Chapter 35: Catching Up With Friends
Leaving the recording studio behind, Frisk wound up on a straightforward path with nothing in their way for a while. They were standing on a rocky structure high above the magma pits that Hotland was known for, but the surface was stable enough to make falling virtually a non-issue. Their attention was quickly drawn to a massive structure looming in the distance. Hundreds of pipes and vents could be seen protruding from it, and the whole thing looked very well illuminated.
"Alphys," Frisk said into their phone, "can you see me with the camera system right now? What's that building over there?"
"Oh, that? It's the Core, the primary source of power for the underground. It generates magical electricity by harnessing geothermal energy from tremors in… a-anyway, that's where you need to go. There's an elevator in there that leads really close to Asgore's castle, so you don't have to take the long way around Hotland. From there… you can go home to the surface."
"Good to know there's a shortcut. Will I run into Mettaton again?"
"H-hard to say… he's probably gonna try to set up another show along the way, so we'll just have to be careful."
Aside from that robot, they found Hotland to be fairly comfortable now that they had so many friends supporting them. Frisk would have considered visiting Sans, Papyrus, Undyne, and Kid if they weren't so focused on getting out. A question they'd briefly forgotten came to mind.
"Hey, Alphys… what can you tell me about the scientist before you? I heard some people mention him earlier."
It sounded like she squawked in surprise. Evidently, she didn't expect them to ask about him.
"D-Doctor Gaster? He's been gone for about 20 years now… I was his assistant from a young age, he just saw potential in me I guess."
"What happened to him?"
Her breathing seemed to even out before she responded.
"I'm… I'm not sure. He was just… gone one day. No clues of where he went, or what happened to him. Where'd you hear his name?"
They frowned, thinking about it.
"From two monsters waiting near one of the puzzles I solved. One of them told me that Gaster was smeared across time and space or something."
She sounded a bit worried.
"I-I guess it's possible? I've been trying to research it ever since he disappeared… I should go, see you later!"
Alphys hung up without warning, leaving Frisk very confused. They followed the path to an elevator that brought them to an "upper" floor of Hotland. The cavern, evidently, was even larger in that area if there were multiple layers through which the elevator could travel. Upon stepping out into the next corridor, they were greeted with a familiar face.
"Sans!"
"heya, kid."
He was sitting behind a desk, apparently attending to a fourth job. This time, what exactly that was seemed obvious: several hot dogs were cooking on a grill behind him. Sans had his usual wide grin and turned to fully face them after giving a hot dog to a Vulkin, which happily scampered off with it.
"you look tired, pal. wanna rest for a little while here? i'll give ya a hot dog if ya want."
He gestured to a chair near the desk. Frisk's legs were, admittedly, killing them after so much walking through the underground, so they gratefully obliged and flopped into it.
"oh, can ya do me a favor and call papyrus to let him know i'm here?"
"Sure thing…"
Needless to say, his brother and Undyne had no idea where he was when Frisk called.
"WHAT? SANS IS ACTUALLY AT HIS STATION?"
"He's selling hot dogs?! I thought he only had three jobs!"
"NO, IT'S DEFINITELY FOUR AT LEAST…"
"Who the hell keeps hiring this guy?!"
After they hung up, Sans came over to them with a freshly-cooked hot dog.
"here's your 'dog. apostrophe-dog. that'll be 30G."
Frisk had expected not to get it for free, so they paid without complaint. The skeleton took the money with a wink before turning to leave.
"i'm takin' a break. see you later, kid."
He casually strolled away, slurping out of a ketchup bottle as he went. Seeing as there was nobody around to interrupt them, Frisk chose to stay there for a break of their own. They used their phone's item storage system to take more food out of their inventory, until they had a small feast to themselves: the hot dog, the can of soda from Alphys, the other Unicicle (which they'd eaten before killing Undyne, but was back after they reset to try the fight again), and the Cinnamon Bunny from Snowdin.
Frisk wasn't too concerned about keeping items to restore their soul's HP, as they still had Toriel's slice of pie, the instant noodles, and the spider donut from the Ruins in their inventory. Besides, they were too hungry at the moment to care. Happily digging in, starting with the hot dog, they took out their phone to check UnderNet. Another friend request had come in, from "M0NST3Rkid," as well as several messages from a different user.
MTT-Official: "Hello there, darling! I just wanted to thank you for the HUGE success that was our baking show! Too bad you managed to escape… but don't fret, we'll meet again soon~."
They deleted the message without a second thought.
"I should talk to Kid again…"
Frisk accepted his friend request, upon which they received an invitation to join a chat group called "Cool Kids of Snowdin." Curious, they agreed to it. Quite a few users were in the group.
DeterminedSoul: "Um, hi everyone."
M0NST3Rkid: "Yo, it's Frisk! See guys, I told you we were friends!"
MasterComedianSnowdrake: "snow kidding."
icecap: " DeterminedSoul yeah, Kid wouldn't shut up about you."
M0NST3Rkid: "That's not true and you know it."
GlydeTheGreatest: "why dont I ever get that much attention"
icecap: "probably because you live alone in the woods?"
MasterComedianSnowdrake: "we ALL live in the woods except for kid"
DeterminedSoul: "Don't you guys get cold out there?"
M0NST3Rkid: "Why'd you run away in the first place?"
Frisk stifled a gasp. Had those monsters really run away from home? They wondered if it was for the same reasons they had... and hoped that wasn't the case.
ChillDrake-the-Rebel: "because it RULES! nobody can tell us what to do out here"
MasterComedianSnowdrake: "you said it"
ChillDrake-the-Rebel: "we survive on our own out here, scavenging for these sweet packages of goods we find every now and then. plenty of food to keep us going strong!"
M0NST3Rkid: "I think those packages are just boxed lunches that your parents leave in the forest for you to find."
ChillDrake-the-Rebel: "YOU CANT PROVE IT"
Well… at least the monsters seemed happy with their situation. Frisk was relieved to hear that.
icecap: "so frisk, kid says you're on a journey through the underground."
DeterminedSoul: "Yeah, I'm all the way in Hotland."
GlydeTheGreatest: "I think you mean you're ONLY in Hotland! If it were me I'd be outta here already!"
M0NST3Rkid: "If it were you then I doubt you'd have made friends with Undyne. So no, you wouldn't be out."
icecap: "you're a friend of Undyne?! You have to introduce us next time you're in Snowdin!"
M0NST3Rkid: "now that you're on TV, everyone wants you to come visit us."
Frisk suddenly felt uncomfortable. While Kid may have known (though they weren't completely sure), the others weren't aware that they had no intention of going back to Snowdin. They closed UnderNet and put their phone away, returning to their food with a slightly heavy heart.
"I do want to escape… I do want to escape…"
Needing something to distract themselves with, Frisk dug out the torn notebook they'd bought from Gerson back in Waterfall and examined it. Many of the pages were missing, and it clearly had been around for years. It was evidently some kind of journal, belonging to someone with very neat and curvy handwriting. She was apparently named Abigail.
It took Frisk a moment to notice, but upon closely reading the notebook they realized that she was one of the humans to enter the underground before them. The clusters of pages and words that hadn't worn away told her story.