IV

Unwanted Exposition

Sentiments flowed through the darkness... photos of the past collected together resurfacing memories long forgotten. Brainz found himself standing in the doorway of his childhood home, warmth from an open fire alluring him in, the good old times. His mother humming that familiar lullaby, filling the room with a gentle hymn. Child made drawings rested on the favorite reading chair, stories told on his mother's lap echoed from the cushions.

Brainz jovially walked onto the tiled floor of the kitchen, the smell of a fresh pie gilded the air. Life felt good, the small rustic home was something out of a dream, leaving fondness that could warm anyone's shivering soul. Brainz approached the maternal figure, working away on something good in a pie tin a sense of euphoria caressed his soul. His small hand outstretched to gently tug on her robe, a sheepish way to get her attention.

The sweet song abruptly stopped and the figure became motionless, Brainz began to feel a sense of dread climbing up his legs. "Mama?" The warm air filling the house ceased, giving away for an icy atmosphere. Brainz stepped back apprehensively, the figure finally turned around to face him and then it finally hit him, that wasn't his mother.

Toriel glared at him, her face an enigma of expressions of a hateful stare and a deformed grin ear to ear. She had been corrupted into something out of a feverish nightmare, ghastly injuries and tears in her robe plagued the twisted creature. The gentle lights faded out of existence leaving Brainz and his nightmare in the darkness. It spoke, with a mouthful of broken and jagged teeth. "The way I see it, they'll come after you and then he'll kill you."

Toriel's deformed face curved back into the demonic smile, water began pouring out of the open wounds littering her body slowly flooding the room. Brainz instinctively tried to flee but the rising liquid paralyzed his legs, leaving him to stare into the maddened red eyes. "You promised me that you'd never-" Toriel pointed the familiar black pistol between Brainz's eyes. "-But what does this say about YOU?" The pistol discharged, the explosion flashed briefly before Brainz's eyes and the bullet felt like a pool of sub freezing salt water.

Brainz forced a raucous yell from his mucous lined throat, the blast slowly faded from his mind, the cold still bore through his skin like a drill carving into his bones. He shot up rapidly out of the water disorientated and scared, his head feeling twenty pounds heavier. Each heart beat pushing more of the nightmare from his aching head. The world eventually stopped spinning allowing Brainz to gather the remainder of his wits, he didn't know where to start. The nightmare had left him in the aftermath of a bad trip, shivering cold to the bone.

Brainz eventually concluded that he had returned to honest reality and his senses returned to him. Water dripped from his drenched clothes back into the knee deep pool, littered with pieces of wood debris of various sizes. A patch of yellow flowers floated in place, releasing ornate petals with the flow of the water. While attempting to wring out some of the water, Brainz was still restarting his mind, everything leading up to this point was still blurry.

That dream though… it was wrong in countless ways, mainly the memory of a legitimate childhood. Brainz rubbed the newly formed bump on his head and considered the memory, it was all a lie. Brainz could never recall a moment where he got along with his mother. She had never wanted anything to do with him and a recurring comment from her was how Brainz was a mistake. As far as Brainz knew, he never had a childhood, but yet the dream felt so very vivid and real. Those "memories" if he could call them so, surely weren't his.

A sharp pain caused Brainz to wince when he felt a hole just below his shoulder in the damp sweater. A narrow incision under the exposed fabric continued to bleed slowly, small red clouds diluted in the water. Then it hit him, he recalled the surge of adrenaline as he lunged at the armored figure and her spear slicing through his arm… and then the bag. Brainz noticed the distinct lack of weight on his back and as he felt for it he noticed the black carcass slightly buoyant above the water.

"Oh no, oh noo!" Brainz trudged through the water and pulled the ragged backpack out of the pool, it was completely empty mind the water collected inside of it. Brainz tossed the bag and frantically searched the water for his things. "You little bastard… I swear I'm gonna gut you like a fish when I find you."

Brainz continued to damn Undyne to hell under his breaths as he felt the floor with his hands, trying to find anything that survived the fall. Hope ran through his veins when he felt something firm under the water, his eyes met with a deflated basketball. "What the?!" Brainz dropped the flabby thing back into the water and noticed the huge piles of garbage ahead.

"My god… is this some kind of garbage dump?" Brainz thought of it for a second and looked down at the water up to his knees. "That means that I'm standing in… dumpster water." Brainz began dry heaving, he'd probably vomit if he didn't consider how he'd be swimming in it. "Jesus Christ!, that piece of shit threw me away!"

On top of feeling like a worthless piece of trash with a concussion, Brainz groaned sadly with the realization that finding any of his possessions would be like finding a needle in a haystack, ballistic needles in a haystack of smelly waste. "My only advantages to actually leaving this place… gone-" Brainz exhaled angrily. "-I'd really like to have my gun now, I've entered the second ring of hell and I don't have the easy way out."

