The elevator took the party up a floor, no one speaking to each other as they continued walking toward the Core. Gaignun could see Emeralda glancing nervously at Shulk's party out of the corner of his eye, and for a moment he wondered if she was something like a Realian as well. It didn't sound like technology was too advanced in Fei's world, but…
"Hey, look! Sans!" Bart said, breaking the awkward silence. Sans had somehow gotten ahead of the party, and was manning a station much like the one he had in Snowdin, complete with snow on the roof. Two monsters Gaignun did not recognize had…hot dogs with them?
"Heya," Sans greeted the party. "I decided to open up a hot dog stand."
"…why is there snow on the roof? You're in Hotland, there's…there's lava everywhere," Elly asked.
"I guess it's because I've had a frosty reception with my 'dogs," Sans replied. Bart glared fiercely at Sans for the pun, frowning deeply. "Being serious, though, people seem to like my hot dogs. Want one?"
"Riki will take one!" Riki answered, waddling up to Sans' station. "Riki never had hot dog before!"
"I'll take one chu, please!" Chu-Chu chimed, joining Riki.
"Two 'dogs coming right up," Sans responded before pausing and looking at the two. "…wait. I got an idea."
"An idea?" Riki and Chu-Chu repeated. Sans bent over to whisper something to the two, and whatever he said, the two were nodding at the idea, turning so their backs were facing Sans.
"Riki? Chu-Chu?" Elly prompted shortly before Sans started stacking hot dogs on their heads.
…this is the biggest waste of time I've ever seen.
Gaignun couldn't help but be amused at the two letting Sans stack hot dogs on their heads. A few people started chuckling the longer Sans stacked the hot dogs, until it was hard to see Sans past either stack.
"Alright, I've stacked as many 'dogs as I could," Sans declared. "29 each is just fine, but 30? 30 'dogs is excessive."
"Ta-daaaa! Riki and Chu-Chu best at holding things on heads!" Riki declared, puffing out his chest in pride.
"That's, ah…nice, Riki," Shulk responded, trying his best to fake a smile. Riki and Chu-Chu seemed to deflate a little, the hot dog stacks falling apart as they both sighed.
"…Riki concerned. Shulk and friends not acting like selves," Riki noted.
"It's because of the stuff from Shion's world, isn't it, chu?" Chu-Chu guessed. "Chu guys can't let this keep bothering you forever!"
"Chu-Chu, you don't understand where we're coming from. We've been facing the Mechon all our lives, and…as awful as it's going to sound, the idea of something mechanical looking like a human or Homs…it's just plain unsettling to us," Reyn admitted, not looking at anyone.
"Chu have a good point, but MOMO is our friend! MOMO has stood with us against Toriel, Papyrus, Undyne, even Mettaton…chu know, now that I think about it, Emeralda is kinda of like MOMO…"
"What? How?" Fiora asked.
"She's…a nanomachine colony," Elly explained. "She's not exactly a Realian, but…like MOMO, she's an artificial being. We've kept her with us ever since we met her."
MOMO's eyes lit up. "So I'm not…Emeralda, is that true?"
Emeralda nodded. "…was made by Fei's Kim," she quietly confirmed.
"Emeralda is artificial, but chu know what? We still see her as our friend! We couldn't be afraid of her like that…" Chu-Chu reminded.
"Hom-Hom friends and Melly have right to feel how they feel, but MOMO and Emeralda still friends! MOMO and Emeralda still deserve to be treated like other friends!" Riki added.
Shulk's portion of the party hesitated for several moments, and Gaignun privately wondered if Riki and Chu-Chu had said something they shouldn't have. Eventually, Shulk sighed. "…my apologies, MOMO, Emeralda. We'll…We'll do our best to treat you like any other human or Homs."
"Thank you, Shulk. I'm sorry, I…I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable," MOMO apologized.
"No, you don't have to apologize!" Fiora quickly insisted. "It's really more a problem with us than with you, MOMO! Please, don't blame yourself!"
Sans gave a little cough. "Uh. Are you guys going to be okay?" He asked. Though Sans kept that grin on his face, there seemed to be a softer look in his eyes as he looked at the party.
Gaignun nodded. "Sorry about that. As you can probably guess by now…we're from different worlds."
