After about a minute, they stepped off, letting Asriel's words sink in.

"I don't want to fight," Steven said, firmly.

"Yeah, me, neither," Connie agreed.

"I wouldn't want to fight the king, either," Asriel sighed. "I just don't know what else we can do."

"You can support my job and buy a few hotdogs," said someone from the distance. The group looked up, startled, only to find-

"Sans?" Steven asked, watching the skeleton.

"That's my name, don't wear it out."

"What are you doing here?" Connie asked, confused.

"What does it look like?" Sans replied. "I'm selling hotdogs. And hotcats, if you want some of those. I kinda need the money."

"Yeah, OK! I'm starving!" Asriel exclaimed, pulling out some gold.

"You're always starving!" Connie argued, laughing. Asriel reached over for Connie's backpack, moving Rose's sword to the side in an attempt to make room.

"Geez, kid, looks like your inventory's full," Sans said, shrugging.

"But… but I want some hot dogs!" Asriel complained, struggling to make room. "Maybe I can just carry this sword…"

"Don't worry about it, Asriel, I'll just put it on your head," Sans argued, snickering. Swiftly, he placed the hotdog on Asriel's head, free of charge.
"Oh, wow," Steven said, laughing. "I wonder how many you can fit on his head."

"CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!" Asriel said. "Sans! Lets see how many hotdogs I can balance on my head- and I get them ALL!"

"Eh, I'm not too sure about that… but… alright." Leaning over, Sans placed another hotdog on Asriel's head, then another.

"Oh geez…" Connie said in awe, as the skeleton kept piling hot dogs. Eventually, Sans was forced to place the food telepathically, as no one could reach that high.

"C'mon! One more!" Asriel said, as Sans placed the 29th hotdog.

"I can't, kiddo, I'm out!" He argued. Asriel sighed in defeat.

"So close…"

"Now what are we going to do?" Steven asked. "You can't possibly walk around balancing those…"

"Who says? I'll bet I can!" The young monster argued, determined. Slowly, he took one step, and then another.

"HOW ARE YOU DOING THIS?!" Connie exclaimed, as Asriel continued on ahead.

"See? I told you I coul-" and with that, they all came tumbling down.

"AVALANCHE!" Steven laughed, putting his hands up over his head.

"Aw, that's too bad, kid," Sans commented. "I was actually gonna let you eat those. Hey, if you want, you can each take a hot cat for the road."

"Uh… n-no thanks," both of the humans declined.

"Are you two crazy? I'll take one!" Asriel exclaimed, bounding up the the skeleton.

"Jeez, calm down… here," Sans said, handing him one. Asriel managed to eat the whole thing in two bites.

"Didn't you agree never to do that again?" Connie laughed.

"Maybe…" Asriel replied. Sans rolled his eyes.

"Well, I'll see you guys later… I'm on my break," he said, with a wink. "Trust me… we'll meet again before you get to the surface."

"Alright!" Connie said. "Thanks, Sans!"

"Yeah, see ya later!" Steven called, but Sans was no longer there.

"Huh? Where did he go?" Asriel asked, looking around. "Did he just disappear?!"

"I think so…" Connie replied, confused. Steven laughed.

"Connie, it's magic!" He said, with a sudden realization. "Everything down here is magic, remember?"

"Yeah, he probably just… um… teleported or something…?" Connie concluded, unsure. "He did do that weird 'shortcut' thing back in Snowdin."

"C'mon, let's stop wasting time and get a move on!" Asriel said. "We can talk on the way!"

"You really want to get to the surface, don't you?" Steven asked, as they continued down the rocky path.

"I want to, too!" Connie exclaimed, tugging on Steven's sleeve. "Think about it, Steven- the Gems have probably searched the world at this point looking for you. I wouldn't doubt it if they got themselves trapped in the Underground!"

"That would be disastrous…" Steven agreed, trailing off. The thought flashed through his head, but he pushed it out almost immediately.

"Oh, look!" Asriel interrupted, pointing ahead. It was another assortment of jump pads- but this time, there were a lot more of them.

"Oh, jeez…" Connie sighed, looking at the massive group.

"That looks tricky," Steven noted, also scoping the pads out.

"They look tricky, but they're actually a lot easier to navigate if you know what to look for," Asriel explained, jumping ahead. "C'mon, can you keep up?"

"Of course we can!" Connie said, running after him. Steven trailed behind the two, shouting.

"Hey! Wait up!" He laughed. It took about two minutes, but Asriel eventually jumped onto the last platform, rocketing through the air. This one seemed much more powerful than the others.