Brainz waded through the waist deep filth with one hand over the open wound. "I had some gauze for this in my bag… guess I'll just bleed for a bit longer." As Brainz passed more mountains of garbage, more thoughts began to return to his head. He took another peak at the fluid soaking into the striped fabric of the sweater and remembered the bloody nose.

That kid didn't know what blood was… granted it's just a kid but I'm sure it would've seen some form of it from the adults. Brainz pondered some more, Or maybe, they don't bleed… considering everything I've seen, it's a plausible theory. A decrepit bike greeted him as he trudged along. But then, that leaves Toriel. Brainz rolled up his damp sleeve to see the equally damp bandages holding together. How would she know about blood; about guns, or just me in general? Brainz sighed and reapplied pressure to his cut. I knew I should've questioned her some more, guess I'll add that to the list of regrets for when I die down here. Brainz continued through the dump feeling sorry for himself, he would've been content with complaining all day until something caught his eye floating in the water.

An orange cooler sat in the middle of the path, the colors were still bright and shiny as if it had just been thrown away. A sticky note lay on top decorated with squiggly juvenile handwriting. "Can you believe that someone would throw these away?" Reluctance to open the cooler aside, Brainz lifted the lid off slowly. He was taken back by the sight.

The contents were dry, preserved, neatly arranged, and ultimately his. Brainz looked around the dump trying to spot an ambush for him but was only greeted by discarded piles. He turned his attention back to the cooler, while he sure that all of his belongings weren't there, he knew how to be thankful for anything. Brainz immediately recognized his small black box perfectly intact, gun, lighter, cigarettes in all. Brainz lit up another smoke and continued to account for what he had. The sawed off shotgun was next to greet him.

"No way." The water would've flooded the compartments rendering it useless, but as he held it in the air there was no indication that it had ever gotten wet. Brainz desired to feel some level of relief, but he only grew more suspicious as he surveyed the items. Who the hell did all this?

Brainz kept this thought in mind as he ran the items through his head; A handful of shotgun shells, several grenades branded 'M-67' or 'M-84', a red crowbar with one end ground into a spear, a small suture kit… Brainz immediately paused his catalogue and snatched the red bag rifling through it for bandages. The original contents of the case had mostly been discarded when Brainz first found it, with little medical knowledge he would do more damage trying to sew himself back together than any assailant could dream to do. A half dozen of adrenaline autoinjectors buried the gauze rolls beneath.

After generously wrapping the cloth around his arm, Brainz spotted the final item in the gift box, a muddied and bloodied piece of worn leather lay folded neatly in the cooler. Brainz held it up and inspected the trench coat, it was his alright, marked by the dozen or so bullet holes in the lining.

How long was I out? Toriel just threw this away… right? Despite the condition of the clothing, Brainz still accepted and reunited himself with the worn jacket. The garment was warm and comforting Brainz embraced the leather like a security blanket. It was just how he remembered it mind for a peculiar weight in one of its pockets, Brainz pulled out a small cellphone wearing a similar note. "I like your spunk! You've got the right ideas, here's to make sure you can execute them. Keep in touch- Your secret admirer."

Brainz clutched the device hesitating for the same reason he never carried cell phones, he didn't like being tracked. He held both of the notes together, words speaking to him. The writing was curved and sloppy similar to the works of a child new to the world a literature, it vaguely reminded him of something, but even that was old news for him.

Finally, both of the notes were crumpled and returned to their cooler, the cell phone returned to its respective pocket. Brainz decided that who or whatever prepared the cooler for him would be friendly enough to trust, at least for now. He finished his cigarette and stuffed the deep pockets with his returned belongings, the shotgun was the last to go held against the leather skin by handles made of duct tape.

Brainz returned to his trudge through the waters, piles of garbage as his only company. He took a double take at a fractured mirror on the way. Wearing a black and red striped shirt and looking like absolute hell with a black trench coat brought a smile to his beaten up face. "All I need is a brown fedora and I've got the Freddy Krueger look." The sweater held his gaze however soaked with filthy water and partially blood, it didn't seem to have a use now other than being a biohazard yet Brainz felt no desire to discard it.

The water eventually met with an elevated path holding the exit. "Oh finally, I'm starting to get waterlogged." Brainz casually approached the lip more than ready to leave the dumping ground when a large splash halted him from the path. Brainz was incapable of being surprised and only sighed frustratedly, he was greeted by a crude statue made of cloth, it laughed.

"Haha! I bet you're too busy wetting yourself to face me now."

Brainz rolled his eyes, "A little late for that, I'm already soaked from the waist down, if you held your breath all day for that line then I'm really sorry bud."

The figure "ooh'd" sarcastically. "You're a real funny guy huh? Well I got a "joke" for you, I'm not even a dummy-."

Brainz slouched uninterested. "Oh?"

"-That's right! I am a ghost that lives inside of a dummy! And I've-."

"Can you please cut to the chase? I really don't have the time for this…"

The dummy scoffed. "Such insolence! I bet some wouldn't even want your soul, it's too arrogant! I oughta-"

Brainz interrupted again. "Wait, wait, wait… my soul? Somebody wants to take my-."

