Undertale 2: Forgiven
Chapter Seventeen
"Alex! The webs are too thick, even for me!" Papyrus exclaimed.
"Pheh. Skeletons are better for decoration, not pastry batches. You, Alex. You will do nicely." Muffet said in a low tone, her eyes looking him up and down in a manner that made Alex feel like he was enduring an uncomfortable flirt.
Alex's choices appeared before him. He looked through Act: no options. He could only Fight or Spare. Alex sighed and picked Mercy.
His eyes widened. He had another option; one he had never noticed before. He could either Fight, Spare, or Flee. His choice was clear now.
"You want my SOUL?" Alex asked.
"Yes, your delicious SOUL!" Muffet clapped eagerly.
"Come get it!" Alex shouted, choosing Flee. He turned around and made a run down the nearest hallway.
"Hey! Hey, Alex! Where're you going? I'm still stuck!" Papyrus shouted to him.
Muffet shook her head. "Such a shame. Although, he is the first human I've seen to turn running away into a strategy. Effective. Smart. I like it! Heh! Well, Alex, if it's a chase you want, then a chase you shall have!" Muffet exclaimed, using webs to swing after Alex.
Alex huffed and groaned, pushing himself forward. "I am not an Olympic runner." He muttered under his breath, speeding down the long hallway.
"Oh, Alex. Don't work yourself too hard now. I don't want you too tough when I bake you." Muffet giggled.
Alex changed directions, slamming his shoulder into a hotel door and knocking it open. He stumbled into an average-sized hotel room. Muffet was quickly behind him, throwing spiders at him like baseballs. Alex ducked under two and swatted away the third.
Alex's options reappeared, and he chose to Fight.
Alex stepped into Muffet and pushed her towards the wall. She swatted his hands away, using all six of her hands to strike Alex. Alex jumped back to avoid her attacks, making her stumble. He slammed his forearm into her collar bones, slamming her into the wall.
Her hands scratched at his arms, chest, and face. Alex growled, throwing a reflexive elbow across her face, hitting her hard.
Alex backed out of the room. Muffet, still dazed from the blow, stumbled and fell to one knee.
"Sorry about this." Alex said, running down the hall again. Muffet rubbed her head, slowly getting to her feet.
"Despicable," She growled, walking out into the hallway. She saw him still running down to the end of the hall, and speedwalked after him.
"Alright, honey. You wanna play 'spider and fly'? Fine. Go, my spiders! After him! All of you! Say hello to my prized pet, Alex!" Muffet spat, holding her hands out with her palms facing the ceiling.
An uncountable number of spiders filled the hall, crawling after Alex. A low growl and loud thumping also came closer and closer from behind Muffet.
Alex looked back at the swarm of arachnids. "Holy crap!" He exclaimed.
He reached the staircase at the end of the hall. He hurriedly opened up the door and ran up the stairs. The spiders seeped through the door. From the above stairwells, Alex's hands became spider-swatters with ninja-like reflexes as he hurried up floor after floor. The spiders coming from above weren't stopping him.
GURRAAAAAAGH!
Two flights of stairs beneath him were crushed into rubble as Muffet's prized pet crashed in: a giant spider monster with a body resembling that of a muffin. Alex took one look down at it and was stricken with true terror. The creature had boxes all over it.
It had been Faulted.
Alex was only a few floors above the Faulted Spider, and it was already beginning a destructive climb after him. Alex went into the fastest pace he could manage, taking the steps three at a time and swinging himself off the guard rails to keep his balance for each turn.
It was like a nightmare.
GURRAAAAAAGH!!
The roar echoed and made the whole building rumble. Alex was 15 stories up now. The Faulted Spider was at 12 and 1/2. He was running out of floors, and a huge swarm of of spiders were waiting for him at the ceiling of the top floor.
They could see by Alex's running that he was in a full-blown panic.
Alex stepped into the hallway of the 19th floor, or rather, he leaped desperately through the door and hit the floor. The Faulted Spider rushed to the ceiling, crashing into and crushing a large majority of the spiders on the ceiling.
