In which fluffy dragon comes to the rescue.
"Hey, there's Gaster! Oh God is that a volcano!"
At that, Sans turned his attention from the lab to the figures standing a short distance away from it. Gaster was talking to a… sustained magma spout. With a head and arms.
"What is that?" he said, voicing the thoughts of everyone else. There was a scramble for window space and someone's elbow landed on his head. His chin slid down onto the back of the seat. "Ow." Behind him he could hear JanetTem bouncing around in search of a good vantage point, then Seon said "climb on my neck" and lifted her head and the clinging Temmie above everyone else.
"I think it's a magma spirit," said a large lizardy monster with a domed skull, "But I didn't know there were any here…"
Sans, smushed into the seatback, couldn't see the figures, so he looked ahead towards the station. Oddly enough, he couldn't see the station anymore. A kind of shadow seemed to have come between them and it….
Oh no.
They plowed into it a moment later with a squishing noise, and everyone was flung sideways. There was a moment of tumbling confusion, the brakes came on, and the train slid to a stop, piling them all at the front of the car. There was a loud shriek from somewhere close by. Sans opened his eyes and found himself wrapped around Delly with his face planted in Seon's soft flank. Seon's coils had greatly softened the fall for almost everyone, excluding Seon herself, who was rather squished. Sans struggled up, apologizing hastily to the bodies he stepped on, stumbled to the window and pulled himself up. A massive Crawler was boiling across the magma towards Dr. Gaster and the others, steaming and shrieking and burning.
"We hit a Crawler," he said in response to someone's question, then, stepping back, wrenched the doors open without touching them.
Gaster was abstractedly aware of the approaching train, but he looked up at the screech of brakes just in time to see it skid to a stop on slippery rails, a large slimy darkness clinging to the front. As the train stopped, most of the mass peeled off and flopped into the magma beside the track. Immediately it boiled up with a shriek and hurried towards the nearest land, which was the shelf where the lab was. It was coming right towards him.
"What?" said the Kodama, pleasantly blank, perhaps unable to process the sight.
"Oh no…" whispered Alphys. Gaster took a deep breath, turned to face them, pulled up his shirt and fished a sleeping cat out of his pelvic cavity.
"Hold my cat," he said, holding him out to the kodama, who blinked, in shock.
"What."
"Take him! Then go back to the lab and keep it open for the others—Alphys, go with him!" Gaster piled the limp bundle of cat into the kodama's arms and turned. The magma spirit sank out of view, leaving a glowing pit in the rock, and reappeared in the magma lake, where he settled down to his shoulders and—purred. He looked from Gaster to the Crawler, as if saying 'this is gonna be good.' Gaster swore, adjusted his stance, and began to hum.
The Crawler was halfway across the magma, leaving a dark trail across the surface and losing mass steadily as it came, though not quickly enough to kill it before it reached them.
Gaster hummed through a phrase of song, eye unfocusing into a galaxy of disconnected, dancing lights. A framework of purple arcs traced through the air in front of him. Beside him there was a thud and a clatter, then the thin whine of a charging light cannon and he knew that Alphys was with him. I told you to go he snapped tersely, still humming.
"I'm not leaving you!"
Meanwhile, the Kodama was standing with his foot in the door and cool air pouring out from behind him, cradling the cat, which had woken up enough to twitch its tail angrily at the change of position. The Kodama looked at Alphys, with her small body wrapped around a giant gun which had somehow appeared out of nowhere, at Gaster humming casually as he made some sort of weapon construct, and then down at the peeved cat, which had also somehow appeared out of nowhere. Then at the stalled train. Then at the mysterious cat. He gave a faint whimper of confusion.
"Hey!" shouted someone from inside the lab, "close the door! You're letting all the cool air out!" Yoro appeared, stripped down to his shorts. There was a distant, tinny sound of canned fiddle music playing. The Kodama silently pointed outside and Yoro followed the motion with a glazed look.
"Help them," said the Kodama weakly. Yoro stared for a full second, then shook himself, gave a measured
"Ah HEEELLLlllll no."
and walked away. The Kodama heard one of the showers in the washroom, which was in the residential block, turn on.
"That's not helping."
"I-I'll f-fire f-first," said Alphys, "And if—y-you can—w-we'll take turns, O-OK?" she'd been gradually depressing the trigger as she spoke, and as she finished the cannon blazed, and burned a trail across the top end of the Crawler, which lurched but kept coming.