It was the dummy's turn to interrupt. "STOP INTERRUPTING ME!" The dummy shouted briefly and a small battalion of miniature figures emerged from the water.

"Uhoh."

All of the figures locked their sight on Brainz and quickly propelled objects towards him, he held up his arms waiting for the blows, but gently lowered them when he saw the "projectiles". Small balls of stuffing sporadically bumped into his chest falling into the water like dandelion puffs. Brainz raised an eyebrow, "Seriously?"

The dummy growled angrily, "We'll see how sure of yourself you are when I do THIS!" The dummy brought a kitchen knife into the air and flung it straight for Brainz's forehead like a dart. The dummy gasped in disbelief and awe when the knife was arrested by a hand, blood dripping from the palm.

Brainz winced as he pulled the knife out pointing it at the dummy, "Okay, that's enough." Brainz slowly approached the cloth figured with the knife pointed accusingly in his outstretched arm.

The Dummy's army shrank back into the water leaving the thing staring speechlessly into its own knife.

Brainz lowered his voice growling his words. "Listen here PAL I'm standing on the wrongside of a really bad week and I'm really not in the mood for more bullshit right now, cuz I think I'm at my threshold for being civil about it."

The dummy made feeble noises, suggesting the desire for words to come out.

"Shut up!-" Brainz pressed the red tip of the knife into one of the exposed seams on the figure's fabric skin. "-I've just about had it to 'here' with this place so far, and I think all I need is one little-" Brainz severed the seam with the knife. "-Push before I lose it and tear into everyone who looks at me wrong like a pitbull spreading the entrails of a rabbit all over the grass!" Brainz clutched the neck of the figure with his other hand and pulled it closer to his face. "Yeah… it'll be juuuuust like ripping the stuffing out of a cushion, one handful of the stuff at a time, until it's alllll empty." Brainz felt his teeth being forced into a grimace as violent thoughts seeped out of his subconscious.

The figure was frozen in awe with any rational comebacks being consumed by the hateful eyes burning into it's soul. Finally… it laughed loudly. "Hahahahahaah! I like you!, I like what you've got going here-."

Brainz released his grip and stood up.

"-Look at you! You got a real psychopath look there, I think the eye twitching thing really holds it together." The figure laughed again. "Man, my cousin saw you being carried away by that goat lady in the ruins and I would've thought you were a pushover, her little baaaybeee."

The "complement" only further vexed him.

"Oh is that what I'm branded as down here? A joke? A doormat? Do I just invite you idiots to take swings at me like some sort of game?" Brainz pushed the Dummy aside and climbed onto the dry land. "Unbelievable, I'm out of here."

The dummy's laughter died down, "Hey, that's my only knife."

Brainz turned back to the figure and then to the knife, still slick with his own blood. "Here… take it, but first a message." Brainz licked his blood off of the knife and flung it at the dummy, sticking the blade into it's body. "I'm getting tired of this, YOU I'd consider lucky, but anyone after this?... Hopefully they'll get the message beforehand."

Brainz left the figure behind, it's laughter echoed through the passage. When Brainz was sure that he was out of sight he spat out the foul tasting liquid from his mouth rubbing his tongue to get rid of the flavor. "God, why did I do that?"

Brainz applied another portion of gauze to his damaged hand while still trying to rid himself of the pungent aftertaste of hemoglobins. He could still feel his left eye quivering angrily, it was completely blind, but he could still feel it. Brainz restarted his cool appearance with some deep breaths trying to purge his mind of the images of rage. No… not again… not ever. Anything pertaining to the past was better off forgotten as they seldom brought sentiments, only dolor. "Hold on a sec."

Brainz stopped walking to survey the surroundings. "Where the hell am I going?" Five paths eagerly waited for him to choose, spread out like a hand flat on a table. Without any sense of direction, map, or guide Brainz was reduced to a game of "Eeeny Meeny Miny Moe". The winning path led him to a small enclosure, a menacing house filled the space. It looked like someone gutted a sea monster and filled it with furniture.

Brainz wasn't pleased with the sight, "Gross." It could've belonged to a particularly fanatical fisherman, assisted by the fish skeleton rug lying in front of the (mouth?) door, but a familiar cloth figure staring at Brainz shook this prediction. "You're not gonna jump out at me or anything… right?" It replied with silence. "Ok, well just in case you change your mind-" Brainz pulled back his coat to reveal the concealed shotgun. "-Y'know."

Brainz peered into the glass eye of the house into the darkness, looked like the owner wasn't home. Brainz sought to leave the property, being made out as a burglar wouldn't do him any favors in the future, he was about to turn around when a letter nailed to the door caught his eye. It's not a felony to read someone's mail if they're not a "person" right? Brainz shrugged and grabbed the letter, stealing things wasn't exactly a new concept for him. He surveyed the letter but didn't make it passed the address on the envelope. 'UNDYNE"

"Oh really now?" The letter fell to the ground and received a second punishment by his boot, Brainz stopped back to survey the house again. "Makes sense… pretty fitting for a deranged prick."

