Chapter 37: MTT News Network

Before Frisk continued walking, they took a moment to collect their thoughts on what they'd read. Abigail's journal seemed to date back over a century, given that she was evidently the third soul to be obtained by Asgore and that Undyne had explained how six humans had fallen into the underground in the last 150 years. She too had met Toriel (who was apparently much older than Frisk had realized), but made no mention of Flowey in the readable parts of the journal, leading them to assume that he was born (grown?) sometime after her fall. Similarly, Undyne and Alphys were not present; instead Gerson was still head of the Royal Guard and W.D. Gaster was still Royal Scientist. The skeleton brothers also were never referenced.

Two names were mostly unfamiliar to Frisk: Asriel, King Asgore's son, and 'Chara.' They recalled hearing that name on the two occasions that they'd died, and were finally closer to figuring out who exactly she was. Moreover, something clicked in their mind at last: the Delta Rune, the symbol they'd seen in Gerson's shop and on the armor of the canine Royal Guards, was the same symbol as what they'd seen on Toriel's dress back in the Ruins. They wondered why she would be wearing it, though.

The line about how Abigail had lost her glasses caught their attention. It didn't take long for Frisk to remove the pair on their face and stare down at them. They were dusty and a bit cracked. Could they have been hers? And if the notebook was also hers, then…

Briefly fiddling with their phone's inventory system, Frisk looked at the collection of items and weapons they'd gathered. A toy knife with a faded ribbon wrapped around the handle from the Ruins, a tough glove and Manly Bandana from Snowdin, and two sets of items from Waterfall: ballet shoes and a tutu, and glasses and a notebook. There was also the frying pan they'd found near the beginning of Hotland. All these possessions… had they belonged to the humans before Frisk? The idea would have seemed far-fetched to them upon first arriving, but the approximate four days they'd been wandering underground had taught them not to assume anything was "too unbelievable."

Once they'd finished their small feast and continued onward, that idea only got stronger when Frisk came across a heavily stained apron just sitting discarded on the ground. They noticed their soul pulse to identify it as armor, but wearing it along with the tutu would be uncomfortable at best, and it was far too large for them anyway. Nevertheless, Frisk picked up the apron and put it in their bag. Just leaving it on the ground didn't sit right for them, especially because it may have belonged to a previous human.

The path through Hotland was mostly devoid of monsters, and those that were around didn't care about Frisk enough to attack. They spoke to their friends more, both on UnderNet and over the phone, and found great comfort in them. As enjoyable as it was to speak with them, however, Frisk had to keep forcing themselves to remember that they wanted to leave the underground. It was becoming more and more difficult to stay true to that goal.

Alphys was, as usual, ready to help with puzzles, but Frisk rarely needed the advice. Whenever they got past one easily, the Royal Scientist seemed to change. She became a bit more nervous and forcedly cheerful. Admittedly, it had the human somewhat unnerved.

"Hey… are you all right?" they asked during one phone call. "You sound worried."

"W-w-worried? Don't be ridiculous, I'm f-fine! Where are you now?"

Not entirely convinced, they looked around anyway.

"I'm on top of some kinda group of rock pillars with bridges… it's pretty dark here, are there any lights?"

"Yep! My hacking skills have got you covered!"

Alphys was silent for a few moments before the cave was illuminated by large floodlights in the walls… revealing Mettaton wearing a red suit (rectangular in shape to fit his body, of course) and seated behind a desk. The desk itself was surrounded by props and backdrops to resemble a studio for news channels on TV. A long screen on the ground read several headlines, including "MTT-Brand Still Top Rated," "Hotland Puzzles Mysteriously Activate and Deactivate in Linear Order Throughout Area as Human Progresses," and "Local Woshua Cleans Up Crime, Literally Finds Criminals and Douses Them in Soap. Crime Rate Doesn't Change but They Smell Amazing."

Wait, what did that second one say?

"Hello, darling viewers, and thank you for tuning in to MTT News! This is Mettaton, reporting live from eastern Hotland this evening! An interesting situation has arisen, and we at MTT News are here to bring you the inside story!"

He turned to look at Frisk from behind his prop desk. The cameras set up around him focused on them.

"Brave correspondent! Please find something newsworthy to report! Our ten wonderful viewers are waiting for you!"

