The car, screaming to a halt, brakes long since in disrepair, had arrived at the destination. I viddied our situation a massive trek through the mountain pass. The peak had long been cleaved to form a plateau, where a once booming business of film sat atop. This was a common practice, and was needed to manufacture the mass amount of stone for the Metropolis. The trek up the mountain was not as short as I once thought, however, the advent of adding stairs to the mountain to get to the top was quite a helpful tool.
The mountain, other than the top, was relatively untouched, aside the occasional duct going down the side. Surrounding the snow covered ridge, was various plants poking their heads out of the snow. The lake below almost seemed untouched, like a crystal in the deepest of unexplored caves, however, this was probably due to all the chemicals preventing the water to freeze and killing off all forms of life that enter.
The sky here seemed more, how should I put it, pure. There was much less fumes that littered the Metropolis, as if drinking a cold glass of purified water, not just the enhanced water, or water plus, or whatever they call it. Though getting more faint the higher up, the more I felt I needed to take this trek to the top, as if I had no control over my own free will, as if the hand of God was looming above me.
The old film district atop the mountain was in such a state of disrepair, most of the buildings weren't even standing. The Sound stages, all but collapsed in on themselves, and the pavement, more like gravel. This place was not to dissimilar to the old city in the sand, nothing but ruins and despair, littered about a ruined wasteland of a once vibrant landscape. Gone were the days of original film, gone were the days of seeking the highest art forms in media, and this place, abandoned, is the decrepit remains of humanity's hopes, and their dreams.
"geeze, the people here really let the place go."
"YOU THINK BROTHER? MAYBE THEY'RE JUST HIDING FROM THE GREAT PAPYRUS AND HIS BROTHER SANS."
"You sure Mettaton is still here?"
"SURE THING HUMAN, THIS PLACE WAS FOUNDED ON AN MTT PERMIT. I FIND IT HARD THAT SOMEONE SUCH AS METTATON WOULD LEAVE SUCH A PLACE OF WONDER, EVEN IF IT IS DEAD."
"bro, I don't think it's wonder that kept him here."
"YOU SURE, BECAUSE THIS PLACE IS WONDERFUL." Papyrus proclaimed awkwardly realizing what he had done.
"SANS YOU TRICKED ME!"
"hey, you played yourself that time."
"Can we please not bicker over petty issues? We still have to find this "off the grid house" that you said was here."
"OH, RIGHT. THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS ON DUTY, READY TO FIND THIS PLACE."
"man, you're so cool bro."
"WHY THANKS BROTHER, ALTHOUGH, SUCH COMMON KNOWLEDGE DOESN'T NEED TO BE STATED."
"hey, what's that?"
"THAT LOOKS LIKE A COUPPLE, NO, A FEW SHIPPING CONTAINERS WELDED TOGETHER WITH SOLAR PANNELS AND WIND TURBINES ATTACHED TO THE TOP."
"nah, what's behind it?"
"ANOTHER MOUNTAIN?"
"yeah."
"WOWIE, WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THERE WOULD BE ANOTHER MOUNTAIN, IN A MOUNTAIN RANGE?"
"You two are insufferable."
"well, we don't have to help you."
"Then why are you here?"
"IS IT OK FOR US TO BE HERE? NEYEH HA HA."
"I'll just stop right now."
"maybe we should knock on the door?"
"Nah, let's bust it down."
"WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO DO THAT HUMAN?"
"I don't know, just seems rusted shut."
"i'll try knocking first." sans said, as he began knocking.
No reply, not a word, not a noise other than the reverb of metal on bone and the echo of the knock on the surroundings.
"huh, guess nobody is home."
"IT'S A GOOD THING I BROUGHT A FEW EXTRA BONES."
"no need, I know a shortcut inside. Follow me."
As we followed the skeleton, he opened a door in an adjacent building. Inside seemed to be the inside of a small house, not even seem to be half of what one might consider liveable. The only things that seemed to be stocked in the house was a battery bank, a computer, a few cameras, and this little metal statue holding some wire.
"So is this the shortcut you were talking about?"
"yeah."
"Mind explaining what it is that you're doing?"
"nah, too much work."
"You guys said Mettaton lives here, right?"
"SURE DID HUMAN, IN FACT, THAT'S HIM RIGHT THERE. THAT'S ODD, WHY ISN'T HE MOVING?"
"Where is he, behind the metal statue?"
"guess again."
"I'm stumped."
"THAT IS NO METAL STATUE, THAT IS METTATON HIMSELF."
"looks like the poor guy didn't get to the power before his battery ran out."
"Battery? So there are robot monsters?"
"well, not exactly. But there are ghost monsters."
"WOWIE SANS, THIS TECH SURE DOES LOOK ADVANCED."
"You sure about that? All of this looks like it was from a few decades ago."
"must be behind the times then."
"Well, we just going to stand here, or help this guy out?"
"there may be a problem."
"WHAT WOULD THAT BE BROTHER?"
"corrosion."
"Well, only one way to find out." I proclaimed as I began a search for tools to pry this thing apart.
"HUMAN, IS THIS A TOOL YOU CAN USE?"
"Is that a roach clip with a lit joint in it? How would that help?"
"BURNING CREATIVITY, HUMAN, NYEAH"
"I don't think that will do anything."
"YOU SO SURE ABOUT THAT?" the tall skeleton queered as he used the roach clip as a lever, opening the case that held Mettatons innards.