The butt of Brainz's shotgun destroyed Undyne's window, Brainz began to clear the jagged glass from his entry point when a brighter idea came to mind. "If she lives here, I probably shouldn't stick around for too long. But I don't think I'll leave empty handed-" Brainz reached into his coat and pulled out one of a pair of M67 Hand grenades.

"-But just a little emptier handed. Brainz ran his finger through the pin and tightened his grip. "I'd gladly use a molotov for your sorry ass, but I guess I'll make do with what I have." With that note, Brainz failed to separate the metal ring from the sphere, instead he slowly held his arm out to inspect the explosive again. "No…"

Brainz tossed the grenade in the air and caught it. "-I've only got two… and I think I'd risk seeing your face when I shove this one up your ass." The grenade returned to his pocket and he traversed down the runner up path.

"Oh cmon…"

Brainz sighed reaching another intersection in his way, he was already doubtful of the path he chose this time, but it seemed the world wanted him to be sure that he was going the wrong way. An ornate wooden chest marked the division, it stood need to a smaller tunnel within the wall. Brainz considered looting the thing, but he could faintly hear heavy breathing coming within the darkened space behind the box.

"No thanks." He left quickly. Brainz felt marginally better over his choices when he spotted another pair of blue signs edged into the cavern wall, he was eager to see what they had to say.

"Hurt, Beaten, and Fearful for our lives, we surrendered to the humans. Seven of their greatest magicians sealed us underground with a magic spell."

Brainz began laughing at the messages he only continued reading with a chuckle.

"Anything can enter through the seal, but only beings with a powerful enough SOUL can leave-" Another fit of coughing and laughing, this time when he resumed reading he spoke in a mocking tone.

"-There is only one way to reverse this spell, oh boy! If a Huuuuuge power, equivalent to seven human SOOOULS oh spooky, attacks the barrier, it will be destroyed and then we can all sit down for a spot of tea and fairy dust."

Brainz howled with laughter forced to lean against the wall until his legs regained integrity.

Brainz wiped the tears from his face and slightly regained his composure, joking out loud to a crowd that wasn't there. "I mean really, Magic? The power of souls? Oh man, I don't think I can take that! I mean… I can accept the weirdos down here, and even then I don't know why, but magic?" Brainz stood up and sighed, letting the remainder of his immature giggles out. "Magic isn't real.. This is just a joke."

He continued down the path another sign awaited him but he neglected to read it seeing that they didn't have anything serious to say. "Man… I bet that spaz back in the dumps put these up or something Ooohohoho We're gonna get your soul! Please." He continued, still entertaining himself. "Next, they're gonna tell me that I am 'The One' to complete their dark ritual with pentagrams and cool robes… hah." With that sarcastic remark Brainz began to ponder, Hmmmmm now that I think about it that marking on Toriel's robe, the white wings with all that stuff, I've seen that before… it was on the doors to that place too…

"What the?" A room completely drenched with darkness met Brainz as he proceeded mind for a narrow path of grass lit from the radiance of a blue mushroom colony. Brainz approached the blue fungi and placed a hand over his mouth, mushrooms weren't supposed to glow and the only thought going through his head was a blatant accusation. Radiation. If he was correct, then agitating the irradiated colony wouldn't do him any good other than potentially inhaling contaminated spores.

Feeling around with his feet, Brainz felt more ground, proceeding away from the blue light, his lighter snapped open to add an orange glow to the air. From the actual ground he could see, it looked like he had a whole day of fumbling through the dark ahead of him. "Well that's just goddamned peachy, I must be going the right way now." Brainz sighed.

"Go right on through sir." The narrow gate slowly lifted into the air letting Mordegrid under the metal door. "Take the third turn on your right, there's a school with a large parking lot for your car." The soldier beckoned for the rest of the convoy to enter behind the black crown victoria.

Mordegrid edged his vehicle forward waiting for the passing units to part for him on the road, he spotted what he was looking for on the side of the road. "Kocrenzi Valley Elementary." For such a small town, the school building was notably large sporting three stories of vacant classrooms and empty hallways. Mordegrid found his space amongst the gathering of APC's and armored trucks, the army of patrol units had been replaced by these vehicles leaving Mordegrid's car as the black sheep of the herd.

Mordegrid stepped out of the vehicle to rest against the top of the car, his legs weren't quite as ready as he was becoming desensitized by the grueling nine hour drive. Mordegrid peered into his car while still regaining stability on his legs the sight of it sickened him, while normally being compulsively emmaculate over his belongings he dropped that priority for a pile of spent coffee cups and fast food wrappers. His mindset was solely focused on this man, Brainz first, worry later.

"Mister."

Mordegrid turned from the car to face three men attired in camouflage gear.

"Mister Mordegrid, we've been told to bring you to the local holding station on your arrival."