They found it strange that he had so few monsters watching, given the small crowds of apparent fans they'd seen earlier, but that was hardly their concern. Mettaton was threateningly pointing a finger, which sparked with electricity, and they remembered how it had cut their HP down to half during the quiz. In no hurry to repeat that experience, Frisk began to survey the area. They soon noticed six things scattered around one of the large platforms, none of which seemed to belong there: a rough script for "Mettaton the Movie XXVIII, Starring Mettaton," a "Fashion Basketball" like what Papyrus had been wearing during their hangout, a completely nondescript glass of water, a case for a video game, a present addressed "To The Human," and a small white dog. Upon closer inspection, Frisk realized that said dog was in fact the very same animal that had stolen Papyrus' special attack. It stared at them with a confused look on its face, panting softly.

"What's this dog doing here…?"

"Ooh, what a sensational opportunity for a story! I can see the headline now: 'A Dog Exists Somewhere.' Frankly, I'm blown away."

"Very funny… let's just report on this."

The dog cocked its head sideways at them.

"That's the spirit. Ahem… attention, viewers! Our correspondent has found a dog! Feel free to 'aww' now. That's right, folks! It's the feel-good story of the year! Look at its little ears, tiny paws, fluffy tail… wait a second, that's not a tail! That's… a fuse!"

Frisk, shocked, stared at the small flame that had suddenly lit on the dog's tail. It either didn't notice or didn't care that part of it was on fire, still panting and giving them a blank look.

"That's right! That dog… is a bomb! But don't panic, brave correspondent… oh my! It seems that everything in this area is actually a bomb!"

The other objects (including the glass of water, strangely) suddenly held sparking fuses and began moving around on their own. A massive red bomb descended from a hatch in the cave's ceiling and landed on a different rock pillar nearby.

"Oh dear! Human, if you don't defuse all of the bombs, this big bomb will blow you to smithereens in just two minutes! Then you won't be reporting 'live' any longer! Shocking, disturbing, horrific! Our nine viewers are going to love this! Good luck, darling!"

"Alphys!" Frisk immediately shouted into the phone.

"I know, I can see you on the cameras! Y-you should have an app for defusing bombs, just get close to them and hit the defuse button!"

They sprang into action immediately, pouncing on the dog before it could escape. Frisk did as instructed, and sure enough found a "Defuse" app on their phone. With a quick press of a button, the dog's tail stopped sparking. It sat down and fell asleep, blissfully unaware of what was going on.

"G-good job! Go for the present, it's at the top-right of the area!"

Alphys was correct, as Frisk saw that the gift was sitting by itself on a rock pillar nearby. They traversed a few small bridges before reaching and defusing the present bomb.

"The glass of water's somehow moving around too quick for you to catch. I'll try to stop it with, um, electromagnetic fields! Go get the movie bomb now, it should be to the right!"

Frisk scrambled across more bridges, pillars, and even a conveyer belt to handle it. They continued working in conjunction with Alphys to track down all six bombs and defuse them, ending with the extremely agile glass of water, with twenty or so seconds to spare. Mettaton, watching casually from his desk, applauded.

"Bravo, darling! You've deactivated all of the bombs! Now that big one won't go off in two minutes… it'll take two seconds instead! Goodbye, sweetheart! Ahahahaha!"

Completely caught off guard, Frisk didn't have a chance to brace themselves for the explosion. As it turned out, however, they didn't need to. The large red bomb didn't detonate.

"Ah. It seems that the bomb isn't going off."

"T-that's because of me!" Alphys exclaimed through Frisk's phone. "While you were monologuing, I… I fixed… I mean I, um, changed…"

"Oh no!" Mettaton cried in what sounded like a forced tone. "You deactivated it with your hacking abilities?"

"Uh… y-yeah, I did!"

"Curses! I've been foiled again! Curse you, human! Curse you, Doctor Alphys, for helping so much! But I don't curse my… eight viewers for tuning in! Until next time, darling!"

Mettaton changed into his flight mode and took off again.

"Well, we showed him," Frisk sighed in relief. "Thanks, Alphys. Your apps have been perfect for dealing with him so far! Every time he's shown up you've had a solution ready."

"Um! That's! Because! I… I planned for a lot of situations!" she seemed to force out. "Hey… I know I was a little weird at first, but… I-I think I'm getting more confident about guiding you now. So, don't worry about t-that big, dumb r-robot… I'll protect you from him!"

They smiled at her resolve.

"Sounds good to me."

At that point, however, Alphys muttered something into the phone, like she was talking to herself.

"…and if I really need to, I could just turn..."

"Did you say something?"

"N-no, nothing! I'll call you back later, keep going!"

She hung up abruptly, leaving a slightly puzzled human behind.