"Stop it!" James waved worriedly, running to us. "Why are you fighting?" He looked completely disbelieving, but I could only blink at him.
James was here. He had finally made it. And not to mention, in a much faster time than I had expected him to. I sighed in relief before choosing to answer him. "Well, we're not really fighting," I mused. Then as if to prove it, our souls retracted back into our bodies, safe from harm.
"Because you keep finding excuses." Cinder pointed out.
I glared at her, but couldn't find a way to counter her. It was the truth, after all. "And because we're not fighting for real." I added. "Just for fun. Or training. Or something."
Cinder raised an eyebrow. "It's not any of those, and you know it."
I pouted, and James could only keep looking between us in bewilderment. After a few moments of confusion, he asked to clarify, "So you're not fighting?"
I nodded. "Basically, yeah."
His shoulders slumped slightly, and I could see obvious relief on his face. Had he seriously thought we were fighting? Why would we even fight in the first place? Now that I was looking more closely, I could see there was an obvious tension on him, weighing him down. What was bothering him so much?
Cinder seemed to have noticed it as well. "Are you okay? Is something wrong?"
James jumped a little at the question, but quickly replied, "Uh, yeah! I'm fine. It's just the heat. It's making me really… hot." He looked weary just saying it, but I doubted it was the real reason.
Then suddenly, a much more important question sparked my mind. I eyed him carefully as I asked, "Where is Elaine?"
James seemed slightly startled at my tone of voice, and I received an incredulous look from Cinder. "She's doing fine." He responded carefully. "Why do you ask?"
"Why isn't she with you?"
"She wanted to stay with the skeleton brothers." He replied briskly, avoiding my gaze. "I don't know why."
Before I could drill him for more answers, Cinder beat me to the questions. "Did you see Joyce anywhere?"
James shook his head, and his hair flew around with him in the motion. "I thought she would be with you." He obviously looked disappointed. Maybe he had been counting on a Double J reunion or something.
"Well, she's not." And good riddance too.
"But since you're here, we can move on now!" Cinder exclaimed cheerfully.
James scratched the back of his head uneasily. "I hope you didn't have to wait too long for me."
"We didn't." I assured him, as the three of us starting to head back to the Hotel. "In fact, you arrived way earlier than I thought you would've. How?"
"Oh!" James immediately brightened up, like this was something he was actually willing to talk about, compared to all the other discussed topics so far. "Sans helped me!"
"Sans?"
"Yeah! He offered me a shortcut, and I told him he didn't have to. But he insisted, so I eventually agreed. He then dropped me off at his Hot Dog stand with one of his crazy shortcuts. It made things a lot faster." He pouted slightly at this.
I blinked, then turned away. Now there was no way for me to ask James if he had seen Cowboy.
Cinder noticed my expression. "Okay, it's about Sans, isn't it?" I tried to keep from glaring at her.
James turned to Cinder, confused. "What's about Sans?"
"The thing she's keeps being pissed about." Cinder explained, shrugging. "Lately, she's been pretty down, and especially touchy towards any subject regarding Sans. I think something happened between them."
I never remembered Cinder being so perceptive.
"Oh." James stared at me for a moment, but didn't prod.
Cinder raised an eyebrow at him, seeming amused. "You really are the soul of patience, aren't you?"
"H-huh?"
"Yeah, you." She pointed at him. "The way you refuse to speed things up, and how you choose not to ask too many questions. You're the soul of patience, right?"
James blinked stupidly at her, and I took that as a yes. "I bet you took your time getting here, didn't you?" I asked.
Now James was blinking at me, and his inability to answer proved that I was right as well. He stared at the ground sheepishly as we kept walking. At least he felt somewhat bad about it.
The three of us passed through Mettaton's Hotel one last time. For the first time in forever, I felt a kind of ease and peace. Because despite everything that was going on, and with everything that was occurring, I didn't regret any of it. At least, not yet. And James had finally caught up, so that was something. I finally allowed the relaxing atmosphere of the hotel to fill me with determination. It felt nice. We paid for our room of 200 G, bought one last Stairfait from Burgerpants, then left for good.
