BOOOM!

It was weird to think about, but the sound and sight of an explosion was no longer startling to Sue, or even the slightest bit unusual. Her fireball had soared true, flying straight toward Misery with all the incredible power it entailed.

Misery, with all the interest of a child watching paint dry, had easily sidestepped the attack. As the fireball exploded in the air beneath her, she turned to face Sue and grinned. "You'll have to do a little bit better than that."

Misery

ATK: 8

DEF: 8

* She's trying to make it easy for you now. Not that it will be.

Sue said nothing. Yeah, that's right. Just keep underestimating me.

"What," said Misery, "no witty retor—"

The air whooshed loudly as Sue's foot barely swept past the side of Misery's head. Sue had moved with more speed than she had knew she was capable of, closing the gap between them in less than a second. Yet still, Misery had dodged to the side, expending the bare minimum of effort to avoid being hit.

Sue followed up her roundhouse kick with a hook-kick from the same leg, a move she had seen from many of the martial arts anime she'd watched across her life. The move proved itself to be equally ineffective as Misery once again dodged the attack.

"Grrr…."

Gritting her teeth, Sue readjusted her foot stance and charged forward, her fists instinctively wreathing themselves in flames. A flurry of punches followed, so rapid and powerful that they appeared to her as nothing more than a mass of whirling fire.

Misery did not move. Her eyes gleamed with power, and a shimmering white barrier surrounded her on all sides. Sue's strikes collided mightily, sending out shockwaves of scorched air from the impacts, but the barrier remained resolute.

"Ngaaaaaahh!"

Sue let out a shout, infusing it with every ounce of willpower she had to give. Slowly, the barrier surrounding Misery began to shudder. Then, a small web of cracks appeared, expanding and branching out with every new strike.

Then, with one final strike, the barrier was shattered. Its magic broke into millions upon millions of glittering pieces that sparkled and gleamed, before disappearing into thin air. Sue's flaming fist continued its path, headed straight for the center of Misery's abdomen.

Misery's eyes glinted, and she vanished with a whirr. Sue's fist passed through the empty air Misery had occupied a moment prior. A second whirr, and Sue turned around to see Misery floating in the air behind her. She crossed her arms as she reclined, letting her staff float at her side as she lazed about.

"What?" said Sue. "You're not going to try to fight back?"

"Do you want me to?"

"N-no!" Sue blurted out. "Just… wondering, that's all!" Get it together, Sue. You've got a good feel for her defenses now. You can do this.

"You'd better hurry," Misery taunted. "Take too long and I might just change my mind about our little deal."

"Shut up." The anger in Sue's voice wasn't loud or unrestrained as before, yet it was no less intense. There was a sense of tranquility to it that had managed to enhance her focus, rather than detract from it. Her mind was like a sharply-honed edge, and her determination the hand that guided it.

Cupping her right hand at her waist, she channeled her magic, and another fireball formed. As she tossed it forward, her thoughts brought back to the tunnels of the Labyrinth, when she'd first rescued Mettaton. Somehow, she was able to control the trajectory of her fireball as it flew, avoiding any casualties. If she could do that again…

…right then, just as she had willed it, her fireball curved sharply as it left her hand. It flew in a bowed arc, twisting in the air as it approached Misery.

Misery, with barely any sign of effort, grabbed her staff and swatted the fireball aside. It was knocked upwards, sending flecks of dust and rubble tumbling down as it exploded against the ceiling.

Good. I can control them. Let's see if this works…

"Throwing curveballs?" said Misery. "Is that your idea of a trick?"

"Shut up." Sue didn't bother with any further response. She ran to the side, keeping her eyes locked on Misery, rapid-firing blasts of flame from her palms. It was called 'strafing,' she remembered. Before long, she was literally running circles around misery, launching fireballs with such speed and force that they may as well have been machine gun bullets. And with each subsequent pass, her control over the fireballs grew greater, curving, spiraling, and twisting in ever more elaborate patterns.

Predictably, this did not show any further sign of inconveniencing Misery. She deflected each of the fireballs with ease, sending them each to explode against the ceiling. Yet even as her attacks continued to fail, Sue's determination never faltered. She understood now, how her willpower controlled the trajectory of each fireball.

And that was all that she had needed.

Sue dug her heels into the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust as she grinded to a halt. She looked upwards, where Misery was floating… then to the pair of bubbles that floated in the distance behind her. With fire flowing from her soul, she poured her power into her hands, forming a fireball twice as hot and powerful as before.

Misery tightened her grip on her staff, motioning to deflect… but stopped, as there was no need. The fireball flew right past her, missing her by at least three fit.

