Chapter 10: Papyrus's Last Challenge

After trecking through ancient ruins and snow covered forest's, the group was glad to finally find civilization. True there was Toriel's home but that place seemed really out-of-time. Although this place seemed the same as well, it had neon signs and lamp posts. Speaking of which, the town was full of snow covered wooden buildings as monsters happily walked about, unaware that not one but seven humans are in their presence.

"Wow, this place looks just like a Christmas card." Delilah said. Snow was beginning to flutter from the... sky?

"It is pretty cozy looking. Might be nice to spend the night here." John said. "My legs are killing me."

"No, we can't stay her. We already lost most of the day dealing with all the puzzles and monsters back in the forest. We need to keep going." Jerod said.

Everyone groaned but nobody wanted to argue with him. They walked through the town, glancing at the sights as they passed it. They noticed most of the monsters looked like furry animals, bunnies, bears, wolves, etc. As they passed a diner named Grilby's Caleb looked through the window.

"Hey, it's all the Dog monsters I saw earlier." Caleb said.

"Just keep moving." Jerod said, pushing Caleb along. Just as soon as they entered the town they now left. By now it was snowing heavier and it was obscuring their vision.

"Guys I can't see!" Frisk said.

"Me neither." John squinted his eyes into the distance, he saw two shadow silhouettes. One was tiny while the other was tall.

"...ARE YOU SURE ...BT TH...?" Said one voice.

"...s buddy the... ...n't wa... ..o b... ..u're friend." Said another voice.

"Who's there!" John called. He saw as the smaller figure vanished. The taller figure was still there.

"HUMANS?"

"Papyrus?" John took a better glance and recognized that it was him.

"SO YOU HAVE ARRIVED, AND SO SOON! ER... MAY I TELL YOU ABOUT SOME COMPLEX FEELINGS I HAVE?" Papyrus asked.

John looked at the others through the thick snowfall and saw Jerod shrug. He looked back to the skeleton. "Sure, um... what kind of feelings?"

"FEELINGS LIKE... MEETING SOMEONE WHO LOVES PUZZLES OR HAVING A COOL AND SMART PERSON THINK YOU ARE COOL AND SMART! MEETING THE KIND OF PEOPLE YOU DON'T SEE THAT OFTEN!"

"Yeah?" John said, having a happy feeling of where this was going.

"THESE FEELINGS... THEY MUST BE WHAT YOU'RE ALL FEELING RIGHT NOW!" John frowned, disappointed. Not because he wasn't talking about himself, but that he was actually right.

"Um, aren't you talking about yourself?" Delilah asked.

"I CAN HARDLY IMAGINE WHAT IT MUST FEEL LIKE TO FEEL THAT WAY! AFTER ALL, I AM VERY GREAT!"

"Talk about narcissistic." Delilah muttered. Yeah, she might be the pretty girl in class but at least she is humble about it.

"I PITY YOU LONELY HUMAN! BUT WORRY NOT FOR YOU ALL SHALL BE LONELY NO LONGER! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL BE YOUR..."

Papyrus's voice trailed off. John was getting worried, this sounded like Papyrus wanted to be his friend out of pity. Even though it would be nice to have a monster as an ally, he had narcissistic friends before, it didn't work out.

"Well?" Delilah said impatiently.

"...NO I CAN'T BE YOUR FRIEND! YOU ARE HUMANS, I MUST CAPTURE YOU!"

John frowned, slightly hurt by the rejection. "Pa-"

"NO! NO MORE WORDS! YOU TOLD ME THE LAST CHALLENGE WAS TOO EASY TO BEAT YOU WITH, WELL NOW YOU MUST FACE MY NEW CHALLENGE! BEAT IT AND I WILL GIVE UP AND YOU MAY PROCEED! AND THAT CHALLENGE IS ME! PAPYRUS, THE NEWEST MEMBER OF THE ROYAL GUARD!"

[Play Bonetrousle]

Suddenly the snowfall dissipated leaving a large dome of open space. Outside of the dome, snow still fell down thickly, looking like a shifting wall. Papyrus did a dramatic battle pose as the group stood in surprise from the sudden clearing of snow.