"Hm. I suggest you guys get a move on, maybe walk and talk a little?" Sans suggested. "Seems there's a lot you don't know about each other."
Gaignun just nodded again before the party continued forward. Riki and Chu-Chu had relieved looks on their faces as they continued to walk, and Gaignun quietly thanked them both for their part in keeping the team working together.
"…there's still no monsters here," Elly noted. "Were they all evacuated, I wonder…"
"We can call Papyrus and Undyne and ask!" Fiora pointed out. "Who has the phone again?"
"I do!" MOMO responded, taking out the phone. She dialed Papyrus' number and waited a few moments.
"Hello, this is the Great Papyrus speaking!" Papyrus greeted.
"Papyrus, can we talk to Undyne? We have to ask her about something," MOMO said.
"Of course! One moment, human!" Papyrus answered. There was a brief pause before Undyne answered.
"Undyne here, what do you need?"
"Undyne, we have a question about the monsters in Hotland. Was everyone besides the Royal Guards here and Dr. Alphys evacuated?"
"More or less, yeah," Undyne confirmed. "Told everyone to head to Mettaton's resort if they could, but Alphys said she wanted to monitor you guys and tell me if something had happened to you guys. Hotland's pretty empty right now, huh?"
"It is. We've been dealing with empty areas ever since we wound up in the underground, it's just…unnerving for everything to be so quiet," MOMO said.
"Ever since, huh…you guys never said how you got into the underground, did you? What happened to cause so many humans to wind up down here?" Undyne wondered. "I mean…it's obvious now you guys don't mean to hurt even a spider down here, but…"
"…we don't know," Shion spoke up. "We all just…found ourselves down here without any warning."
"But don't you at least know just what you guys were doing? Humans don't just fall down here because they want to!" Undyne questioned. "What, do you guys have amnesia or something?"
No, it didn't seem likely. Gaignun could clearly remember he was at the Kukai Foundation just moments before everything went dark, and before he knew it, he was lying face-down in those golden flowers…
"No, we don't have amnesia," he spoke up. "Maybe it was a magic spell, or something of that kind."
"Magic…I don't know who in the underground would have a teleportation spell, but…what would their purpose be for bringing a bunch of humans into the underground? Hm…"
Undyne paused for a few minutes. "I'll look into seeing who could have possibly teleported you guys here if I can. Mettaton apparently has another thing coming up on TV in a little bit, and I want to catch it if I can."
With that, Undyne hung up on the party, and everyone continued walking. A few moments passed before the phone was suddenly buzzing with notification after notification, and Gaignun looked through the notifications. It…seemed to be Alphys talking about an anime.
'OMG, people really think mew mew 2 is better than mew mew 1? LOLLLLL, that's a joke, right…'
'omg…DONT THEY GET IT RUINS Mew Mew's ENTIRE CHARACTER ARC?'
'My Mew Mew 2 Review: Mew Mew Kissy Cutie 2 Is Neither Kissy Nor Cutie. Its Trash. 0 stars.'
"…Dr. Alphys seems to have…very strong opinions about anime," Gaignun noted as he put the phone away.
"Anime sounds very…weird," Dunban noted. "Why does your world have it, Gaignun?"
Gaignun could only shrug as they kept walking forward. In front of them was a small mouse hole, a safe of some sort resting on a table, and another glowing point. He gingerly touched it out of curiosity, only to grunt in disappointment when Yuriev offered no commentary.
The next area seemed just as quiet as the other areas before it, until a somewhat familiar voice called out, "Hey! You! Stop!"
The two Royal Guards from earlier approached the party. "We've, like, received an anonymous tip about a party of humans making their way through Hotland, and Undyne warned us about a bunch of humans that were in the underground…" the guard with rabbit ears began.
"We haven't hurt anyone," chaos spoke up. "Could you please consider just letting us go?"
The two guards shook their heads. "No way, bro! You're, like, standing in the way of everyone's hopes and dreams! Or at least that's what Undyne said about you guys…we can't let you pass!"
The duo drew their swords, preparing to strike the humans.
You know, I gave you your powers for a reason, Nigredo. Why not just blow them up? Or, if you're still bent on showing mercy to these things, just talk them out of it.