The Faulted Spider, along with all the other spiders and spider corpses, flailed and fell back down to the 1st floor.
"No! My beloved pet! What is it doing to my spiders?!" Muffet shouted in distress. Alex looked up.
Muffet was just down the hall waiting for him, but after seeing the clumsy destructive display her pet had just shown, she'd forgotten about him. Alex got to his feet.
"Your pet's been infected. The timeline of the Underground is tearing apart, and it's killing your pet. I can't Save it, and I can't stop it alone." Alex said. Muffet swallowed hard.
"I've no reason to trust you. Why should I believe what you're saying?" She demanded.
"Because if you don't, that thing's gonna kill you, me, all the spiders here, Papyrus, and God knows who else..." Alex answered firmly. Muffet tapped her foot uneasily.
"You don't know what my pet means to me, Alex."
"No, I don't. I've never had a pet. But I wouldn't be telling you to do this unless it was for the greater good. I have seen other monsters infected like your pet. It's in agonizing pain. It wants to die." Alex said.
A hand went up over Muffet's mouth. She gasped, anxiously placing her knuckles between her teeth. "My poor boy..." She shook her head.
Alex walked to Muffet and placed his hands on her shoulders. "I need your help, Muffet. Please." He begged earnestly. Her eyes stared up into his, and she was momentarily lost...
GURRAAAAAAGH!!
Down the other side of the hall, the Faulted Spider burst out of the elevator shaft, kicking its legs and rearing its head to look for Alex. The boxes sank deeper into its body, and its roar sounded with more noticeable hints of pain.
It hurt Muffin's heart to hear it.
"Muffet, I need you to make your choice now." Alex said, starting to back away. Muffet's eyes remained on her pet as it worked like a livid rabid wild animal to get up into the hallway. She paused for a moment, then turned to Alex.
"Okay. Let's free your skeleton friend first." Muffet finally agreed. She grabbed his hand and pulled him back to where he had come into the hall. The stairs had all been mashed to dust. It was now only a long rectangular drop.
"Jump!" Muffet shouted.
Alex hesitated, then fought against it. He and Muffet both jumped. Down they fell, quickly gaining speed.
"Webs, Muffet! Webs!" Alex screamed, barely able to breathe while his eyes were blurring with tears.
"Not yet!" She shouted back, counting seconds under her breath. She squeezed his hand tightly.
Above them, the Faulted Spider had made a disorganized barbaric entrance. It began its own descent down the vertical corridor, about 9 stories above their heads. Alex's vision began to fade out, and all he could hear was the ringing of his own ears. The ground got closer and closer, rising to meet them.
For a split second, Alex saw a glimpse of something golden smiling up at him.
Finally, Muffet shot off her own webs, creating a landing pad at the bottom for them. They fell into it, and it safely caught them and stopped their fall. They struggled free of the web's stickiness, and hurried into the hallway of the first floor.
Behind them, they could hear the roars of the Faulted Spider.
BOOM!
The Faulted Spider crashed onto the floor behind them. It was slow to get up, prompting Alex to take the lead and pull Muffet along this time. They reached the lobby again. Papyrus was still in the air, suspended in his silky cocoon.
"Papyrus!" Alex shouted.
Papyrus flinched. "Nyeh! Heh? Huh?"
"You fell asleep?" Alex asked.
"Uh...no?" Papyrus answered as Muffet cut him free of the cocoon. He fell to the ground on both feet, "What did I miss?" Papyrus asked.
GURAGAGAGAGAGH!
"It's coming!" Alex yelled.
The Faulted Spider charged madly into the room, crashing through Mettaton's fountain. It tripped onto its side, its eyes fixated on Alex. The boxes were buried deep in its body now. It roared again.
"Oh my god!" Papyrus shouted.
"You two get to one side!" Alex instructed, backing towards the door he'd pushed Jasmine and the others out of. He took a deep breath.
"Alright come on! Come get me! Feeding time, big boy!" Alex yelled at the Faulted Spider, clapping his hands to get it invigorated. It got to all 8 legs, stamping and screeching at him.