On our way to the Core, we discussed a couple of very important matters.
"So Cinder," I prompted. "On your way to the Hotel, how annoying was Mettaton?"
She shrugged. "It was okay, I guess. The only thing I had to do was the quiz, but some of the easier questions were changed to be made harder. I was able to skip everything else with the elevators." So she didn't have to do Mettaton's Cooking Show?
I frowned. "The Royal Guards didn't stop you?"
"They weren't there."
I pouted slightly. Of course they weren't. At that moment, they had chosen to eat ice cream. "Well then, how about Muffet?" The last elevator was broken, so she had to go through that, right?
"She ignored me." Cinder stated plainly. "She was only looking for someone in an apron…" She stared pointedly at the apron I was wearing, and I grinned.
"Was Muffet hard?" James asked, slightly curious.
I thought about it. Sure, she was hard. But did I really want to be looked down on? "Eh, she was okay." I waved my hand around dismissively. "Why?"
"Joyce said it was easy."
"Joyce?" I widened my eyes at him. "What? How?" Had she already passed through this area?
"That depends what do you mean by 'how.' " He prompted. "Do you mean, how is it easy?"
"No!" I groaned, annoyed at James' stupidity. "I mean, how did she already get to Muffet? And how do you even know?"
"She texted me." He grinned, reminding me just how awful not having a phone is. "She said something about beating Muffet and how it was 'a piece of cake.' "
"When?" Was it recently? Was she ahead of us right now?
James blinked questioningly at my sudden interest, but answered nonetheless. "Sometime after you left Toriel's house." Then his gaze drooped a bit. "But now, she's not answering any of my texts. I wonder why…"
My brow furrowed, and I thought hard on this. So she hadn't texted James recently, which meant that her message about Muffet could've been at a way earlier time. Right now, she might still be trying to catch up behind us somewhere. Except James hadn't seen her on the way here. Unless she had been in the Waterfall, and James teleported with Sans past her?
But the fact that she found the Muffet fight to be easy irritated me in a way I didn't like. She had already reached Muffet by the time I left Toriel's, which meant she had probably breezed through the whole game like it was the easiest thing ever. It also meant she hadn't chose to stick with the skeleton brothers right away, just later. She must've headed back with the River Person after reaching a certain destination. When did she turn back? And why? She could've just continued on, and… and…
What? She couldn't have done anything. Killed Asgore? No. So of course she went back. Then she stayed with Cinder until I showed up, giving the impression that she had just been staying with the skeleton brothers the whole time.
Why didn't Sans tell me? Or even worse, why didn't Cinder tell me?
Cinder watched me carefully. "What are you thinking of? Is it Sans again?"
For once, she was wrong. Sortove. Staring her down, I asked, "When did you reach the skeleton's household?"
She scratched her head. "I dunno, I don't have anything to use as a time marker. I left Toriel's when James was still there, and arrived at the skeleton's place once Joyce was there."
I decided not to prod. After all, if she was telling the truth (which she must've), then there was no more to ask for. She didn't know that Joyce went ahead and came back later. That also explained how she didn't know who Elaine was. I sighed just thinking about it. How long did Sans have to live with that annoying Joyce before Cinder showed up?
Pitying the skeleton wasn't exactly my thing, so I gave up on it.
The core was bright and mysterious, with little lights glowing everywhere, illuminating the blue halls. It was just as I expected it. The air was filled with the smell of ozone, and I was filled with determination. Smiling with anticipation, the three of us headed on.
Only after reaching the elevator in the Core did I realize we hadn't approached a single Core monster or received a text from Alphys.
"Say…" Cinder mused, looking my way. "James and I both have phones, so we could receive texts from Alphys. But you don't have a phone. How did you receive yours? Unless… you didn't contact Alphys at all?"
I shook my head before pointing at my camera. "Anyway, that's not the point. Do we use the elevator?"
"Let's see if it works first." Cinder volunteered, stepping forward to press the elevator buttons. I wasn't sure if I was surprised or not, but the doors opened without resistance, filling the room with a loug a ding!