"Look out!" Chara yelled.

The group turned as large bones came out of the fog and flew towards them. The group jumped as they flew under them and vanished back into the fog on the other side. John wasn't quick enough on his feet and one of the bones crashed against him. John staggered a bit but held his ground.

"Ow." He groaned, clutching his stomach. "Chara, anything you can tell me about Papyrus?"

"He likes to say Nyeh heh heh."

"NYEH HEH HEH!" Papyrus cackled

"Gee... thanks." Chara smiled smugly

"NOW YOU REALIZE YOU ARE NO MATCH FOR ME? ARE YOU READY TO SURRENDER?"

"No, I'm not." John said as he saw another bunch of bones coming toward him. He used his telekinesis to push them back. He couldn't specifcally move the bones but he tried to do a pulse of energy to knock them back. "But I ain't fight'n you either."

"I wouldn't want to break those hot bones of yours." Frisk said winking. Papyrus's face grew red.

"Frisk what the heck? stop flirting with everything!" Caleb said.

"WHAT!? FL-FLIRTING!? SO YOU FINALLY REVEAL YOUR ULTIMATE FEELINGS! W-WELL! I'M A SKELETON WITH VERY HIGH STANDARDS!

"Well I guess it's fortunate that I have no redeeming qualities." John said sarcastically.

"OH NO! THAT HUMILITY... IT REMINDS ME OF, MYSELF! YOU'RE MEETING ALL MY STANDARDS!"

John's eye's widened. "H-huh?"

"Gee John. I didn't take you as a playboy." Jerod teased. John's face turned red as a beet. Forget the fact that it's another dude, its a freaking skeleton! He may have seen some weird stuff online but... no...NO!

"W-wait" John stuttered. "It was Frisk over there who was flirting with you!"

"You do realize you just set up a little kid with an adult male skeleton."

"Okay I take it back, no one is flirting with you!"

"VERY WELL THEN IF NO ONE IS FLIRTING OR FIGHTING THEN PREPARE FOR MY FABLED BLUE ATTACK!" Papyrus sent a dozen blue bones at them. The group stayed still as the bones phased harmlessly through them. Suddenly they all felt a weird sensation in their Soul as each of them turned blue like Delilah's. Then a bunch of regular bones came at them once more. They tried to jump but they felt themselves be pulled to the ground. All of the bones crashed against them.

"What the!" Delilah said, struggling to get up. Diego started gradually healing them all.

"YOU'RE ALL BLUE NOW, THAT'S MY ATTACK! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!"

Well I'll just..." Delilah tried to use her gravity manipulation power but she felt something prevent her from using it. It was Papyrus, he was blocking her power! "...Crap."

"NOW PREPARE YOURSELF! MORE ATTACKS WILL COME!"

"Wait, time out!" John shouted.

"OH OKAY, TAKE YOUR TIME!"

As surprised as they were about that actually working, they gathered together and discussed what was going on.

"Okay, WHAT IS GOING ON!" Jerod asked freaked out.

"Papyrus just altered our gravity." Delilah said.

"Ugh, jumping is weird." John said as he put a lot of effort into his jump. Suddenly he felt himself be lifted up high into the air. "Whaaa" He flailed in the air as he slowly drifted back down.

"Oh so it's like moon gravity." Iris said. "This might make things harder."

"So what do we do?" Diego asked. He didn't want a repeat of what happened with Toriel.

"HEY, THERE IS NO TIME-OUT IN BATTLE!" Papyrus exclaimed.

"Crap, guess he's not as naive as I thought." John mumbled.

The bones made a beeline for each of them. They all had trouble jumping over it but they managed. The only one who wasn't having trouble was Delilah. She was gracefully jumping over them like it was some sort of ballet rehearsal. But a bunch of bones punctured through the ground where she was going to land. Her feet glowed blue as she did a drop kick and the bones broke under the force.

"Whoa, where did you learn to do that move?" Jerod asked.

"Television." Delilah said. She threw her hand out and made a tree fall over in front of them, blocking off the bones that were coming at them.

Jerod sneered as he ran up to the fallen tree and punched it. It go knocked towards the new coming bones and it exploded into cinders.

