Munching on a Cinnamon Bunny, Gohan walked alongside Loox and Snowy through the underground tunnels. They were taking the underground path to avoid the townspeople. Using the water troughs inside the tunnel, Gohan washed himself of the spaghetti all over his mouth and hands. He frowned at the sauce mixing with the crystal clear water. He befouled the water.
Loox turned around to watch the frowning boy. "What's wrong, Gohan?"
The boy snapped up at that, flicking the water on the floor absently. "Oh, um. Nothing."
The horned monster frowned, but followed Snowy to the exit. Loox considered Gohan his friend, but after the fight with the royal guardsmen… No. The horned monster would worry about that some other time. He would confront Gohan about that bloodlust later.
Emerging from the tunnel, Snowy pointed to their left. "When I ran away from home, I came from there. Waterfall's just over there, then Hotland, then the Capital."
Loox and Gohan nodded and followed Snowy. As they walked, they could see two figures. Gohan smiled, recognizing their silhouettes. "Mister Papyrus! Mister Sans!" The boy waved at them
Gohan ran in front of Snowy to meet them, only to stop short of Papyrus' determined expression. Sans' eyes were glued to Papyrus. It was too far away to tell, but Gohan thought that Sans' smile was even wider than usual.
"HUMAN."
Chara emerged from Gohan's head. Gohan would have yelped in surprise if it was not for Chara holding their index finger in front of their mouth. "Shut up, idiot."
"ALLOW ME TO TELL YOU ABOUT SOME COMPLEX FEELINGS. FEELING LIKE THE JOY OF FINDING ANOTHER PASTA LOVER. THE ADMIRATION FOR ANOTHER'S PUZZLE-SOLVING SKILLS. THE DESIRE TO HAVE A COOL, SMART PERSON THINK YOU ARE COOL. THESE FEELINGS… THEY MUST BE WHAT YOU ARE FEELING RIGHT NOW! I CAN HARDLY IMAGINE WHAT IT MUST BE LIKE TO FEEL THAT WAY. AFTER ALL, I AM VERY GREAT."
Gohan nodded in understanding, much to the confusion of Chara, Loox, and Snowy.
"YOU SURROUND YOURSELF IN FRIENDS, GOOD ONES EVEN. I PITY YOU, LONELY HUMAN. ON A SCALE OF ONE TO ME, THEY RATE A MEASLY SEVEN AT BEST!"
Loox and Snowy glanced at each other in confusion. Did they just get insulted?
"WORRY NOT! YOU SHALL BE LONELY NO LONGER! I, THE GREAT PAPRUS, WILL BE YOUR…"
Papyrus' silhouette paused.
"…NO… NO! THIS IS ALL WRONG! I CAN'T BE YOUR FRIEND!" He pointed at Gohan. "YOU ARE A HUMAN!"
Gohan looked at him with confused, wide eyes. "You mean… we're not already friends?" Gohan ignored Chara's hysterical laughter.
Papyrus' silhouette folded his arms, his cape blowing in the wind. "YOU… YOU… YOU ARE RIGHT. I WOULD BE FOOLISH TO DENY MY FEELINGS OF FRIENDSHIP WITH YOU."
Sans tore his eyes off of Papyrus and set them on Gohan. He shrugged. Papyrus continued. "BUT STILL, I MUST FUFILL MY DESTINY! MY DREAM! I MUST CAPTURE YOU AND SECURE MYSELF A POSITION IN THE ROYAL GUARD! NO MATTER HOW HARD IT MAY BE FOR BOTH OF US, WE MUST HAVE A TEARFUL, GLORIOUS BATTLE. YOU FACE THE GREAT PAPYRUS! AND HIS UNHELPFUL BROTHER SANS."
"yo."
Gohan felt his soul escape his body again, the two skeletons blocking the way.
"NOW HUMAN, IT WILL BE TWO ON TWO! CHOOSE YOUR PARTNER!"
Gohan turned to Loox and Snowy. How could he choose just one of them? The boy pondered for a moment. Loox might still be exhausted from the previous fight. Not to mention that Loox had been giving him strange looks ever since. Gohan pulled on Snowy indicating that he was his choice.
"M-Me? Really? I thought… after I ran away…"
"Don't be silly Snowy, we're friends!"
Snowy's eyes lit up, then nodded energetically. Gohan understood that Snowy would appreciate a game with Papyrus and Sans more than Loox anyway. Loox even looked relieved that he wasn't chosen.
Loox waved at Gohan. "Well friend, I will sit this out and watch. Have fun." The one eyed creature strode his way out of the arena. Finding a safe location to be out of the action, the sharp toothed monster sat down with Gohan's pack. Withdrawing the spaghetti, he watched the two sides eye each other with determined expressions, minus Sans.
"EXCELLENT, THEN LET US BEGIN!"
Gohan stared at the two skeletons, they seemed to be giving Gohan the first move. He felt Chara's thoughts in his head. "Maybe you're not as dumb as I thought, picking the stronger of the two. But before I praise you, let me guess, you don't want to hurt them?"
Gohan inwardly nodded, much to Chara's disgust. "It'd be so much easier to just blow them away, dusting them. Curious, you always choose the harder of the paths. Well, right now you're fighting against a skeleton that wouldn't hurt a fly, so let's try to win this without hurting him. You think you can do that?"
"But how, Chara?" Gohan said, ignoring the homicidal statements of the ghost residing in his mind space.
"There's always a way, consider this your tutorial. Everyone's different. Remember how you won over your Loox friend or that Snowdrake guy."
