this, then, hey future me!
* hope the plan is working!
* don't give up!
He pushed to stop the recording, walked over to Shadow's cage, past the just leaving edgy table and knelt down.
* heya shadow, you free?
The chained skeleton shot him a sharp look.
* har, har, very funny. what do you want?
Squirrel waved his hand.
* what about if i change the answer to my question to a yes?
Shadow cocked his head, which made the chains clank.
* whatcha saying?
Squirrel pulled a chair close and sat down on it.
* i'm saying, i'd like to offer you a deal. i'll unchain you and in return you give help me.
* pray-tell, with what would you want my help?
* easy.
Squirrel pulled the hollow marker he got for helping mossy rest well.
* we both know that there are few things as powerful as a hollow marker. i want a whole bunch of them!
Shadow considered it for a moment and started to grin.
* tell ya what, if you get me out of here i'll give you a hollow pass. that thing is like a hollow marker you can use over and over again.
Squirrel considered it and agreed to it. What could possibly be better than that? Now he only needed Cooper's key.
But before that he made another entry.
As if on cue Undyne started playing Cooper's song.
* entry two.
* i've managed to strike a bargain with shadow.
* an unlimited hollow pass.
* infinite hollow markers!
* i can travel to every single universe with this thing!
* i'll have to hold up my own end as well, but i'm confident that it will be possible
twenty seven minutes later
He hoped to his future self that it would work. So many things had to go right. Cooper had to not notice any of his magic up to that point; he had to not lock, only pull the door closed behind him; he had to stay undetected and finally, if the magic on the safe worked not the way he thought it did, he had to do it again with another approach.
He had luck and Cooper didn't notice the bolt not falling into place and went straight down. After the steps had faded into the distance he walked over and pulled the door open, dispelling his strings once he was inside. He considered whether to leave the door open and plead innocent when being found, but decided against it. If someone found him, he had no chance either way, the private rooms are off-limit, so he pulled the door closed behind him until he heard a clicking sound.
He looked around. The apartment was spacious and had a good amount of books. He checked them for signs of the string Cooper had around his thumb, but nothing. No marks that indicate the bookcases had been moved frequently.
Next he checked Cooper's bedroom and after a few moments saw the string lying under the picture of Mr Grilby. Gently he tugged on one end of the painting and the painting swung open to reveal the safe.
With a sigh of relieve he saw that it was a magic aura scanner. He had learned how those work about four years back from Apollo, the zed star resident infiltrator. He pulled the hollow marker out and invoked its powers, disabling the aura checker, making it return a positive result without any given input and pulled the safe door open.
There it was, the key. It seemed more real to him than his own hands and when he reached out to touch it, he burned his hands. Looks like it's made of finest elder steel. He rummaged in his pockets for a hanky and found an unused one, which he used to pick up the key and put it in his pocket.
Now he had to consider the way down. If he went the same way he had come upstairs it would be-
SANS? SYRUS JUST ARRIVED AND WANTED TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT SOMETHING.
Okay, thinking fast. He might come in here, the windows are almost indestructible, warp proof and impossible to open from the outside. Luckily he was inside. He opened the window, wrapped a string around it, that it could close with one hard tug from the outside, which would sever the string but he just had to dispel it before it closed completely.
He climbed through the window, pulled hard, dispelled the string just in time and shortcut to the ground, falling hard. He stood up, dusted himself off and walked inside the bar first towards Shadow but then thought it over and walked to the counter instead, putting a 10 G note under a coaster and wrote on it "MAKiNG SOme DRiNKs -? ﾸﾏ" and poured some stuff together, finishing it with the key.
Walking over to him, Shadow eyed Squirrel curiously. Squirrel put the drink on the ground in front of Shadow's cage, who gave him an approving nod.
* impressive.
* heh, was a walk in the park.
* i am curious...
* how did you outsmart dear cooper?~
* Easy.
* i know cooper checks the key before every hollow hour, because, well, i asked him what he does at the start of ever hollow hour. now, since i don't know where exactly he put it i used my string magic (thanks to muffet) to tie a string around his finger, which isn't apparent unless you look for it. i know that the key is cast from elder steel, so my string would dissipate when and where it touches.
* i knew that the key was upstairs so i sneaked in the guest rooms and waited until he left. the door has no handle that it can be opened from our side only with a key, luckily he just draws the door close behind him instead of locking, so i managed to to prevent the bolt from latching by use of my strings and bone magic. now that i was in their apartment i went and checked cooper's bedroom and facepalmed when i saw that my string was hanging from behind a portrait of his father, obviously. the safe was secured with a magic identification lock which i deactivated for a moment to accept all magical input, using your marker. i took the key, burned my hand by the way, that stuff is hardcore, jumped out of the window and shortcut to the ground.
Squirrel had changed a few details of his story to make it sound more impressive and entertaining and left a few facts out. Normally he wouldn't brag about it like this, but he felt like he soared on cloud nine because his plan has actually worked out.
He watched shadow and asked the big question.
* so... uh... you're coming out now or...?
He needed to be somewhere else when shadow got out, for an alibi. Then, after a few seconds considering shadow raised three fingers.
* i give you three minutes to prepare whatever cushy little journey you are planning. after that, the timing will be perfect...
His eyes flared up red and the darkness behind him intensified.
* and hell will break loose~
Squirrel grins at that.
* nice, but i need my end as well.
He holds his hand inside the cage. No one but Cooper and maybe Mossy, once he returned, would dare to do such a thing. And for the first time Shadow looked unsure about it.
* just a reminder, a deal is a deal. and all deals with the devil are final.
Shadow let out a deep chuckle.
* yes, but for the first time in my life i'm on the other side of one of those.
The darkness behind shadow streamed in many tiny veins to his hand, forming a solid rectangular card looking like non-reflective black plastic with the hollow symbol in red on it.
* technically this only holds about thirteen markers at once, but they refill at a pace of one per minute and six seconds. can't make it faster without damaging it.
Squirrel took the card carefully, pulled a London Subway pass holder out of his pocket and put it inside.
* thank you for doing business with me, shadow.
Shadow chuckled again.
* thank you. squirrel. by the way, now only two minutes.
Squirrel nodded and stood up, walked over to his table, drinking the last of his liquor and picked up his coat.
The others already started another half-hourly question round, pulling the questions out of the strange box that Lulu had put there. He'd like to be there for the next round, but he was on a schedule.
Putting his coat on and pulling up the hood to not get wet in the rain he walked a few steps and then an explosion tore down a good part of the wall of the bar and the zed star siren started blaring in the distance. He pushed the record button again.
He looked at his watch. Last time Shadow broke lose they needed a whole day to get him back. Half the time to have a generous buffer.
* entry- eh screw numbering, they'll be in order by internal timestamp anyway.
* shadow is set free and i've synced my time with him.
* until he's captured again i can roam free throughout the multiverse without lulu stopping me.
* first stop, jimmie's world.
With that he walked over to the door leading to the USG Ebott held up the hollow marker, voided the barrier keeping him out and stepped into weightlessness.