"Wake up, Frisk," Chara said the following morning. Frisk opened her eyes to see the ghost girl floating over her bed. "We need to go to Undyne's house to get ready for the invasion."
"Fine, but only if you buy me coffee before we go," Frisk said, slightly irritated as she got out of bed, still tired from the previous day but nonetheless determined to complete the task ahead of her.
"Frisk, I have no money. I have no use for it. I'm a ghost, remember?" Chara and Frisk laughed together.
Frisk walked downstairs to be greeted by a familiar goat monster…
"My child, where were you yesterday?" Toriel asked, looking into Frisk's golden eyes. "I'm worried about you. "
"I was on important business yesterday, mom," said Frisk. "I'm trying to help get to the bottom of this situation with the space-time continuum. I wish I could tell you more about it, but I don't have time. I promise I'll tell you when the job is over."
Toriel was saddened to hear Frisk's words. "I wish you hadn't become the ambassador to humanity, my child." She started to cry. "I want my daughter to have a safe, happy life, not to constantly put her life in danger." Then her sadness turned to anger. "It's all Asgore's fault! "He took advantage of your kindness, and now you're putting yourself in danger because of him. Even after breaking the barrier, he still takes advantage of humans! He is truly a wretched creature."
Frisk hugged Toriel. "It's okay, mom," she said with her arms around her adoptive mother. "It's going to get better. Once this is done, everything will be back to normal. But please, don't blame Asgore for this. There's no way he could have predicted everything that's happened over the last few days."
Toriel started to calm down. "Forgive my outburst, my child. But please, take care of yourself. I love you so much, and I only want what's best for you."
"I will, mom. I'll be back soon. I promise!" Frisk let go of Toriel and walked out the door.
The weather was sunny and pleasant outside, but a feeling of doom was hanging over the atmosphere like a dark cloud. Frisk knew that she would not only be putting her own life at stake, but many of her friends' lives as well. She needed to rescue Gaster, no matter what. Otherwise, the world was doomed. In addition to all this, one question lingered in her mind: could Sargon change? Could his madness be cured? Only time would tell.
"People are going to die today." Frisk said to Chara with fear and regret in her voice.
"You're not going to kill any of them yourself, are you?" Chara asked.
"No, but I still feel responsible. Gaster wouldn't have been captured in the first place if it weren't for my stupidity."
Frisk arrived at Undyne's house to find the fish woman standing at the door. "Come downstairs, punk! Everyone's waiting for you. We're going to need you if we're going to have a chance." Frisk went down to Undyne's basement to find the entire Royal Guard present: Undyne, Sans, the K-9 Unit, and a couple of suits of armor named RG01 and 02. Alazar was there as well, and so was….
"Papyrus, what are you doing here?" asked one of the dogs. "You're only a Royal Guard in training. We're about to go into a warzone, and you're going to get yourself killed! Just go home, before-"
"No," said Undyne. "It's time I did something I should have done a long time ago. Papyrus, under the circumstances, I am granting you full membership in the Royal Guard. Serve your people well."
Papyrus jumped up in joy. "NYEH HEH HEH! THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS FINALLY A MEMBER OF THE ROYAL GUARD! THIS IS THE HAPPIEST DAY OF MY LIFE!"
Alright, Papyrus," Undyne said calmly. "Settle down so we can discuss this operation. She walked to the front of the room, unveiled a large map, and addressed the room. "This is a map of the Forbidden Island. It contains a temple to Zeregoth, the Father of All Monsters, and it's the Great Dragon Clan's main base of operations. Our objective is to rescue Gaster, but the island is heavily fortified and we are vastly outnumbered."
She used a stick to point to a beach on the island. "Our main unit will land in this area to draw the GDC's forces out of the temple. While we distract the GDC's forces, Alphys will drop Frisk off on this beach on the opposite side of the island. Frisk will infiltrate the temple and rescue Gaster. Once Gaster has been rescued, Sans will teleport the main unit to safety. While all that is happening, Mettaton will provide air support in his new combat form. Alphys, Mettaton, get in here."
A yellow dinosaur-like monster wearing a labcoat walked into the basement. Behind her was Mettaton, who was in a winged humanoid form that Frisk had never seen before. Mettaton had a blaster on one of his arms, and a heart on his chest.
"How do you like my NEO form, darlings?" the robot said as he walked into the basement. "Alphys designed this form to kill humans, but we both decided that it would be better used saving humans instead!"
Undyne was slightly annoyed at Mettaton's boasting. "If you're done bragging, let me finish. This plan shall be known as Operation GRASS, which is short for Gaster-Rescuing-And-Sargon-Stopping. Unless anyone has any questions, this briefing is over."
No one raised any questions.