Gohan wondered for a moment. All it took for Loox was to not pick on him, and he laughed at Snowy's attempts at jokes. What would it take for Sans and Papyrus to not fight him?
Respect… Recognition? Was that what Papyrus wanted?
"Mister Papyrus!"
"NYEH? WHAT IS IT HUMAN?"
"I… think you're really cool."
"NYEH?!"
"Yeah! Um… can we be friends? Maybe?"
Papyrus, flustered, attempted to compose himself. "W-WELL. I DID SAY I HARBORED FEELINGS OF FRIENDSHIP FOR YOU SO…. YES. I ACCEPT. WE ARE NOW OFFICIALLY FRIENDS. NYEH HEH HEH!"
Gohan smiled, but then watched as Papyrus flung three slow moving bones at him. His soul floated out of the way and he side stepped them. Sans shot out an even slower moving bone alongside his brother's. As expected, Snowy had no problem dodging them either.
"SANS! ARE YOU EVEN TRYING?!"
"yep."
Gohan's mind raced. They were waiting for him again. Snowy wanted to coordinate an attack or something.
Chara groaned inwardly. "Oh my God, he wants to be in the royal guard, Gohan. Say something to that effect."
Straining to form together the words, Gohan sputtered out. "I think… you'll make an awesome member of the Royal Guard!"
Papyrus nearly fell over at the sudden praise. "R-REALLY?! YOU MEAN IT?! I MEAN, OF COURSE I WOULD! AFTER I CAPTURE YOU, I'LL BE THE NEWEST MEMBER!" He sent out another three bones at Gohan that were again easily dodge-able. Sans set out two bones this time, he must be exerting himself more and more.
"He's so EASY, we could probably hit him ONCE and it'd be over." Chara whined. Gohan ignored that again, he strained. Thinking back on Papyrus, what were some of his dreams? What was what he wanted…?
Snowy pat Gohan. "Hey Gohan, we're gonna have to go on the offensive, we can't keep dodging forever."
Whining, the boy nodded. As if on cue, Snowy launched several disks at Sans and Papyrus, both of whom masterfully dodged away. Gohan was surprised that Sans could move that fast.
"NYEH! AN EXCELLENT ATTACK, SNOWY! NOW, BEHOLD THE BROTHER'S BLUE ATTACK!"
Sans and Papyrus both held up an arm. After a moment, several light blue undodgeable bones manifested themselves. Not knowing what to do, Gohan steeled himself for the pain.
Nothing happened.
"NYEH HEH HEH! HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT!? YOU'RE BOTH BLUE NOW!"
Snowy had some sort of blue outline covering him. Rapidly shaking his head, he breathed out. "I can't… move left and right!"
"PRESS Z TO JUMP!"
Snowy jumped in place, then moved up and down. "G-Gohan! What about you?!"
The boy only now realized that while he hadn't turned blue, his pink soul did. It too could only jump and move up and down.
"THE SKELETON BROTHER'S BLUE ATTACK! NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH THE LIGHT BLUE ATTACKS!"
Gohan saw a slow moving bone approach him. Not knowing what else to do, he jumped over it with his body, followed by his soul.
"VERY GOOD! NOW LET'S TRY SOMETHING HARDER!"
Snowy and Gohan were forced to dodge several flurries of bones. They dodged them all, but there were some close calls. Once, Gohan felt that his soul was going to connect to one of Papyrus' bones, but then his soul was moved away sharply. Nobody but him noticed, though.
No matter what Gohan said to the brothers, they continued attacking, but eventually, they stopped.
"NYEH… THEY'RE GOOD, BROTHER."
"yeah. as expected, bro."
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, SANS?"
"heh. it only makes sense that your rival and friend would be strong enough to match you. that's all."
Papyrus pondered on Sans' words for a moment.
"ONCE AGAIN, YOU ARE RIGHT BROTHER. WOWIE, YOU'VE BEEN RIGHT SURPRISINGLY OFTEN! ARE YOU OKAY?"
"should be."
"OKAY. LET'S GIVE THE HUMAN A DOSE OF OUR BROTHERS' SPECIAL ATTACK!"
Sans took both of his hands out of his pockets. "alright bro, im ready."
Papyrus pointed at Gohan. "HUMAN! ARE YOU UP TO THE CHALLENGE? I WILL NOT HOLD BACK!"
Nodding, Gohan readied himself. Surprisingly, he felt his soul float up, renewed with a pink glow. Snowy too was freed from the Jump Mode.
Two massive canine-like skulls manifested themselves above both Sans and Papyrus. Papyrus jumped up high, landing on his creation. Sans just sort of dropped on top of his. Both Gaster Blasters began charging an ultra-powerful burst of energy. The low rumble of the sheer force being gathered was deafening. Loox had retreated farther away, as his instincts told him that the surrounding area wouldn't last much longer.
The tall skeleton shouted above the noise. "BEHOLD! THE BROTHERS SPECIAL ATTACK! HUMAN! IF YOU SURVIVE THIS, I WILL DECLARE YOU THE VICTOR!" The shorter skeleton was shrugging, winking at the two enemy combatants from up high.
Paralyzed, he couldn't move. Gohan muttered something under his breath, to no one in particular. "…help me."
"I'll take over." Chara offered their spectral hand to the awed boy. Smiling, they added in cheerfully, "what's the worst that could happen?"
Author's Note: I agree with Chara, what IS the worst that could happen?
:)