"Huh." I commented, giving Cinder a sideways glance. "It looks like Ricky has already passed through this area, and given us access to the elevators."
"Yeah." Cinder replied, and all three of us headed in. The inside of the elevator was as bright as the Core. There were no destination buttons, but the elevator closed itself as it zoomed away to the destination on its own.
"You know Ricky?" I asked.
"Yeah." She nodded, then pointed to James. "I'm sure James does too." James nodded when his name was mentioned, and I couldn't help grinning. Cowboy had been right when he said everyone knew Ricky. It was actually kinda wierd.
But thinking of Cowboy made me sick, so I had to stop thinking about it.
Luckily, James interrupted my thoughts with a question. "But why didn't Alphys stop the elevator? And why didn't she reactivate the monsters to come back?"
Cinder frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Well," James shrugged. "Sans only brought me to the Hotdog Station, so I still had to continue on my own. I found that all the puzzles still worked, so I figured that Alphys had just reactivated all the puzzles again."
"Yeah." I agreed, nodding. "Most of the puzzles I did were reactivated, though there were a couple that Alphys missed, so I got it easy on those."
"But I didn't have to do a single one!" Cinder exclaimed, a tone of disbelief in her voice. "Had Alphys just forgotten to reactivate them for me?"
"Maybe it's because you weren't too far behind me when you tried catching up." I suggested. "So all the puzzles you went through were ones that I already solved."
She pouted. "Maybe." Then at that moment, the elevator doors finally opened, and the three of us stepped out.
"Should we get the Glamburger in the trash can?" James asked, following us to the big neon-colored door. There was a huge, decorative wing-shaped symbol on top of it. It seemed pretty intimidating, but not as much as the pitch-blackness behind the door itself. I knew that behind the door, we would find an elevator that would lead us to Asgore's castle. It filled me with determination.
"Nah." I answered, feeling strong. "Ricky might've already got to it." And I don't want to make a fool out of myself by getting lost in the maze-like Core.
"And I don't want to eat anything out of a trash can." Cinder pointed out, sticking out her tongue out and making gagging sounds to prove a point.
"Anyways," I shrugged. "We don't even know if we'll be fighting Mettaton. For all we know, he gave up after fighting Ricky."
"But that doesn't make sense." Cinder shook her head. "If he already fought Mettaton, then he wouldn't be there to constantly give us his Quiz Shows. He's still intact and in his box-shaped form… so I think we're still going to have to fight him." Wait, so Ricky didn't have to fight Mettaton?
That lucky ass. "Oh well." I grinned. "At least three's better than one, right?"
"Not exactly…" James pondered. "Mettaton's fight is a battle of outlasting him until he shows his soul to you, or until your ratings go up to a certain amount. Having more people fight at a time will result in having to use more healing items."
"But!" Cinder pointed out. "More people must mean more ratings! And more of us means the more we can shoot at Mettaton's soul, which will make the attacks end quicker!" James frowned, and I could see he didn't really care about the speed of the attacks. Typical patient-colored soul people.
I tried for a smile. "So are you guys ready to flip upside-down?" No matter the circumstance, I had to stay positive for my team.
Cinder and James nodded somewhat eagerly, and we finally entered the door, side by side. It was a close fit, since the door wasn't that big, but I could care less. After walking down a narrow hallway, we were met with the one and only Mettaton. Still in his box shape though, of course. But that would change soon enough.
"OH YES! THERE YOU ARE, DARLINGS!" His entire screen was the color of a dark red, the color of blood. "IT'S TIME TO HAVE OUR LITTLE SHOWDOWN. IT'S TIME TO FINALLY STOP THE 'MALFUNCTIONING' ROBOT." He paused for a dramatic effect. "...NOT!"
"Yeah yeah." I rolled my eyes, teeter-tottering my hands. "Get real. This was all just a big show, an act, she's playing us for a fool, yada yada yada."
Cinder seemed to catch on, and decided to skip his meaningless monologue. "Hey Mettaton, there's something really cool behind you!"
I could swear he was frowning, even though he didn't have eyebrows. "REALLY? WHERE?" He turned around, exposing the big red switch on his back. It couldn't be any more clearly labelled. Cinder lunged forward and activated it before quickly backing away. "CLEVER… VERY CLEVER."