"Oh no…" the whine started again as she recharged.
Gaster finished the phrase and looked intently at the shape in the air in front of him, which gradually resolved itself into a large purple bow and arrow, flickering in the air. He took them in his hands and they solidified. He pulled the arrow back, indigo cutting magic sparking at its tip, held it for a moment and then released. The arrow plunged into the Crawler with a flash of purple, slowing it for a moment. It was bleeding a new trail of inky slime as it continued forward. Slowly another arrow formed. Gaster hummed.
"Good shot," whispered Alphys, steadying the light cannon. "Come on come on you can do this…" The cannon blazed again, and this time the beam caught the Crawler in the thick part. It screeched angrily, slowing almost to a stop. Another arrow was forming on the string of Gaster's bow, which suddenly flickered, almost disappearing. Gaster hummed. Then, as the Crawler was stretching out desperate tendrils to the land and Gaster was pulling back his second arrow, the magma flung itself up in a wave, curled over the Crawler and pushed it backwards. The shrieking and boiling continued out in the magma as the Crawler fought its way up out of the molten rock. Gaster fired into the mass, which fizzled out with a final gurgle, and the bow flickered out of existence. He sighed, then looked down at Hassen, who hopped up to lean his chin on the edge of the rock, grinning devilishly. Gaster nodded at the burning mess and smiled.
"Nice work, friend."
Hassen warbled proudly and slid backwards into the magma, from whence the sound continued, muffled. Gaster straightened his back, loosened his bones, and looked down at Alphys.
"I'm alright," she said. He nodded with a faint smile and looked towards the train, just as there was a sharp cracking sound. He narrowed his eyes. Sans was standing a short distance from the train with his back to them—it had stopped not quite even with the station, but at a place where it was safe to jump out. Sans ran back to the door and shouted something into the interior of the car. There was another sharp crack, a tinkle of glass, and black tendrils whipped out of the front end of the locomotive car. Sans waved his arms, still shouting. Then in a flash of white the dragon shot out through the door with the Temmie and several other of the smaller monsters clinging to her back. She was carrying a rabbit by the nape of the neck. She flew rapidly up the path with a lashing motion like an eel, passed them with a gush of wind and disappeared into the lab. There were several thudding sounds and a doggish yelp. Sans had been bowled over onto his back and lay on the ground watching the rest of the monsters jump out of the car and run. A black mass was oozing its way out of the locomotive, and Gaster could see a faint halo of magic around it.
"Oh look, part of it got the conductor." Yoro panted up, dripping.
"What? Huh, oh great. That's just perfect. What are Crawlers doing here? You need my help?"
"It would be greatly appreciated."
"I just left to take a cold shower, I'm ready now." Yoro raced ahead down the path, passing several monsters running towards the lab. Gaster looked down to find Alphys struggling to move the cannon.
"Stay here and guard the door," he said. "We may need it, though hopefully not."
He started towards the train at a rapid walk. Yoro was half way there. Sans was blocking the Crawler inside the cab with bone bullets that crisscrossed the broken windows, but that wouldn't keep it for long. Crawlers had an annoying tendency to walk through bullets.
He hummed a different note, feeling it vibrate through his bones and resonate in his soul, searching through the threads of his mind for the one that rang in tune. Lines. Straight lines, solid, a single shape. He knew this better than the bow.
He ended on an E, and the sword in his hand hummed the note back. He smiled and gripped the hilt tightly.
There was a shattering sound, and, refocusing his eye, he saw Yoro pulling Sans away from the train and the Crawler pouring out and over onto the roof of the first passenger car.
"Sans!" Gaster shouted. "Get behind me." He stopped where he was, and Sans and Yoro ran back to join him.
"Well that's a thing," said Yoro, giving the sword an appreciative look. It was large for Gaster, which meant that it was about equal to the lengths of Sans and Yoro combined. It glowed the deep purple of Gaster's shield with indigo flickering around the edges like flame.
"I'm going to try to pull him out," said Gaster, looking up at the swaying mass collecting itself on the roof of the car.
"What?" said Yoro.
"The conductor."
"Well—Alright, I guess it's been done before, but be careful."