"HA! How's that for y-" A bone smacked Jerod in the face and he spun around, losing his balance.

"I CAN ALMOST TASTE MY FUTURE POPULARITY! PAPYRUS: HEAD OF THE ROYAL GUARD! PAPYRUS: UNPARALLELED SPAGETTORE!" Papyrus was a little distracted by his daydreaming to really focus on the humans. This made it easier for them to jump over them. Until a blue bone came from above and knocked them down. But for some reason it didn't hurt John, must be because of his cyan Soul.

"UNDYNE WILL BE REALLY PROUD OF ME!"

"Who's Undyne?" Iris asked. She didn't notice the bones coming from behind. Luckily Diego was right behind her and mad a shield for them both. Iris gave a silent nod saying thank you.

"THE KING WILL TRIM A HEDGE IN THE SHAPE OF MY SMILE!"

"Who's the king?"Iris said, her giant Words exploding several bones at once. Iris wanted to know who or what he was talking about, but Papyrus wasn't listening to her. John sliced through the bones with his toy knife, which glowed cyan and extended it's length. He was panting harshly, but no one seemed to notice.

"MY BROTHER WILL... WELL, HE WON'T CHANGE VERY MUCH. I'LL HAVE LOTS OF ADMIRERS! BUT..." Papyrus paused for a second.

"HOW WILL I KNOW IF PEOPLE SINCERELY LIKE ME? SOMEONE LIKE YOU ARE REALLY RARE... AFTER YOU'RE CAPTURED AND SENT AWAY. I DON'T THINK THEY'LL LET YOU GO..."

The group was having trouble understanding what Papyrus was talking about. All they knew was that the monsters wanted to kill them as revenge for trapping them down here, but now they want to capture them. And who is they?

"URGH... WHO CARES! GIVE UP!" Papyrus said frustrated.

"Not a chance Papyrus." Caleb said. He and Frisk were working together to destroy any bones that came near them. Caleb kept making potshots while Frisk was using and copied attacks he picked up.

"THEN PREPARE TO FACE, MY SPECIAL ATTACK!" Papyrus said.

The ground rumbled as a large shadow appeared in the foggy distance. Their eyes widened in terror when they realized it was giant bone, about the size of a building, and it was heading right for them.

"I don't think we can jump over that." Delilah stuttered.

"And I don't think I can punch that." Jerod said nervously.

"Mommy..." Diego whimpered.

"Now would be a good time for a deus ex machina." John wheezed backing up a bit.

"ARF"

Everyone turned around and saw something appear out of the fog.

[Play Dogsong]

"Oh my god." Caleb said. He is watching as the Annoying dog came out of nowhere and charged at the giant bone. And he wasn't alone.

"Defend the weird puppy and his weirder friends!" Dogamy said.

"What he said!" Dogaressa roared, or howled.

"BORF!" Greater dog said.

"Bark!" Said Lesser dog.

"I can't see, so I'm just following you guys." Doggo said.

All together they crashed against the bone. The bone staggered a bit as all of the canines pushed against it.

"WHAT THE HECK! HEY, WHAT ARE YOU DOGS DOING TO MY ATTACK!" Papyrus exclaimed.

Soon the dogs managed to gain the upper hand as the bone started to tip backwards.

"NOOOOOO...!" Papyrus screamed as the bone fell on him. Snow kicked off the ground from the impact.

The group looked at their saviors.

"Why did you help us?" Caleb asked.

"The little Annoying Dog came to us, he's a distant cousin of ours." Doggo said. Annoying Dog barked in retaliation."He asked for help."

"Besides, any friend of the weird puppy..." Dogamy said.

"Is a friend of ours." Dogaressa said.

Greater Dog, Lesser Dog, and the Annoying Dog nuzzled up against Caleb. He ran his hands through each of their fur.

"Thank you guys." Caleb said.

"Yeah, you really saved us." Jerod said.

"I don't how how we can repay you." Diego said.

"Got any dog treats?" Doggo asked.

"...No."

Doggo sneered. "Well let me know when you get some and I'll take it."

"Doggo, they don't owe us anything..." Dogamy said.