Gaignun huffed in irritation as he chose to ignore Yuriev, focusing on the Royal Guards. R01 and R02, if he recalled correctly…R01 seemed to be like a rabbit in appearance, while R02 seemed more like…a dragon? A lizard? Something similar to a reptile, that was for sure. They were both covered in black armor from head to toe, though there was dirt on R02's armor…
Riki seemed to notice the dirt on R02's armor as well, and darted up to him to wipe it away. "Riki help clean Royal Guard armor!"
"…I have…so many questions, Riki," Shulk mumbled. It seemed wiping off the dirt did something, at least: R02 started to look uncomfortable in his armor for a few moments, and R01 looked toward him.
"02, bro? You okay?" he asked.
R02 shook his head. "…01…armor…too hot…!"
He ripped off the chest plate on his armor, revealing a muscular chest covered in scales. R01 looked immediately bothered by R02 taking off a piece of his armor, fidgeting in place and sweating a little.
"…R01, why don't you try talking to him?" Gaignun prompted. R01 jumped in surprise before reluctantly nodding, looking at R02.
"I…I…d-dude, I…I can't take this anymore! Not like this! Like, R02…I like, like you, bro!" he blurted out. "The way you fight, the way you talk…I love doing team attacks with you, I love standing here with you, bounding and waving our weapons in sync…like, 02, I want to stay this way forever…"
There was a moment of surprised silence between the two. Gaignun hadn't intended for that to happen, but…he'd take it.
"I mean, uh…whew, bro! That human put me, uh, under mind control!" R01 quickly corrected himself, pointing his sword at Gaignun. "What was I just saying? It's a blur, dude! Whoops!"
Gaignun felt a surge of panic. Had he accidentally used one of his powers? He swore he was being so careful, he couldn't have accidentally–
"…01," R02 said.
"Y-Yeah?!" R01 responded, nervously.
"…do you…want to go get ice cream together?" R02 asked.
"S-Sure, dude! Haha!" R01 answered before the two walked away, leaving the humans be.
"…that…wasn't what I was expecting, but ah well. Gaignun, are you alright?" Citan asked, noticing Gaignun's widened eyes.
"…I…I'm fine, sorry. I was worried they were going to try to kill us if R02 didn't return R01's feelings," Gaignun answered. Citan held his gaze on him for a few moments, perhaps not entirely convinced, before nodding.
"I have to agree with Gaignun, I thought that was going to go pear-shaped there," Jr chimed in as they resumed their pace.
"Well, at least they have each other. Mind control, though…I can't believe they really think we would control them," Shion commented. Gaignun could only nod in response.
The next area was completely dark again, but Gaignun couldn't smell anything in the air this time. He knew at once this had to be another trap of Mettaton's. The phone rang, and he answered it.
"Okay, I'm back, sorry about that!" Alphys apologized. "A-Another dark room, huh? Don't worry! My hacking skills have got things covered!"
The lights came on, and Alphys yelped. "A-Are you serious?"
There was all manner of lights and cameras surrounding the group, Mettaton standing nearby, dressed in a red suit. It was hard to see around the area, save for a few random objects scattered about.
"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh yessss~! Good evening, beauties and gentlebeauties! This is Mettaton, reporting live from MTT News!" Mettaton proclaimed. "An interesting situation has arisen in eastern Hotland! Fortunately, our correspondents are out here, reporting live!"
"…correspondents? What is he trying to rope us into?" Reyn wondered.
"Brave correspondents! Please find something newsworthy to report!" Mettaton prompted. "Our ten wonderful viewers are waiting for you!"
"It's hard to see anything with all these lights!" Elly pointed out, but Mettaton didn't answer. Jr squinted as he looked around, until his eyes lit up and he ran over to something.
"Jr? What did you find?" Fiora asked.
"A dog!" Jr responded, picking up the small white dog that had stolen Papyrus' special attack. It happily wagged its tail as Jr held it up.
"What a sensational opportunity for a story! I can see the headline now: 'A dog exists somewhere.' Frankly, I'm blown away. Is that what you want to report, darling?" Mettaton asked.
Jr excitedly nodded. "Of course!"