Mordegrid titled his head confused. "I don't know who told you to do that, but I told two thirty-seven that I would consult with the-"

The soldier held up his hand. "Officer Thompson was relieved from his post and sent home, we've taken operational control of this situation."

Mordegrid stiffened up with a skeptical look paired with an accusative tone. "And Just who are you to take control of this case? Because I know that I'm the captain in charge of-."

Another soldier interrupted him. "The National Guard."

Mordegrid's eyes widened, "What? I wasn't informed of this at all, I should've been updated about this!"

The middle soldier wiped his brow. "I'm just following orders, you'll have to consult with sergeant Pailurn at the station-" He beckoned for Mordegrid to follow. "-So if you could please- come with me."

Mordegrid exhaled sharply through his nose scowling, anything remotely challenging to his authority was bad news for everyone, but even he knew that he would have little power in an argument here. "Fine."

The local police station was a small place fitting for the town itself, under normal operation it would have only seen two people spending the night behind bars. The walk wasn't long considering every building in the town was within walking distance, but even so the tread to the station lasted longer in Mordegrid's mind. Green shaded humvees and M-35s were the only vehicles on the road only yielding to the troopers crossing the dirt pavement.

Two men stood their ground in the front doorway M16s in hand. "What's this? Who's the suit?" Mordegrid could see their fingers nervously dancing around the triggers.

"Stand Down, this is the guy-." The escort made air quotes. "-Captain Mordegrid of the New York Police Department." The doormen lowered their weapons and moved from the door wearing smug grins. "Of course, please come in, you have been expected."

Mordegrid choose against an aggressive comeback and entered the lobby, still assisted by his welcoming party. Mordegrid was lead through the small building into a smaller office marked by a single nameplate on the door, "SHERIFF."

"Captain Mordegrid! Oh please, come in!" A friendly voice rang from behind the desk. Mordegrid shuffled in, the door clicked shut behind him leaving the room in silence. A large man with a freshly buzzed head stood hunched over the desk with a large smile on his face.

"Why don't you do me a favor and sit down."

Mordegrid could sense the deception in the voice, clearly this man was pissed, but Mordegrid obeyed sitting down on the folding chair.

"So tell me- what brings you down to these parts? You sure are a very so very long ways from your jurisdiction." The generous smile concealed a hidden rage.

Mordegrid cleared his throat and tried to sound confident. "I do apologize for the delay, I mean I was supposed to be issued a helicopter escort by Six AM on a monday morning, but something or someone didn't let that happen. So I had to drive straight from Amherst down here." The man behind the desk feigned a gasp, Mordegrid continued. "Yes, and when I tried to get some answers someone must have screwed with the radio channels because I didn't get an answer until your pals outside decided to strike a joke."

The man behind the desk laughed loudly, banging his hands on the wooden top until he had enough of himself."Oh my, that really is something. Poor Lunezo's having a bad day, and you want to know what the worst part of that is?"

Mordegrid opened his mouth. "Wha-."

"Rhetorical question." The man's cheery facade faded away. "Let me tell you something, Your helicopter? We sent it home, and your command? It doesn't exist anymore. In fact, just letting you sit here and spout that bullshit to me is already against policy." The man sat down and cracked his knuckles. "Now, I want you to do me another favor and tell me what you know is going on here, cmon I want to hear it." The man held a hand to his ear.

Mordegrid rolled his eyes and sighed. "The National-"

"Yes! That's it! The National Guard! You know, the United States MILITARY?"

Mordegrid leaned back in his chair silent.

"What's wrong Captain? I figured you'd know what you're going into if you're gonna ignore everything being told to you and just waltz down into our mission expecting a grand welcome wagon."

Mordegrid only glared at the sergeant, furiously twiddling his thumbs as sweat beaded up on his neck.

"Now, I could place you under arrest for this blatant insubordination and send you back with one of every dishonorable discharge because you are waaaaay out of your jurisdiction and frankly out of line." The man shook his finger at the Captain. "Or… I could spare you from driving all day up to this rathole only to be kicked back."

Mordegrid raised one of his brows. "What do you mean?"

The sergeant took a deep breath and lowered his voice. "I know all about how this case plays out for you and even if I didn't know a lick of truth about it I could still see by you going out on a limb to come up here that this is a personal thing for you."

Mordegrid shuffled nervously in his chair.

The sergeant stroked his mustache. "So what I can do, provided you stay on your leash like a good mutt, is let you stay up here to watch real hardworking people do their jobs."

"You're serious now?" Mordegrid felt a large veil of stress being lifted off of his shoulders. "You're not gonna report me in or something like that?"

The man behind the desk stood up and shrugged. "Nah, I'll note that we requested your specific skills to assist with this search mission… so-." His arm outstretched towards Mordegrid. "-Do we have an understanding then?" Mordegrid felt a sense of uneasiness around this man, but he accepted the deal and shook his hand. "Great! Now I'm gonna assume you wanna head up to the mountain and see the place for yourself yeah?"