"ASRIEL!" Connie shouted, as she flew toward the final landing. Steven, once more, shot behind her, summoning a bubble around the pair before they hit the ground.

"Whoo! Encore!" Asriel clapped, as the humans made their descent.

"What about the core?" Connie asked, as the bubble lowered.

"N-nothing," Asriel said, continuing forward. Steven shrugged and followed, as did Connie. Barely fifteen minutes had passed before-

"WHY, WELCOME BACK, DARLINGS!"

"Oh, no…" Connie muttered, as spotlights shone at the three.

"Oh, yes! Welcome to COOKING WITH A KILLER ROBOT!" Exclaimed Mettaton, as a large, blue laser blocked the exit.

"Oh, yeah!" Asriel exclaimed, bounding up beside Metton. Swiftly, he grabbed an apron and a hat from a drawer below the two, as the two humans shuffled over to the camera.

"Today, we'll be baking a lovely cake, a special recipe perfect for any occasion!" Mettaton explained, pulling out a bunch of utensils. "And here we have our lovely guests- introducing the fallen humans, STEVEN UNIVERSE AND CONNIE MAHESWARAN! And let's not forget, the one, the only, PRINCE ASRIEL!"

Asriel beamed at the sound of his name, bathing in the televised glory. "W-what exactly are we doing?" Connie asked, confused.
"Have you never seen a cooking show, darling? First, we gather the ingredients!" Mettaton boomed, notioning for a cameraman to reposition their shot toward him. "I've already set them out on the counter for you, anyway- that should be simple enough, is it not?"

"It is!" Asriel exclaimed, bounding to the back of the room. In one swift motion, he managed to snatch all of the ingredients and hand them to Mettaton, who seemed please.

"Excellent work, Asriel!" He noted, setting them up in a specific order. "Now, all we need is one more thing- a HUMAN SOUL!"

"A what?!" Steven asked, startled.

"You heard me, Universe- we need TWO HUMAN SOULS to finish this spectacular recipe! And you two have just what we need!"

"Oh, jeez!" Connie said, stepping out of the way.

"You can't do anything else?" Steven pleaded, just as Mettaton's phone rang. Quickly, he picked it up.

"Hello?" He asked. A moment passed before Mettaton exclaimed "Oh! ! Yes, how can I help you, darling?"
"M-m-maybe you could… try using something else? Anything else?" Alphys stuttered, in an attempt at a rescue.

"Like what?"

"Maybe a… substitute! M-m-maybe someone could be… vegan?" Alphys paused, hoping Mettaton would fall for her trick.

Sure enough, he did. "ALPHYS, darling, that's GENIUS!" Clicking off, he turned back to the three children. "New plan! It appears as if we'll be using a human soul substitute!"

"Oh, thank goodness," Connie muttered, eyeing Steven.

"Buuuuuuut… you'll have to go get it!" Mettaton concluded, pointing to the far side of the room.

"That's fine with me!" Steven said in relief, as he and Connie ran over to the far counter.

"Well, go on, take it!" Mettaton insisted, and the two humans grabbed for the substance. At that moment, the counter it sat on shot into the air, a minute or so passing before it stopped as far as the Underground would let it. "Don't forget we've got a time limit, darlings! If you can't grab it in the next minute- I'll be forced to use YOUR SOULS!"

"What?!" Connie shouted, but the timer had already started.

"Uh, maybe I can try and use my floating powers…?!" Steven offered, giving it a shot.

"I don't think that's gonna work…" Connie moaned. At that moment, Asriel's phone rang, and he picked it up.

"Papyrus, now is really not a good time-"

"Papyrus? Th-this is , silly," argued the scientist from the other side. "Quickly, give your phone to the humans!"

"Huh?" Asriel muttered, passing his phone to Steven.

"Steven, Connie, within the next few seconds, I should be able to turn prince Asriel's phone into a jetpack using a new feature I installed," she explained. "Use it to get to the top!"

"Wait, really?" Connie asked, but the phone had already clicked off and was now morphing into a double jetpack of sorts.

"WHOA, THAT'S SO COOL!" Asriel exclaimed from afar, as the humans quickly strapped themselves in.

"Is this even safe?" Connie wondered allowed, eyeing Steven.

"It's our only shot," he argued, starting the machine as the two rocketed into the air. From above, Mettaton was throwing down different ingredients, working to hit the humans with eggs and flour and an assortment of others.

"Thirty seconds!" He shouted, continuing to make it rain food.

"What's wrong with this crazy place?!" Steven shouted, working to navigate the machine out of the way.