"Our transport must have arrived at my house by now. It will take us to port, where we will board our ship and launch the invasion." Undyne proceeded upstairs, and the rest of the Royal Guard followed her.
On her way out, Frisk noticed that the human terrorists who had attacked her a couple of days earlier were scrubbing the floor of Undyne's house.
"What are they doing here?" Frisk asked nervously.
"The King told them that they would be pardoned if they scrubbed all the floors in New New Home," Undyne explained. "It's going to take so long, it might as well be a prison sentence."
Everyone exited Undyne's house and found a bus parked outside. They boarded the bus, and they all drove to the coast. Frisk could feel the fear inside her grow with every mile that passed. "I've never been to a warzone before," she thought to herself. Then Chara appeared in the seat next to her. "It's going to be okay," she said. "If you can defeat a giant TV plant monster, you can do this."
. When the Royal Guard arrived in port, they saw a transport ship sitting on the waters. It was flying a purple and white flag with a delta rune on it. "That's our ship," said Undyne. "Frisk, you're going to be with Alphys on that smaller boat there." She pointed to a smaller motorboat that was just big enough to hold Frisk and Alphys. "When you're in position, the main unit will begin its assault. While we're distracting the GDC forces, you need to get into their base and rescue Gaster. That is our number one priority."
"I understand, Undyne," said Frisk. She saluted Undyne and boarded the smaller boat with Alphys. The rest of the Royal guard boarded the larger boat and set sail.
Alphys was Frisk's friend and the creator of Mettaton. In the Underground, she had asked Mettaton to put Frisk through a series of insane challenges on a game show so that Alphys could rescue Frisk from danger that never really existed and become friends with her. That plan failed when Mettaton went rogue and tried to kill Frisk for real. After surviving the ensuing battle, Frisk forgave Alphys and became friends with her. On the surface, the two of them enjoyed watching anime together.
"Have you seen any great animes lately, Alphys?" Frisk asked as the boat left the harbor.
"Yes, I have," said Alphys. "Pokémon has over 1000 episodes, and it's great to watch. It has all these unique creatures, and it can be pretty funny."
"Yeah, that's a great one. I've been watching that one since I was a kid," said Frisk. "What are some other great ones?"
"I've also watched Sword Art Online," replied Alphys. "It's got lots of cool swordfighting. Undyne loves it. I just hope it gets renewed for a third season."
"Yeah, I like that one too. Any others?"
"I really like RWBY," replied Alphys. It's got tons of action, unique weapons, and the characters are all gorgeous!"
"Yeah, RWBY's great, isn't it?" replied Frisk.
"Well, I hate to interrupt your fangirling, but there's a big island up ahead!" Chara said to Frisk. Looking ahead, Frisk saw an island with large forest and an enormous domed structure on it. "That must be the Forbidden Island," said Frisk.
"Undyne told us to sail around to the back of the island and get into position," said Alphys. She steered the boat around to the back of the island. Frisk looked at the shoreline through a pair of binoculars and saw that the island had been fortified, just as Alazar said. She could see cannons lining the shore, and columns of GDC members marching. They wore black robes with a red dragon painted on them.
"Do you think they've spotted us?" asked Frisk.
"I don't think so. They'd be firing at us if they did," Alphys answered. After a while, they reached the backside of the island. Alphys radioed Undyne and said, "We're in position, Undyne."
"Alright, we're beginning our assault now," replied Undyne. "Mettaton, you're cleared to launch!" The robot took off and flew over the island. He spotted a fuel tank near the docks and fired a laser blast at it from his blaster. The fuel tank exploded, destroying several cannons. Everyone aboard Undyne's ship cheered.
Their cheering was interrupted by a volley of cannon fire coming from the island, but Undyne wasn't fazed. "NGAAAH! Have courage! You are all members of the Royal Guard! You can do anything!" Undyne shouted. "NYEEEEEH!" replied Papyrus. Sans and Papyrus summoned Gaster Blasters to destroy the incoming missiles. Eventually, the boat reached the shore.
"We've reached the shore!" Undyne shouted as she got out of the boat and drew her spears. "We'll keep the GDC distracted. Just get in there and get Gaster!" Frisk could hear shouting, magic spells firing, and blades clashing over the radio.
"Alright, we're going to shore now!" Alphys said as she landed the boat on the beach. Frisk and Alphys did not encounter any resistance because the GDC's forces were distracted by the Royal Guard.
"Take care of yourself, Frisk," said Alphys.
"I will. You take care of yourself too, Alphys," replied Frisk. And with that, Frisk entered the island's forest and headed toward the temple. "I can do this," she thought to herself. " I've just got to stay determined."
Continued in Chapter 10.