"How did you just do that? That doesn't even seem like a thing that could physically happen."
"LIKE I SAID, HUMAN. BURNING CREATIVITY." said papyrus as he took a puff on his wacky tobacky.
"actually, the plate was designed to be removed easily, bro just decided to do it the flashy way."
"AND BY FLASHY, I WANTED TO SHOW YOU THAT IT COULD BE DONE."
"I thought that was implied, but we have bigger issues on hand."
"like?"
"Like finding a replacement battery, there has to be one somewhere."
"not likely, even the pins connecting the thing are corroded."
"Well, I'm sure there is some cleaning solution somewhere around here."
"IS THIS WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR HUMAN?"
"Yeah, that might be it." I decided, as I opened a box that claimed, to be MTT brand emergency cleaning solution and spare battery.
Having cleaned up the mess made by years of neglect, and checking the spare battery with a device labeled MTT brand charge detector, the spare battery was inserted into the void of metal and circuitry where this robot's life source used to be, the whirr of fans and the beeping of what looks to be the ancient motherboard showed hat this robot may be able to survive after the ordeal.
"Oh yes." The robot cried out, as it turned on for the first time in what could have been decades.
"Oh, I'm alive again, that must mean MTTwood needs me again. And you darlings must be my agents, let me take a good look."
"Sans? Papyrus? Some human that I have never seen before? Are you my agents?"
"Sorry to say this, but this place seems abandoned."
"Well, darlings, why did you bring me back from the brink? To laugh at me? I've seen things, things you people wouldn't believe. I've seen, well, at least a lot of what the movie industry can produce."
"What's wrong with you, we save you from death, only for you to lambast us?"
"Darling, what ever made you think you saved me from anything?"
"well, you did have that wire in your hand, maybe" began sans as Mettaton cut him off.
"I wanted to die darling, I have no job, I have no friends or family left, and the damn government shilled out to these megacorps that only allow propaganda to be aired."
"THEN WHY DID YOU STILL HAVE THE WIRE IN YOUR HANDS?"
"I don't want to live darlings, my time is over, the time for art is dead, and so am I."
"Then why did you still have the wire in your hands?"
"I was afraid, darlings. And in the last moments of what I thought to be my life, I faltered, I suddenly felt the will to live as my battery died." explained the now sobbing robot, a feat that nobody thought was possible, especially from a rectangular box of metal and panels of light.
"you are alive now, does that mean anything to you?"
"Only that I must be needed for some sort of means to an end. Why else resurrect me? Humanity has no need for a star anymore." The squared up robot furiously uttered as the thing began to emit a most brilliant, yet terrifying light from every inch of it's very being.
"And what of our fallen comrades, huh? What of them darlings? I've lost more than you ever have. I've lost everything, actually, and that dead battery was the only thing keeping me happy, I finally felt the cold bliss of death, and you had to rip that from me."
The light only grew stronger, clouds of vapor, and sounds not heard since the closing of the film district were heard once again. It was a projection, a projection in the mist, of the once busseling MTTwood, filming and producing in each sound stage. Every inch of the mountain covered in activity, like ants on a hill.
"All of this, my darlings, my hopes, my dreams, everything turned to dust."
The light faded, the projection now of an empty lot, not unlike the view of today, only the buildings intact, as if it were freshly abandoned.
"They never decided to demolish this place, they never decided to go the full mile and even try to make something out of this. Please answer me why? Why sans? Why Papyrus? Why human?"
"I don't have the answers, hell, I don't even know why I'm doing this. I was told to do so by a talking flower, but not any details otherwise, but sometimes dreams just have to end, and reality just has to begin. You will dream again, and that dream will continue into your reality, unless that fire is extinguished before you can begin the next cycle of life."
"You talk tall darling, I have no such need for dreams when there is nobody left to share them with, the only one I've ever had was wiped from this place." Mettaton said, as he begain to make an attack on me. I could feel my very soul begin to be torn out of my body, just like in my trip, except this time, it wasn't a flower behind it, maybe all monsters have this ability.
"Wait a minute, did you say something about a talking flower?" Interrupted the chunk of metal just before my soul could become visible.
"I BELIEVE HE DID, NYEAH."
"So he found a way after all. Listen, darlings, hearing that he is involved, I may not be able to bring back the dead, or even be happy again, but whatever he has planned, I might as well go along with, there may be a way out of this awful place."
"OK THEN METTATON, WAIT, WHERE ARE WE AGAIN, I DON'T QUITE REMEMBER WHERE WE ARE, MUST BE THE EFFECTS OF WHATEVER I JUST TOOK WEARING OFF, NYEAH."
"we're on the top of Mt. Whatever."
"This mountain has a name, you know darling."
"ehh, it's too much work to remember."
"We should be looking for the next monster that we can come across guys." I remarked, trying to bring the reason why we were here in the first place back to the forefront.
"Well, there's always always Muffet keeping the hidden villa of monsters safe, there's also might be Toriel, since her ashes have never been found, and the last project of, well, I'd rather not say darlings."
"ok, have any idea where this hidden villa?"
"It is in that Mammoth Cave thing, I think from the last time I heard darlings."
"Alright, what are we waiting for then, let's get this show on the road."
"HUMAN, DO THAT ONE MORE TIME AND I WILL RIP YOUR MORON FACE OFF AND WEAR IT LIKE A PARTY MASK, NYEAH."