"That's where you come in. Try to keep the rest of it from following when I pull him free. Sans, can you use your blasters to sever the tendrils?"
"Yeah sure."
"Alright, here we go."
Gaster raised his left hand, searched for a moment, and then pulled. Sans recognized the blue attack that he'd used to walk up a wall. The blackness on the roof boiled and a slimy body burst out and shot towards them, tethered to the blackness with long ropy tendrils. Sans burned through them with a few shots from his blasters and the Crawler shrieked and poured down the side of the car onto the pathway.
The limp body hit Gaster in the chest and he stumbled backwards and dumped it into Yoro's arms. Yoro, who'd been in the middle of blocking the Crawler's path with a forest of branching antler-like bullets, grunted.
"Leave it, run! You too!" he pushed Sans after Yoro, forming his shield. A tendril slapped into it a moment later. Gaster walked backwards, watching the small Crawler—now more like an angry puddle—jiggle itself after them over the hot ground. It wouldn't get far. Checking that Sans and Yoro had a good start, he dropped his shield and broke into a slow jog after them.
He'd thought he was out of range, but the angry puddle was determined. A thin tendril whipped around his left wrist and he stopped.
Gone.
There was a sudden fuzzy silence in his mind, and a chill, creeping sensation up his arm towards his soul. Some part of him was aware that his sword flickered out of existence in his hand and Alphys jumped up far ahead.
Everything that made him himself was wiped out, erased. He was gone.
He hated that feeling. Wasn't it enough to doubt the existence of the rest of the world?
There had to be something there. Feeling down, he caught at threads, flickers of consciousness, that hadn't been touched yet. Movement. He could still move, couldn't he? He took several steps forwards, stretching the tendril taut, then felt compelled to stop. But that wasn't him, he could move if he wanted to. Where was the cutting magic? Near the top, somewhere. There. Right where he'd left it. He swung his free arm around and blue magic arced from his fingertips, slashing through the tendril, leaving him free, and he walked quickly forwards.
And his mind lit up like the million facets of a broken window at sunrise.
And the lab and the monsters were clear in front of him.
Something fizzled and shrieked on the hot ground behind him, and he hummed, happily, letting the notes fall loose. He was himself. He was free.
…Alphys was losing her shit. He refocused his eye and tried to look marginally sane and alright. Did he still have both his hands? Good.
A/N: Well that escalated quickly.
So, uh, I was going to make this dramatic and epic, but then I thought, why not just let it be ridiculous. It'll match the rest of the story.
...Hmm, I accidentally changed my formatting when I pasted the text in. It looks alright, I'll leave it.
:Edit: I just realized something funny about the dialogue with the train crawler...
Gaster: I have a plan!
Gaster: No wait it's a shit plan, run
AmberTale won the tag election with Undermaple a runner up and UnderLeaf the second runner up. One person also make a couple original suggestions, so thanks for that. And thanks to everyone who voted! I hath made a new Tumblr banner to commemorate the occasion. It's terrible. It could probably be slightly less terrible but I gave up.
Also! A very exciting thing has occurred!
SOMEONE ILLUSTRATED that exchange between Gaster and Carl at the end of Ch. 22! The artist (Sirrius The Moonblade on FFN) posted the panels separately, so I made a Tumblr masterpost with links to each one.
Also a weird thing of my own hath appeared on DeviantArt. I started writing a fact sheet about Gaster but since I was on break and had lots of time it ended up taking several days of my life and turning into kind of a compressed (but not very) bio. Most of it is stuff that either was covered already or probably won't be covered in this story (which is why I wanted to get it written down somewhere) but there's also a section at the bottom marked 'Spoilers?' You can look at that or not as you choose, they're not 'major' spoilers for the 'main plot' just lil Gastery spoilers. It's basically there because I didn't want to ruin a few potential surprises for anyone who really likes surprises. Actually, though, if you've read this far, you can go ahead and read the first one, it might actually help explain what in heck's going on this chapter.
I wasn't originally planning the surprise Psammites. I was so out of it when I posted the last chapter that it never occurred to me that Gaster was still carrying a cat around and I never said he'd put it down and he never really had a chance to anyway. I panicked a little when that occurred to me but then I realized you know what that's not even a problem. Gaster would totally do that.
Just pretend I planned this all from the beginning.
…It's OK if you have questions. So does the Kodama.