"Attention, viewers! One of our correspondents has found…a dog!" Mettaton announced. A chorus of 'awww's came from somewhere Gaignun couldn't see. "That's right, folks! It's the feel-good story of the year! Look at its little ears, its tiny paws, its fluffy tail…"
Mettaton fell silent, and Gaignun did his best not to sigh. That dog wasn't what it appeared to be, was it?
"…wait a second! That's not a tail, that's a fuse!" Mettaton realized. Instantly, a fuse lit on the dog's tail, and Jr's eyes widened.
"W-What the hell?!"
"That's right…that dog…is a bomb!" Mettaton shouted. "But don't panic! You haven't even seen the rest of the room yet!"
The lights died down to reveal a basketball, a script, a glass of water, a present, and a video game, all with fuses coming out of them. A much larger bomb was at the north end of the area.
…that's just excessive.
"Oh my!" Mettaton gasped. "It seems everything in that area is a bomb! That basketball is a bomb! That present is a bomb! Even that innocuous glass of water is a bomb!"
"I get you want to kill us, Mettaton, but isn't this a bit much?!" Bart yelled.
"Brave correspondents, if you don't defuse all of the bombs within five minutes, this big bomb will blow you all to smithereens! Then you won't be reporting 'live' anymore! How terrible!" Mettaton declared. "Our nine viewers are going to love watching this! Good luck, darlings!"
Alphys called in again. "D-Don't worry! I installed a bomb-defusing program on your…o-oh no."
"Oh no? Dr. Alphys? What happened?" MOMO asked.
"T-The program! It's still sitting on my desk, oh my god I forgot to install it!" Alphys realized, voice rising in pitch. "Oh no, oh no, oh no…!"
"This might be a bad idea, but…could we just freeze the bombs?" Melia asked. "It could stop them from exploding…"
"Freeze the…I-I don't know, but you have to try!" Alphys prompted. "Anything to stop the bombs from exploding!"
"Right, then! Any and all ice ether users, let's get started on freezing the bombs!" Melia prompted, taking out her staff. Jin, KOS-MOS, chaos, and Elly quickly dashed towards the other bombs, while Jr set down the dog. He paused for a few seconds before simply pinching the fuse, extinguishing the small flame.
"Dog bomb defused!" Jr called.
"Glass of water bomb frozen!" chaos confirmed.
"Script bomb defused!" Elly shouted.
"Basketball defused!" KOS-MOS informed.
"Video game bomb frozen!" Jin declared.
"Present bomb frozen!" Melia said.
"Well done, darlings!" Mettaton praised. "You deactivated all of the bombs! If you didn't deactivate them, the big bomb would have gone off in two minutes! Now…it won't go off in two minutes. It will explode in two seconds!"
There was a moment of panic as the party members clustered around each other, the sound of multiple Ether spells going off in an attempt to shield everyone from the blast filling the room. Jr was trying to shield Gaignun as well as he could, and he could do little more than hug Jr tightly and shut his eyes–
"…ah. It seems the bomb isn't going off," Mettaton realized. Gaignun cracked open one eye to see the larger bomb wasn't exploding, and there was a collective sigh of relief from everyone.
"That's b-because! While you were monologuing…I…! I f… fix…um…I ch-change…" Alphys began, stammering.
"Oh no. You deactivated the bomb with your hacking skills," Mettaton realized.
"Y-Yeah! That's what I did!" Alphys confirmed.
"Curses! It seems I've been foiled again! Curse you, humans, and curse you Dr. Alphys! But I don't curse my eight wonderful viewers for tuning in~until next time, darlings!"
Mettaton rolled away, and everyone slowly relaxed, dispelling the numerous Ether spells casted.
"W-Wow…we really showed him, huh? H-Hey, I know I was kind of weird at first…but I really think I'm getting more…uh, more…m-more confident about guiding you guys! S-So don't worry about that b-big d-dumb robot…I-I'll protect you from him! A-And if it really c-came down to it, we could just t-turn…um, never mind. Later!"
Alphys hung up, leaving the party to keep moving forward. Gaignun realized he was shaking a little as he straightened up, and he grunted in irritation.