"They are our friend. Now come on. Let's get back to our poker game." The dogs howled in agreement.

The group waved to the dogs as they left. Now that that was over, they can get back to the task at hand.

Jerod sighed. "Well, now we can move on... John?"

John was thrusting his hands at the giant bone. Papyrus was still stuck under it, with little bones circling over his head.

"I can't leave him like this." John said through gritted teeth. He thinks that if he concentrates hard enough then he might manage to lift up the magic attack. Suddenly he felt a painful throbbing on a part of his brain as the Bone glowed cyan and started to rise. He struggled to lift it, his brain was killing him. He glanced back and watched as the others stared at him with wide eyes.

"No just stand there in a stupor instead of help me Delilah." John complained in his head. "Stupid anime tropes. How do you even like those shows Iris?"

He used as much effort as he could as he slowly turned the bone away and made it land right next to Papyrus. The skeleton slowly got back onto his feet.

"You okay Papyrus?" Diego asked.

"WELL...! 'HUFF' IT'S CLEAR... YOU CAN'T! 'HUFF' DEFEAT ME!" Papyrus huffed, despite John helping him out. "YEAH! I CAN SEE YOU SHAKING IN YOUR BOOTS! THEREFORE I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, ELECT TO GRANT YOU ALL MERCY! I WILL SPARE YOU, HUMANS!" The storm dissipated as well as the giant bone.

"Wait, why didn't Papyrus do that when he was trapped under the bone?" Chara said.

Papyrus turned his back on the humans as he cried in despair. "NYOH HO HO! I CAN'T EVEN STOP SOMEONE AS WEAK AS YOU HUMANS... UNDYNE'S GOING TO BE DISAPPOINTED IN ME. I'LL NEVER JOIN THE ROYAL GUARD... AND... MY FRIEND QUANTITY WILL REMAIN STAGNANT!"

"What a loser." Chara said, rolling his eyes. The others felt bad for the skeleton, he just wanted friends.

John took a dare as he said something he wouldn't thought he would ever say. "I'll be your friend." John croaked. "I-If you want to."

"We will to!" The others said.

Papyrus turned towards them with a widened smile. "REALLY!? YOU WANT TO BE FRIENDS, WITH ME? WELL THEN... I GUESS... I GUESS I CAN MAKE AN ALLOWANCE FOR YOU!" He jumped in the air and whooped. "WOW! I HAVE FRIENDS! AND WHO KNEW THAT ALL I NEEDED TO... CYAN HUMAN, ARE YOU OKAY?"

"Just... a little tired..." John mumbled as he collapsed onto the snow. The group panicked as they helped John back onto his feet.

Jerod checked out John's face. He looked knocked out. He gave gentle slaps to his face. "Hey, buddy, wake up."

"He's alright, just really tired." Iris said. John wasn't exactly the most healthiest of the group, and that extra strain of lifting the bone must've been the breaking point for him. "He might wake up in a couple of hours."

"HE CAN LAY ON MY BED UNTIL HE REVCOVERS!" Papyrus said.

Diego turned towards him. "You would really do that for us?"

"OF COURSE, THAT'S WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR!"

Delilah turned towards Jerod. "Well...?"

Jerod huffed. "Fine, we will rest in town for the night. Might as well at this point." Jerod lifted John onto his back, arms dangling from his shoulders. For someone almost his size, he was pretty light.

"Aw." Delilah said.

Jerod turned towards her and narrowed his eyes. "What?"

"Uh, n-nothing." She said, looking away. Jerod brushed it aside. "Phew, almost let that cat out of the bag." She then turned to Papyrus and changed the subject. "So, your house?"

"RIGHT, FOLLOW ME HUMAN FRIENDS!" Papyrus said as he led them back to town. "I HAVE SO MUCH I CAN SHOW YOU THERE! I'M SURE THE CYAN HUMAN WILL LOVE MY SPAGHETTI!"

I wonder who was that second voice the group heard... Ah well.

So yeah, the group 'tried' to skip over snowdin town and ended up going back, the group befriended Papyrus, Dogs saved the day, and John is a lazy wuss (But you try walking for hours in a snowy terrain with thin cold air and having low cardiovascular endurance!).

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