You ever spend an entire day feeling exhausted and then only sleep for like 5 hours when you finally put your head down?

...

Yep...


(8)

Grillby clicked on the light hanging from the ceiling in his room: a small, converted storage space tucked next to the kitchen. It was just large enough to fit the five of them along with his bed and a few wooden crates that they now all pushed to the middle of the room's dirt floor. It wasn't much, but it was as much of a home as Grillby ever knew, and it gave him something he had never been able to find anywhere else before: time to himself. But that wasn't why they were there now.

"Alright, spill it," the fire monster opened as his friends took their places around him. Gaster sat down on his bed while Jani and Teresa slumped up against the wood-paneled walls and Hannah took a spot in the corner. They all looked at him like they didn't know what he was talking about, all of them but Gaster who looked at the floor.

"You guys obviously got into something on your way here," Grillby pried. "Should I be worried about monsters banging on my door, or not?"

"Nah," Jani assured him with a wave of his hand. "Gas Man here just couldn't resist his sticky fingers."

"I didn't-" Gaster began, but Grillby interrupted him.

"You robbed a store?" He was looking Jani, not Gaster.

The monster shrugged. "It's no big deal. We're here, aren't we? So clearly we got away with it. Plus it gave us a chance to really test the competence of this new 'guard force' the king and queen seem to have invested so much in, of which there seems to be a lot of them now. Maybe that has something to do with us, huh?"

"You were chased by the Guard?" Grillby questioned, his tone clipped. "What happened?"

Jani chuckled before answering. "They're taking a nap. Won't remember a thing when they wake up, probably; could never really figure out how that part works, but with Gaster's help that's usually the result. Shop keeper might remember what we look like though. Was too afraid to chase us too far, so I couldn't get my hands on 'em, unfortunately." He turned to Gaster. "Hope there wasn't anything else you wanted there in particular."

"How many guards were there?" Grillby pressed.

The snake went silent at that question. They all did, looking around the room nervously. Grillby waited.

"Eight," Teresa finally answered.

"Eight," the fire monster repeated. His gaze finally moved from Jani to Gaster. "Nice," he complemented, slapping his friend on the shoulder and ignoring Jani's sudden protest that he did all the work. "What did you get out of it?"

Gaster held up the object they had lifted from the store; the thing he had been trying to hide since it had made it into his hand. "Don't know," he said as he looked it over.

It was a metal box about twice the size of his fist with a narrow cylinder attached to one side. The other sides all had small patches of rust and a few had small holes in them that were clearly put there on purpose and buttons with strange symbols worn onto their surfaces.

"Definitely human," he went on, "but as for what it does, I'll have to look at it closer. Knowing how they build stuff, it could be anything."

"Well, that will have to wait," Grillby told him. "There's a reason I called you in early."

"Yeah, we figured," Jani jumped in. "So, you gonna tell us what that is or just keep grandstanding all afternoon? Ow!" Teresa flicked the monster in the back of the head to get him to shut up.

"As you just heard above," Grillby continued as if Jani hadn't spoken, "the city is abuzz with our little stunt, and it's already starting to show dividends."

"I still fail to see how this accomplishes anything," Jani commented.

"That stunt was still your idea, Jani." Teresa reminded him. "I think."

"I know, but that was only because Grillby insisted in something like it, so I figured we should at least get a laugh out of it, even if no one else did. That doesn't change the fact that I don't see the point of it at all."

"It does have a point." Grillby asserted. "Monsters see now that someone is willing to 'speak out', in a sense, about their displeasure and lack of confidence in regards to the powers that be," he explained to all of them. "Now they'll start doing so themselves. So we need to give them something to talk about."

"Sounds like you already have something in mind." That time it was Hannah that spoke up.

Grillby nodded. "I do."

"Well, don't keep it all to yourself, G," Jani prodded.

He most certainly did not. "I overheard while I was working that there's going to be shipment of something down to that new lab they built on the border between Hotland and Waterfall."

"The one the queen made to research how to break the barrier?" Gaster asked, his interest piqued.

"That's was just a bunch of showboating," Jani said in response. "You didn't actually believe all that nonsense she was spouting during that announcement, did you?"

"Now I heard," Grillby continued as if he hadn't been interrupted again, "that whatever they're hauling down there is important."

"How important we talking?" Jani asked, his interest piqued as well.

"Teresa's second breakfast important." Grillby clarified.

They all looked taken aback by the proclamation, especially Teresa.

"I don't think anything could be that important," said Jani.

"Regardless, it's important enough that it should cause quite the fuss if rumor starts to go around that they lost it. Monsters would have something concrete that shows just how incompetent our dutiful king and queen are. That's where we come in."

"We're gonna steal it," Teresa concluded. There was an eager glint to her eyes now as well.

Jani slithered over to the bed and nudged Gaster with an elbow. "See? Earlier was good practice, eh?"

Gaster merely shot him a look before standing and turning to Grillby. "Are you sure this is a good idea?" he asked nervously. "I overheard some monsters saying that the queen has gotten involved with the whole thing after what we did to the castle."

Grillby's expression changed to one of surprise. He hadn't heard the same then. "If that's true," Gaster went on, "it might be better if we lay low for a while. I don't think she's someone we're ready to be messing with, at least not yet."

Grillby seemed to give it some serious thought for a moment, but ultimately shook his head. "No, another opportunity like this is not likely to come up again. We have to hit it. The appetizer's been served, so we may as well give them the main course."

Gaster opened his mouth to say more, but he bit it off and let it go. He wasn't likely to change his friend's mind at this point. He knew that from experience.

"When is it gonna go down?" Jani asked in the resulting silence.

"Tomorrow night," he told them.

"Tomorrow night?!" his friends all chorused with varying amounts of excitement and worry.

"Kinda short notice, don't you think G?" Jani asked.

"Exactly," he agreed. "So it's time to stop chatting and start planning." He pulled a roll of paper out of the corner and spread it out over the boxes in the center of the room. He leaned over his maps of the city and the surrounding area and looked over his friends. "You guys with me, or what?"

There was a slow wave of nods, Gaster's the slowest of all, but he was not about to be left behind either.

"Good." Grillby proclaimed. "Now, where do we start?"