"Actually, No." Mordegrid put his hands on his belt and looked around the small office at the sparse filing cabinets. "What I'd like to know is if you could tell me any stories about this place." The sergeant leaned back on the desk

. "You want me to tell you a story? I get that you're happy I didn't reprimand your ass but don't be getting any ideas about kissing mine thinking I'm gonna open up to you."

Mordegrid let out an exasperated sigh. "No!... you freaking-." He clenched his fists and relaxed his grip and temper. "-No… what I'm asking for is any background on this place, mostly the mountain itself."

"Uh… we wouldn't have anything like that, no."

Mordegrid shuddered slightly and raised an eyebrow. "Oh yes you would, if you're military then I know you're part of the Department of Defense."

The sergeant wasn't following. "Okay?"

"That's pretty high clearence, at least higher than mine, and that means that you can pretty much get whatever you want whenever you want out of the feds."Mordegrid rubbed his hands together, "In that case, you must have a way of knowing something about this place that I obviously don't… does Anonymous Cases ring a bell?"

The sergeant perked up, his eyes widened and mouth slightly ajar as if this was new to him, he let out a single laugh in the form of a "heh." "This mountain here? Mount Ebott? Is under something called Anomalous cases for you?"

Mordegrid sighed again. "Yeah, and I'm completely locked out of it, God you wouldn't believe the things I did trying to get into it." Mordegrid wiped more sweat off of his brow. "Please tell me you've got the ranks to get that kinda info, I mean you're an officer or something right?"

"Army Sergeant Richard Pailurn, if you may and I think we can look into that. It'll just take some time but we've got all the clearance we need." Sergeant Pailurn stood up again and waved his hand to the door, two silhouettes behind the foggy window moved away and the door creaked open. "So, in the meantime would you like to see the place then?"

Mordegrid grinned and removed his suit jacket, "Definitely, I've been dying to see how this place could've let that rat escape." Both men left the room, Mordegrid leading the way.

When Mordegrid stepped out of the lobby Pailurn turned to the two men guarding the door and nodded. "Yeah he's on board, we're practically invisible. This is the place alright, and he's gonna prove it."

"Yes yes, hello…" Brainz groaned sounding more tired with each greeting.

"Cum, met mi frend also!" The small creature implored for Brainz to continue down the line of smiling faces.

"Let me guess, this is your friend Temmie?"

The creature bounced excitedly, "Yeh! And this iz also mi oder ODER frend-"

Brainz sighed, "Temmie I presume?"

The creature widened its eyes. "WoOooow yu kno nams alrdy!, yu smart!"

Brainz turned to his guide, restraining the urge to groan annoyedly. "And then you must be… -."

"Bob."

Brainz stifled a surprised yell. "Right." Brainz looked around dejectedly at all the bright eyed "Temmies." Smiling innocently at him, Those luminescent mushrooms must've been more potent than I thought, this is like a fever dream gone wrong.

"Hey Mistur."

"Yes?" Brainz put all of his will power into a straight face.

'Bob' nodded its head towards a depression in the cave wall. "Yu shud chek out the Tem shop fore stuf to help yu."

You've gotta be kidding me. "Alright, thanks." To his disbelief he had actually walked into a legitimate retail store, or at least the closest thing resembling a bazaar.

"Hoi, Welkum to the tem shop!"

Brainz rubbed the back of his neck akwardly, "Uh Hi… what-" He swallowed. "-What do you have in stock?"

"We hav, Tem Flakes; Tem Flakes; and expensuve Tem Flakes."

Brainz played along confused, "Uh huh… and what are tem flakes exactly?"

The creature brought a handful of discs hole punched out of varying cuts of construction paper.

Is that blot paper? Brainz stared at the circles completely flabbergasted without any words to return, his mind was frantic. Holy shit! I'm definitely staring at a party's dose of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide, they've got drugs down here! Brainz looked back at the exhuberated shopkeep, his eyes were almost as wide as its. Oh my god, that would explain it. "Um, no thanks." Brainz had a stupid thought. "Hey, probably a long shot but… do you have some kind of map or directions to leave the wetlands?"

Brainz's jaw nearly hit the floor when he got his answer in perfect english."Of course, when you exit Temmie Village keep going forward but make a right at the next colony of glowshrooms, they'll mark the path for you, try not to bring any other sources of light near them as they don't shine very well otherwise, you'll find the waterfall and then you can proceed to the hotlands." It sat back and smiled innocently at the bewildered man.

"Uhhhh… thanks a million? I'll be on my way then?"

"Bu Bye!"

Brainz walked out of the village rubbing his eyes vigorously and pinching himself to make sure he was actually awake. He didn't make use of his lighter again unlike his period of fumbling through the maze, despite being fearful over the potentially psychedelic mushrooms, he found his way. God, I can't believe they've got shit like LSD down here, these mushrooms are probably trip inducing too!

Brainz wanted nothing to do with mood altering substances since his promise to himself years ago, passed experiences lead him to stay off of the stuff. Smoking would've been his last habit to break, but at this point the lack of it would break him.