"Come on!" Alex yelled at the top of his lungs.
"Bad idea!" Muffet shouted, but it was already too late.
The Faulted Spider charged at Alex full speed with a wild intent to kill.
"Alex!" Papyrus shouted, fearing that his friend was about to be crushed. Alex stayed close to the door, knees bent and hands on his thighs. He took a long deep breath to calm himself.
"Three...two...one..."
The Faulted Spider leapt at Alex. Alex made his move. Pushing off the door, he threw himself onto the floor. He slid on his side underneath the airborne monster. One clear, he pushed himself up and stepped against his own momentum, getting to both feet.
CRRAAAACK!
The Faulted Spider crashed through the door, as well as a large portion of the wall. It spilled out onto the path in front of where Mettaton, Sans, and Jasmine were waiting. Jasmine screamed, and the creature roared in response, making her faint. Mettaton caught her.
The Faulted Spider scrambled weakly to all 8 legs, wobbly from its hard impacts. "My spiders! Contain him!" Muffet commanded, stretching her hands out again. Spiders quickly crawled out of the MTT resort from the hole as well as from the windows of the hotel.
This made Mettaton cringe with disappointment.
The spiders crawled all over Muffet's pet, spinning webs in an effort to cocoon the creature. It fought against its own tinier brethren, but there were just too many. It was soon trapped in a big ball of webbing, unable to move and barely able to struggle. Muffet ran to it, and all the spiders followed her lead.
"I'm sorry, my boy..." Muffet said softly.
She and her spiders began to push it off of the path so it would fall into the lava pit below. Alex and Papyrus ran to help her, pushing as hard as they could. Alex felt his arm muscles strain and tighten as he pushed.
Over the edge and down the pith the Faulted Spider fell, plunging into the fiery lava and making a huge splash. It roared louder than ever, waking Jasmine. Everyone watched as it sank,and eventually its roars faded into silence...
Muffet sighed sadly. All the spiders stayed with her for a few moments, out of respect. Then they left her alone, retreating back into the MTT Resort to wait for Muffet's next summoning.
Jasmine was conscious and on her feet in time to see them all retreat. She shivered at the thought of so many spiders in one place.
"Sorry about your pet, Muffet." Alex said.
"It's...fine. There's nothing else that we could've done for him," She said before turning towards him. "You said that the timeline of the Underground is tearing apart. If that's true, then that means that neither me nor my spiders are safe here." Muffet said, clearly fearing the worst.
"Come with us! We're going to Asgore's castle to protect the 6 human SOULs and destroy the barrier!" Papyrus openly invited. Alex eyed him. He shrugged, "What? We could benefit from her friendship, not to mention her spider army!" Papyrus pointed out.
Alex shrugged. "It's up to you, Muffet. But we'd appreciate your help." Alex said to her.
Muffet nodded. "I'll help. My spiders will trail behind us, and we'll help your protect the SOULs." Muffet decided.
"Yay! More friends!" Papyrus clapped.
"Thank you. Come on, we'll introduce you to the squad," Alex led her to the others. Jasmine stepped to his side, her eyes on Muffet. "This is Papyrus, whom you've met."
"Nyeheheh!"
"This is Sans."
"Hey."
"Mettaton."
"Such a pleasure."
"Aaaand this here is Jasmine."
"Hi." She greeted from the other side, quickly waving.
"She kinda has a legit fear of spiders." Alex said.
"Ah. Don't worry, dearest. I play nice." Muffet said with a chortle.
The group of six all looked ahead. Ahead was an opening labeled: 'Core'. Inside was an elevator labeled: 'Asgore'.
"This is it, guys. We're here." Alex said.
"That elevator will lead us straight to the castle." Sans said.
"We've not a precious second to waste then!" Mettaton exclaimed.
"Right!" Everyone said in unison.
They all entered through the door. Papyrus pressed the 'Up' button, eyeing Sans as he did so. The doors opened, and they all got in.
"Oh, how roomy." Papyrus commented delightfully.
The doors shut, and up they went...