"We're almost there!" Connie exclaimed, clicking a big red button in attempt to reach the substitute before time ran out. Sure enough, the two managed to snatch the canister with four seconds left to spare.

"Excellent work, darlings! Bravo, bravo!" Mettaton exclaimed, obviously annoyed. "It's really too bad, however… have you ever seen a cooking show, humans? I cooked the cake before hand! Besides, I have to get ready for my next show."

"You can't be serious," Connie said, dryly, but Mettaton was already gone.

"No way! All of that was for nothing?!" Steven exclaimed, the two returning to the ground.

"Aw, the show's over," Asriel sighed, disappointed

"I… guess we keep moving?" Connie muttered, aggravated. Steven nodded in agreement, as the three continued down the path.

"Wasn't that fun?" Asriel asked, still hyper with excitement. The two stared at him as if he was crazy, and he laughed. "Alright, maybe not so much… but I liked being on TV."
"I guess it can be fun when you're not trying to save yourself," Steven laughed.

"Let's try and avoid Mettaton for now, nonetheless…" Connie started. "I really don't want to have a repeat of 'Truth or Death' or 'Cooking with a Killer Robot'."

"Looks like that's gonna be hard," Asriel said, pointing to a poster. As the red hot lava morphed into a dark, cool cave, a far wall advertised 'Mettaton the Musical', which appeared to be not too far up ahead.

"Welp, looks like we're going to be famous," Steven noted, a bit of annoyance in his tone.

"I wouldn't be surprised if King Asgore already knew we were down here. And with his son. That can't be very good." Connie looked over at Asriel, who seemed confused.

"Why would I make it worse?" He asked, looking back up at the human.

"Would you appreciate it if someone of a different species took your son and tried to convince him to fight you to escape your home?" Connie paused before saying the last word.

"Escape?" Steven queried.

"Yeah… remember how we're all kinda trapped down here? Against our will?" Asriel replied solemnly.

"Right," Connie sighed, sadly. The three continued in silence for a minute before Steven spoke up.

"Why was the war even started in the first place?" He asked.

Asriel shrugged, and Connie continued, "I'm not sure. Maybe-" but then her phone rang. Well, sort of. It was trying to ring, but the noise was very distorted, and anxiously, Connie picked it up. "Hello?"
"CONNIE?! Is tha_ y_u?!" shouted someone from the other side, and Connie gasped.

"Y-yes! Yes it is!" She shouted into the receiver, turning to Steven. "Steven, it's Pearl!"

"Really?!" Steven asked, going starry-eyed. Connie nodded quickly, turning back to the phone and putting it on speaker.

"Connie, are you alright?! Are you with Steven?! Where are you two? We've been searching for you for days!" Pearl took a deep, shaky breath from the other side.

"Yes, Steven's here with me," Connie started, "and we're fine. We're in some place called 'The Underground', and we've been trying to find our way out all weekend."

"Where is that at?" Pearl asked quickly.

"W-we don't know…" Steven replied, anxiously.

"Steven, is that you?! Oh, it's so good to hear your voice! You have no idea how worried I was! You really don't know where you're at?"

"N-no, I'm sorry, Pearl," Steven said sadly. "We're almost back on the surface… it should be just a little while longer."

"Yeah, it'll only take a day or so," Asriel said, and Pearl gasped from the other side.

"Who is that?!" She asked.

"Pearl, calm down," Connie started, "it's just Asriel. He's our friend, and he's been helping us find the way out."

"I-it's nice to meet you…" Asriel stuttered into the receiver.

"Hello, Asriel. I am Pearl, as you may or may not already know," she stated, trying to remain as calm as possible. "Can you tell me where you're at, Asriel?"

"T-the Underground," Asriel replied, taking the phone from Connie.

"Yes, but where is 'The Underground' located?" Pearl asked, anxiously.

"The barrier is at a place called ," Asriel offered, and from the other side, Pearl sighed with relief.

"We're not even sure if you can get to us from there…" Steven started, but he was interrupted.

"I, uh, n_ed to g_," Pearl said, losing connection. "St_ven, Conn_e, As_iel, please st_y safe and DON'T D_ ANYTH_NG DANGERO_S!"

"Bye, Pearl…" the three said in unison, as the connection was lost for good. Steven sighed.

"Uh, hey, look," Asriel said, trying to cheer him up. "I think that's the hotel up by the Core."

"Yes, we're getting closer!" Connie rejoiced, running up ahead.

"Hey, wait for us!" Steven and Asriel laughed, trailing behind her. With that, their journey continued.