Brainz returned to the light, a sigh of relief ran through him. Oh man, dot n spots back there was legit! Drugs are weird. He spotted another echo flower next to a depression filled with tall grass.

Brainz squinted his eyes skeptically and shrugged loudly. "Oh boy! A pretty blue flower! I think I'll go and listen to it! I just hope that NO-ONE interrupts me!" The booby trap was a little too obvious for anybody to fall for it, Brainz played along to appease whoever set it. He approached the flower and reached for the petal but stopped abruptly when a thought hit him.

"Oh wait, I already forgot once!" Brainz removed the twelve gauge from his coat and snapped it open, the two cases inside were long spent and fell to the ground. Brainz muttered as he snatched two shells from his pocket, "If I did this earlier I would've been a much happier man, chalk one up for regrets." *CLICK*

Brainz pointed the two barrels towards the tall grass and slowly caressed the petals of the blue flower, eyes dead on the grass.

"Behind you."

Brainz lost his focus, "What?" He darted his attention away from the grass to see the figure emerge from the darkness, hate began to boil in his blood. "YOU…" The shotgun pointed at Undyne, "You really took your time coming to make sure I was dead, haven't you heard of checking your work?"

For the first time, it spoke directly to Brainz, it sounded calm yet threatening. "Seven souls… seven souls is all we need so that our king-."

"Cut the crap." Brainz brandished his weapon, despite the rage bubbling under his skin he spoke in a similar calmness. "I'm not one for fairy tales and stories, No. In fact, I don't believe in any of it; magic, the power of love and friendship… happy endings, No."

Undyne stood motionless,

Brainz casually wiped residues off of the weapon barrel. "Now- from what I've been seeing all over this place it looks like all that bullshit is the foundation of everything this dungeon stands for." He cocked his head to the side and closed one of his eyes, giving Undyne a skeptical look. "So, even thick minded dogs... like you-." The shotgun nodded at her. "-Could take a magical guess that I probably don't belong down here. Well, you'd be right! And I'd be the first to commend you too, but right now my priorities aren't to fuck around with you lot, No." Brainz sighed and shook his head somberly before returning to his stance aiming at Undyne. "In fact, what I really want to do may surprise you… wanna hear?"

Brainz shot his trademark sarcastic grin at the armored figure, he expected some answer but was left to his own monologue.

"Great! Well… what I'd like to do is leave this place and be on my way out of your hair, y'know kinda what I think everyone else down here wants? But then I find myself dealing with closed minded assholes, like you- who'd prefer for me to linger here for the longest time possible, enabling me to commit all sorts of atrocities! Can you imagine?"

The sheer amount of sardonic friendliness in his voice was both patronizing and insulting, Undyne's hands balled into fists while she continued to let the man rebuke her.

"And judging from the lovely poems on your walls-." Brainz spook with an acute patronising tone while making air quotes. "- 'The Big Bad Humans' Have already had their swing on you miserable dregs."

Undyne didn't reply and Brainz couldn't tell but, under her armor she was twitching furiously, teeth abrasively scraping against each other.

"Alright, I think I've had my fill… so why don't you show me that you can rub two brain cells together and show me how to leave-" The next thing he'd say would probably be a mistake. "- Maybe we'll swing by mister dremel or whoever and I'll forget the mistakes you made… I probably shouldn't blame you anyways, all those extra chromosomes must be such a burden to carry." That was the point of no return if he'd ever saw one. Now he was able to see her body shaking, teething with fury, forget hitting a bad nerve he probably hit all of them.

Undyne still left the man without a response, instead her trembling arms slowly reached for her helmet, Brainz could see the scratch marks in the eye slit. The helmet clattered to the ground, Brainz raised his brows when he got an eyeful of what he created. The one eye that was staring at him was practically blood red, it twitched violently, the sharp irregular teeth were fused together into a tight snarl.

Me and my big mouth, I probably shoulda let her run hers.

Brainz made one final comment, the final nail on his coffin. "That's funny… I made a comment earlier about gutting you like a fish when I got my hands on you-."

Two handfuls of gleaming blue spears reared back rapidly, Undyne only uttered a guttural noise, "NYAAAAAH!" "Aw shit…."

Blinding blue projectiles bolted to the wall, Brainz made for the floor, diving to the left. The cone of the spears was tight, any hesitation and all of them would've made their mark in his heart or adjacent organs. Undyne prepared another spear and clenched it in both arms like a battering ram, Brainz could only see the edge charging towards him full steam.

*BLAM!*

The shotgun sent a shockwave echoing through the cavernous passages, the barrage of lead knocked Undyne off of her footing, the spear was knocked out of her hands. Brainz took the opportunity, he jumped to his feet leaving Undyne still dazed, he turned back to face her and the shotgun followed. His shot was clear, her head turned back to see the barrel point blank from mangling her face.

