Chapter 3
To Hide a Pair of Wimps, Simply do {A479xc/342p} + 320x = y
Red felt dumb, extremely, extremely dumb. Not that he'd admit that to blue-boy.
After revealing that the two strange brothers were actually from a different universe entirely, and a lot of teasing from the blue-hooded version of himself, Red and Fell had to find a way to get them back home.
"Why can't you just do it?" Red asked Alphys, who only shook her head and turned to her PC.
"You handle the multi-verse shit, not me. Plus, they're versions of you and Papyrus, not me; not my fucking circus, not my fucking monkeys."
"Fuck you, your monkeys would all be infertile anyway."
And thus, that is why all 4 of them were taking refuge in Fell and Red's house with the curtains drawn and every possible entrance and exit blocked. It was probably hellishly suspicious to all the other townsfolk, and no doubt Undyne had already been told by Alphys herself and would be 'knocking' on their door in less than an hour.
"OKAY, SO, LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT." Fell starts, hands folded in front of his mouth while he willed up the most amount of patience that he had.
"SO BROTHER, THERE IS A MACHINE IN OUR BASEMENT LEFT BEHIND BY OUR DECEASED FATHER THAT YOU NEVER TOLD ME ABOUT, AND IT IS FOR TIME TRAVEL AND MULTI-UNIVERSAL TRAVEL?"
Red nods.
"YOU HAVE NEVER TOLD ME ABOUT THIS MACHINE, AND NOBODY EXCEPT YOU REMEMBERS OUR FATHER EVEN THOUGH HE IS THE MAN WHO CREATED THE CORE."
Red nods.
"AND OCCAISIONALLY TIME REWINDS ITSELF, WHICH ONLY YOU REMEMBER, AND IT IS BEYOND YOUR CONTROL."
"Yep."
"AND IN NONE OF THESE SUPPOSED 'TIMELINES' YOU EVER BOTHERED TO TELL ME."
"Nope. This is the first time you've ever learned about it."
Fell sighs, pinching between his brows.
"AND I AM GUESSING THAT THIS MACHINE THAT COULD THEORETICALLY SEND THESE TWO WIMPS HOME IS TRASHED AND WILL TAKE MONTHS TO FIX?"
"Got it in one, Boss."
"SANS, DO WE HAVE A MACHINE IN OUR BASEMENT?" Papyrus turns to ask Sans, and he nods.
"Yeah, I've torn the thing to shreds and built it back up enough times, but I can't get the damn thing to work. Only reason I know what it does is because I can read what Dr. W.D. Gaster's wingdings." He answers, and Papyrus lights up in excitement as more pieces started to fit the puzzle.
"AH! SO THAT'S THAT STRANGE LANGUAGE YOU OFTEN SPEAK IN WHENEVER YOU GET STARTLED!"
Red and Fell both snort, Sans flushing a light blue. With that short break out of the way, and the tension surrounding them slightly defused, Red picked back up the conversation.
"Yeah, the machine is a wreck. But if blue-boy over here knows how to fix it then we can at least start there."
"Please don't call me that." Sans grumbles, glaring at the other. Red scoffs,
"I'll call ya what I want; you're calling me Red and you're in my universe."
Sans grumbles, stuffing his hands in his hoodie's pockets and standing up.
"Fine, take me to your machine and I'll see what I can do. C'mon Pappy." Sans gestures to Papyrus, only to be held back by Fell.
"NO, I WANT TO TAKE THIS TIME TO HAVE A… FRIENDLY CONVERSATION WITH MY DOUBLE. YOU AND RED GO AHEAD AND GET DOWN TO THE MACHINE; I DOUBT THIS DIMWIT WOULD UNDERSTAND THE FIRST THING ABOUT MECHANICS ANYWAYS." Fell states, and Sans felt his long-buried temper starting to rise.