Suddenly, the floor below us turned red and lifted itself straight out of the ground. Platform rising, it lifted us straight into the air. As the wind rushed by my head, I tried to keep my balance. Mettaton seemed to be going berserk, and he held his box shape in his hands to keep from going completely crazy. Suddenly, a huge burst of light shone onto us, and I had to close my eyes to prevent myself from becoming blind. When I opened them, there were two large spotlights positioned right above us. Large clouds of steam (or whatever it was) had formed, and were now covering the form of Mettaton, only leaving a shady impression for us.
"Ohhhh my." He contemplated. "If you flipped my switch, that can only mean one thing."
"Oh yes." I rolled my eyes before remarking sarcastically, "We're absolutely desperate to see the new premiere of your body."
"How rude…" Mettaton commented, "But lucky for you, I've been aching to show this off for a long time. So… as thanks, I'll give you a handsome reward. I'll make your last moments…" Another blinding flash of light where I was cued to close my eyes.
When they were open again, I was met with the sight of Mettaton in his full form. Jet black hair and tights with a purple colored suit and boots, there was no doubt about him being the perfect TV star. James and Cinder had the same look of awe on their faces. No matter how much we had expected it, it was still pretty amazing to see it for real. Just like every other Undertale wonder.
Mettaton EX smirked when he saw our expressions. "...Absolutely beautiful!"
Soggy Fat Face: nice story. tell you what, mate. there should an joke alt. story that is like a sh*tty fanfic that is written by a 12-y/o weeb (not you, luckily) that goes like AND AFTER ALL THAT HAPPENED, THEY ALL LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER AND HAD BABIES. HOPE U LILED MY WEBMANGA. PLZ GIVE NO CRITICISM JUST SUGGESTIONS.;; (AUTHORS NOTE: I LIKE FRISK AND CHARA PAIRINGS SO I WILL MAKE ANOTHER ONE FOCUSED ON THAT or something like that, mate. good luck on your story.
And so here is an Alternate Beginning, written by my dear friend Leaf! (She doesn't have a fanfiction account, it's just the pen name she likes to go by)
And let me assure you, this is amazing. :D
I pouted, and James could only keep looking between us in bewilderment. After a few moments of confusion, he asked to clarify, "So you're not fighting?"
"Basically, yeah." His shoulders slumped slightly in relief, then he died.
Some ducks ran in and sat on his dead body. It was slowly rotting, so they stuck maggot filled sticks into him, making a parasitic nest.
I freaked out, then I died too.
The ducks waddled over and pooped all over Frisk's body, until it became a trash heap of poooooooooop. Stink wafted upwards and mixed with the fumes of heat, which was inhaled by Cinder. Mixing the two substances had made it a poisonous gas, that quickly and painfully killed her, and her body fell onto Frisk and onto the ducks. So the ducks got squashed.
Then Elaine came over, and body flopped onto the pile of shitty stinky deady things… with a :D on her face.
Attached to Elaine's arm had been a rope. It had pulled another person with her, acting as a sort of leash and collar, which ended around Joyce's neck. The force of the body flop had choked her, so she fell dead upon the pile as well.
Ricky flew over on his imaginary wings. Jk, he actually just jumped off from a random cliff overhanging the group of kids, thinking that he could fly, and dropped down a far distance and crushed his brain on the pile.
Another face looked over the ledge. Cowboy. He yelled for Ricky, but when no response came, he jumped after him. He landed on the dead bodies, surviving, but at the cost of broken legs. When he saw all the mangled bodies, and Frisk's horrified face, he pulled out his gun and committed SEPUKUuuUUuuu~.
The ducks squeezed out from under the pile, then turned around to look at their handywork. The pink duck rubbed their wings in a malicious manner, snickering. Then they flabbled off.
Sans teleported on top of the pile. The very stinky pile.
"What the f*************ck?!/!?~~~"
Author's message (Leaf): Ducks. Then they died.
wtf I have 72 followers and I didn't even notice?! WHAAAAA?
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