And instead, it was heading directly for Alphys and Mettaton.

The two monsters let out a scream. Sue felt her heart drop as she saw the fear on their face, and a pang of guilt strike deep into her stomach. But her resolve remained, and she reached out with a hand and a mental command. Immediately, the fireball came to a halt, hovering right in front of the bubbles holding her terrified friends.

Misery blinked. Her eyes drifted over the fireball, then back over to Sue. "Did… did you just…"

Sue said nothing.

Right away, Misery burst into a fit of uproarious, cackling laughter, so intense that Sue could almost feel the ground rumble at its sheer volume. The witch tearfully gripped her staff as she doubled over in the air, as though using it to hold herself upright on an imaginary floor. "Ahahahahahaha! By the nine Hells, that is priceless! I knew you were having trouble, but never in a million years did I think you'd fail so badly!"

Once again, Sue said nothing.

"I-I mean… think about it!" Misery jeered. "Not only did you miss me by a country mile, you very nearly obliterated both of your friends! The friends you've been fighting for this whole time! That's… Oh my Satan, how do even manage to screw up like that?"

For a third time, Sue said nothing.

"Well?" said Misery, still gasping for breath from laughter. "Don't you have anything to say for yourself? Any witty retorts? Any cutting remarks?"

A smirk crept its way across Sue's face. "Got you."

Misery's smile vanished. "…What?"

Sue didn't need to explain. The fireball that had previously been hovering right in front her friends did so, when it instantly accelerated to top speed, moving away from the still-rattled monsters and towards Misery.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Misery's screams were drowned out by the sound and fire of the explosion as it engulfed her body in searing flame. In its wake was an even more deafening silence, save for a soft whump as Misery flopped to the ground. Her body trembled as she stood up to her knees, trails of blood streaming down her forehead as she held herself upright with her staff.

"H-how…?"

Sue charged forward and answered the question, with the sound of her fist striking Misery's abdomen. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as she held the motion of her uppercut in Misery's gut. Sue's ears were filled with the disgusting sound of Misery's retching, as splatters of blood were forcibly ejected from the witch's mouth.

"You must really think I'm stupid, huh!? Did you honestly believe I'd throw a fireball directly at my friends!?"

Rage and flame echoed with every word, and soon it had all carried into her fist like a river of fire. A second explosion erupted from her knuckles, and Misery was immediately sent flying by the force of knockback, her staff spiraling away from her.

"Because here's a spoiler for you! I intended that fireball to move the way it did!"

When she finally landed, Misery's body was left even worse for wear than before. Her clothing was torn and ragged, and her was body caked with blood and gravel. She shakily stood to her feet, her legs wobbling beneath her, and her left arm bent at an unnatural angle that would only be possible were it broken.

"Then w-why…?"

Sue followed up by charging forward, delivering a flying roundhouse kick to the side of Misery's head. "Because for you, I knew it'd be the perfect distraction!"

The force of the blow was so great that it sent a burst of air in all directions, paired with a sickening crack! Misery's body flopped like a ragdoll as it was propelled upward and away, before slamming against the far wall. A cloud of dust kicked up from the site of impact, and through the dust Sue could see the outlines of a newly-formed crater.

"Because you couldn't resist the chance to stop and laugh! Because you've never done anything but take pleasure in others' suffering!"

The dust cleared, and Misery remained embedded within the crater on the wall, barely able to crane her neck upward to look Sue in the eye. It was a miracle that Misery was still conscious, and yet the fire within Sue never died. On the contrary, it was getting stronger by the moment.

"And that's the difference between me and you," Sue spat. She cupped both of her palms together and held them by her waist, letting them fill with a power that surpassed any fireball she could conjure. "I don't fight you to watch you suffer. I don't fight you because I think it's fun. I fight you because you're a threat. AND I AM ENDING THAT THREAT RIGHT HERE AND RIGHT NOW!"

FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Sue thrust her palms forward, and what resulted was an eruption of power she hadn't even imagined herself capable of. A massive beam of crimson flame, nearly ten feet in diameter, and rivaling the stars in its heat and intensity. It moved diagonally upward in a straight line, cutting through everything in its path, atomizing even the very air it touched.

And when the beam finally faded, there was nothing left. No sign of Misery, no sign of anything else. Nothing but a large tunnel in the wall, sloping upward, its interior still dripping with the remnants of melted rock.

Sue felt the fire within her fade away. Her vision became blurry, and her knees became weak.

As she finally lost consciousness, she could hear Alphys and Mettaton calling out to her, along with the rush of their approaching footsteps.