"No, my brother is coming with me." Sans demands, stepping forward threateningly, unwilling to leave his brother with the other. Red sighed, stepping back with a muffled grumble of "here we go again, blue-boy stakin' claims on his brother like property."
Sans swung around to face the other, "Papyrus isn't my property! He's my brother, who is in a universe full of psychopaths, and too nice to hurt people in honest self-defense! I trust your brother about as far as I could throw him!"
"We have the same fucking powers; I know for a fact that you can throw him very far."
"Oh fuck off, you get the point!" Sans snaps, eye sparking blue and yellow.
"ACTUALLY, BROTHER; I THINK IT WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE OTHER ME! YOU SHOULD ALSO TAKE THE TIME TO LEARN ABOUT RED! JUDGING FROM HOW LONG IT TAKES FOR YOU TO FIX THE MACHINE, WE MAY BE HERE FOR A VERY LONG WHILE AND IT WON'T BE A COMFORTABLE STAY IF WE HATE EACH OTHER!" Papyrus exclaims, flashing Sans with his largest smile.
"I'LL BE FINE ANYWAY; JUDGING FROM THIS MORNING, I THINK I CAN HANDLE MYSELF AGAINST MR. FELL HERE RATHER EASILY." Sans smirked at the subtle jibe, Fell glaring heatedly at the other.
"Fine, but if he tries anything bro, it's my job as your older brother to-"
"TO WHAT? WATCH PITIFULLY AS I EMBED HIM INTO THE GROUND?!" Fell laughs, and Sans felt his smile stretch menacingly.
"-to help you hide the dust." Fell froze, Red scoffing behind him.
"And now he just completely trusts his brother's word and leaves him alone. Great decisions from blue-boy over here." Sans rounds back around to him, more than annoyed at this point.
"What the fuck do you want?!"
Red raises a brow, looking Sans up and down coyly.
"You bound and gagged at my feet, but I have a feeling that wasn't the kind of answer you were looking for. Later Boss, we'll be in the back." Red grabs Sans by the hood, dragging him through the VOID roughly as they teleported the short distance from the living room to the back of the house.
Red groaned when they got there, grabbing lightly at his chest and he breathed heavily.
"Really not used to doing this more than once with someone else in tow." he comments, and Sans rolls his eyes.
"Lazy ass." Sans pulls the tarp off the machine, standing stock still.
"Oh fuck you, you can't do any better I bet. And why're you just standing there? What, Queen Toriel rip out your fuckin' tongue or some shit?" Red growls, and Sans looks at him with an unamused expression.
"Please, dear stars please tell me you have more than this." Sans pleads, and Red shakes his head.
"Nah, that's all I got. Why? We missin' a lot?" Sans felt his eye socket twitch before exploding.
In front of them sat the empty shell of the machine, all the wiring and mechanisms inside frayed, rusted, and destroyed beyond repair. More than half of the control pad was missing, the blue prints burned and marked as if carelessly left around.
"If by 'a lot' you mean everything except the shell, then yes; we're missing a lot!" Sans explodes, Red quickly exploding back.
"Why're you yelling at me?!"
"Because you must've let it get to this state!"
"It's always been in this state; I've been trying to figure out how to get that much done for years, and with time constantly RESETing I've had to redo a bunch of shit! Anyway, how hard can it be to replace a couple gears and wires?"
"When's the last time you've poked around in there?!"
"You haven't even poked around inside it!"
"I don't have to! Whatever, we need to take a trip to the dump, but the shit we'll need will be too big to teleport. We'll have to teleport down and truck it back manually."
"What?! That's suicide!" Red protested, Sans about to retort before a loud yell broke through their incoming argument.
"RED YOU PATHETIC WHELP! UNDYNE IS HERE TO INSPECT THE NEWCOMERS!"
SANS! UNDYNE IS SO COOL! SHE DESTROYS EVEN MORE THAN OUR UNDYNE AND HAS ALREADY THREATENED TO SUPLEX ME!"