"Gaignun, are you okay?" Jr asked. "You're shaking there…"
"I'm fine, I wasn't expecting Mettaton to try to blow us all up," Gaignun assured as they walked on, approaching another view of the Core. Alphys called again just as they entered the area.
"Um…I noticed you guys haven't called much. A-Are you worried about meeting Asgore?" she asked.
"Sort of. We know once we meet with him and go past the barrier…that might be the last thing we do in the Underground," Gaignun admitted. "We only know he's nice, according to what others have said, but…"
"W-Well, don't worry, okay? Th-The King is a really nice guy! I'm sure you can talk to him, and…w-with your human souls, you can pass through the barrier! S-So no worrying, okay? J-Just forget about it and smile!" Alphys prompted before hanging up again. The party stopped for a moment to look out at the Core, no one talking for a few minutes.
"…do you mind me asking a little about the world you and your friends come from, Dunban?" Jin asked after a while.
"Ah! Go ahead, Jin!" Dunban responded.
"The Monado…I admit I'm curious about its origins. Nothing like that exists in the world I came from, after all," Jin admitted.
"Ah, that…14 years ago, according to my friend Dickson, he had found the Monado in a location called Ose Tower. Ever since he grabbed it from the tower, it's been kept in Colony 9…at first, I wound up being its wielder, but…"
Dunban looked away. "It seems to have a mind of its own, or is very choosy about its wielder. It took a lot out of me to use in battle, but…I tried to stay determined. I tried to remain in control of it…but during the Battle of Sword Valley, everything finally came to a head. I lost use of my arm, the Monado was kept in the military's research lab, and…I lost one of my friends."
Jin was quiet, a surprised look on his face. "…I am truly sorry to hear that, Dunban. If you ever came to our world, we have plenty of medicine and treatments available to help you."
"If I can be honest with you, I don't know if any of those treatments would work, but…thank you, Jin," Dunban responded.
The phone rang, breaking up the touching moment, and Gaignun was quick to answer it. "Hello?"
"Are you humans okay?!" Papyrus asked immediately. "To think Mettaton would nearly blow all of you up…!"
"I missed the start of the broadcast, but holy crap!" Undyne commented. "All of those bombs…"
"We're fine, we're…mostly spooked from nearly being killed, really," Gaignun admitted. "Undyne, have you found anything on teleportation spells?"
"There was this old book I found in Papyrus' room that had information on how to teleport yourself, but nothing on teleporting other people. I'll keep looking and call if anything else comes up," Undyne answered. "Just…don't let Mettaton kill you in the meantime, okay?"
"Will do. See you later, Undyne," Gaignun answered before hanging up. The party picked up the pace, entering an elevator and riding it up a floor. The sight that greeted them there was a young, spider-like woman with five purple eyes, pale blue skin, six arms, black hair tied up in pigtails, and some sort of red outfit. There was a table in front of her covered in red cloth, a display case holding all sorts of pastries within it. Spider webs decorated the area around her.
"Reyn?" Billy prompted, and Gaignun glanced over at Reyn. To his worry, Reyn has turned as white as a ghost, trembling as his widened eyes were focused on the spider-woman nearby.
"A-Ah, Reyn…! Forgive him, he's…he has arachnophobia, I didn't think we'd see spiders down here. Fiora and I will escort him out of here and wait for you guys!" Shulk apologized. He and Fiora guided Reyn away from the area as fast as they could manage, the spider-woman watching in amusement.
"Ahuhuhu…your friend doesn't seem to like spiders," she noted as the others approached her table. "Anyways, welcome to the Underground's Spider Bake Sale! My name is Muffet, and I'm running the bake sale. Would any of you care for a pastry or some cider? They're made by spiders, for spiders, with spiders!"
"Ah, we'd love to, but…we're broke right now, unfortunately. Sorry," chaos apologized.
"Are you sure? They're only 9999 gold~" Muffet asked.
"9999 gold?! We just said we're broke!" Bart pointed out.
"Our apologies, Muffet, but we probably should keep going," Citan answered. "We wish you luck in your bake sale."
Though as Gaignun walked away to rejoin Shulk, Reyn, and Fiora, he could feel Muffet watch him and the party walk away. He really hoped they wouldn't run into her again anytime soon…