*BLAM!*

Undyne felt the force of another shot drilling into her back, the lethality was impeded by her armor but the force knocked her down to all fours. In the moment of stupor Undyne considered that the human must've aimed too low, how that could've been possible at such a low range was a mystery. When she got back to her feet again, she barely caught the sight of the man taking the path she concealed before. "Nyah! Of course he would!"

Brainz bounded through the flooded path taking leaps out of the water to maintain his speed, through the frantic splashes he heard an enraged voice trailing behind him.

"Get back here you little PUNK!"

He had no sense of direction or elevated thought, his mind wasn't running but he sure was. The ground ahead began to darken, Brainz didn't have the luxury to slow down and bring out a light. The metallic footsteps raging behind him synced with his heart thumping loudly.

This is REALLY starting to become a trend with me, running for my life in the dark from something REALLY pissed! Brainz felt the presence advancing on him from behind. I should really consider my life's choices and-

*CRA-ACK*

Brainz met an abrupt dead end with his face.

Undyne's snarl conformed into a sadistic grin seeing the man fall backwards like a domino. She proceeded to his groaning body and grabbed him by his bloodied chin forcing him against the wall with strangling force. She began laughing at the feeble noises erupting from his throat as he began to turn blue.

"Here, let me help you with that!" Her other arm held another blue strike, it pressed itself against the man's forehead, he thrashed desperately.

Brainz felt his vision began to cloud, the image of the hideous grin would be the last thing he saw as Undyne pulled her arm back to drive the spear into his head. Brainz tasted the blood collecting in his mouth and winced… then an idea tasted like iron inside of his mouth. Using the remainder of his breath, his cheeks expelled a salivated glob of blood into Undyne's face, trying to spray her eye.

"AUUGH GROSS!" The killing spear was halted as she tried to wipe the fluids off of her face, Brainz took to instinct and brought the unloaded weapon up. The jagged barrels bore into Undyne's cheek, twisting and thrashing to inflict as much pain and damage as a desperate man could create.

It worked, her grip weakened enough for Brainz put his torso into a swing using the butt of his shotgun as a bludgeon against Undyne's temple. She yelled in agony and stumbled back, holding the the damaged part of her face, Brainz saw the turn that he should've made and cultivated on the choice into the cave.

He didn't make it very far before halting in his tracks doubling over panting raggedly. Being able to pull off an act he did just shy of suffocation was nothing short of a miracle, but even after his feat he couldn't find the wind to run anymore. The choke bruise throbbed with each returning gasp, Brainz counted his pained breaths waiting for another sound to accompany his misery. The footsteps returned to mind but halted yards away, Brainz knew what to expect when he turned around.

There she stood, deep lacerations on her cheek resting below streaks of drying blood, spear in hand. "Human… if you even are one-" Her spear twirled rapidly in hand. "-I tried to be respectful-" Undyne wiped more of the man's blood off of her wound. "-I tried to explain-." Her neck tilted to the side, cracking loudly. "-and I tried to be reasonable… but YOU… you… you've showed me why we persecute your kind with damning evidence."

Undyne looked down shaking her head slowly, and let out a long sigh. "Throughout all of my life, I have seen everything… and yet you've been a burning contradiction to that. YOU and you alone in the hours I've been cursed with having to interact with you… have shown me that you are the dirtiest human ever to poison our homes, our prison, let alone to live."

Brainz spat out another glob of blood from his damaged gums and returned the hateful gaze to its sender. "I'd say that I'm hardly the worst, but you think otherwise… then I'd hate to break it to you but you've been sheltered from the real world, wallowing in your own belligerence." Brainz split the shotgun apart, Undyne watched the shells clatter to ground, clicking echoing through the cavern. Brainz felt a lone shell remaining in his pocket and sighed, his last piece of ammo entered the gun and was sealed inside. "In fact, I'd tell you how much a stroll outside would do you some good, but I think we both know that I'm not in any mood to help you… if you can be helped that is."

Undyne shook her head woefully and angrily, "How STUPID can you BE?!" The tail of the spear pierced the rocky floor, sending chunks of stone into the air. "You don't know anything and yet you flourish yourself as if you know more than anyone down here! I TRIED to tell you, I TRIED to show you the way, I TRIED-."

Brainz laughed in disbelief. "By trying to skewer me with blue spears? I think you need some work."

"ENOUGH!" Her voice ran through the halls. "And yet, you scornfully refuse to listen to any form of reason, and return my kindness with your filthy tricks and disgusting tactics." Undyne picked up one of the loosened stones, caressing it with her hand. "I'm sure even a punk like you understands that it's all over here."

Brainz nodded. "Yeah, I'll side with ya on that."

"The last human who came this way… I gave them a fighting chance-." Undyne Held out her spear. "-But I don't think you deserve one." The rock imploded inside of her grip, disintegrating into powder.

Brainz pulled back his coat, Undyne watched diligently as the red crowbar left the strap. Brainz discarded the shotgun and gripped his new weapon with both hands. "One way or the other… someone's going to leave this place with a heavier conscience-." Brainz tensed into a defensive stance."-Your Move."