A/N:Hey, It's me again. I haven't given up on this story yet, no intentions whatsoever. Anyway, during the long-period production of this story, I have also made up a customized playlist on Youtube that I consider as an OST for this AU Fanfiction. some tracks might be missing because It's likely that I haven't found a good one yet. Filled with mostly Multi-mix soundtracks that combine cover songs with the original Undertale soundtrack. I have a link available for that case in my Profile BIO. I will also go over the previous chapters and add soundtrack references at some point, along with the artists. Anyway, thank you all for your patience. and enjoy.

Previously on Raw Determination.

The human walks into a dark laboratory only to find out that he's being watched from this very building and the lab illuminates the second a dinosaur looking monster named Alphys shows up in a lab coat and glasses. She freaks out over the sight of him at first but she settles down and they both chat for a while until the whole lap starts shaking, realising that something is coming. A Robot eventually breaks in through the wall and starts up a game show, introducing to himself as Mettaton. So he forces the human to participate in the quiz show, but he was hardly cooperative, but eventually got it done anyway with a few complicated issues along the way that made the human pretty angry with Mettaton trick questions. As mettaton rolled away, The human and Alphys discussed on how to get to the hotel from here. But the heat of the Hotland has proven to be too much for him to handle in his armor, So Alphys promised to have them delivered to the hotel as soon as he makes it there. Leaving him without any armor on so now he's more light on his feet as he exits the lab with only his shield and sword now. He sets the hotel as his top goal and the thought of it fills him with DETERMINATION.

(And so the story continues)

(*queue* Primer (Another Medium) - Ace Waters , RichaadEB )

As he walks out the exit of Doctor Alphys's lab, the human looks around the hotland for any routes that'll get him through quickly enough out of the intense heat. He suddenly hears his phone going off with a notification that Alphys had just updated her post. "Just realised that I didn't watch the second half of Undyne fighting the human v.v" Soon after, another one pops up and he reads it, but activates text-to-speech mode so his phone can be more convenient for him so he doesn't stall to read it. "Well, I know she's unbeatable, I'll ask her about it later ^.^" He starts walking again and his phone rings again and lets the t-t-s read it. "For now, I gotta call up the human and guide him =^.^=" The human getting mildly annoyed at how often Alphys posts her updates on her social media page.

Human: "Jesus lady, calm down with those posts…"

With a smirk on his face, he pulls out his phone and looks at the social media page. Deciding to make a post himself. Typing out "Did not know that Hotland was going to be real toasty down here. This place is already getting me 'fired up' tonight". As he sent it out, He immediately got a few dislikes except one with a laughing emoticon, followed by a comment "That pun was too 'hot for you' anyway." noticing the username is apparently Sans responding to it. He lets out a hearty chuckle as he moves on ahead before he notices some moving floors, he takes the one going the same direction he is, and starts running over it, noticing how mobile he has become now without his armor. He takes one big leap before he lands on another moving floor until he reaches the end, then walks on a set of pipes in the form of a bridge before he steps on solid land. He notices a set of vents, but checks out the active one. As he steps on it, he finds himself launched high in the air, but couldn't regain his balance mid-air in time before he crashes onto the ground flat on his back as the wind gets knocked out of him. He sits there for a bit to regain his composure until his phone ends up ringing with a notification, It's text-to-speech feature ends up reading from Alphys again "Ouch, saw the human crash down after being launched by one of the vents. Going to call him and make sure he's alright." As soon as he finished reading it. He immediately responds with "I'm alright, just got the wind knocked out of me. But I'll live" and send it to Alphys' post. He steps on another vent, but now with more control as he is able to land on his feet this time. He practices a bit of vent jumping in one room and eventually finds a frying pan, he picks it up and stores it in his bag.

Human: "I guess I could keep it in case I need to cook my own meals."

He decides to turn around from where he came from and jumps on the middle platform again, then heading north on more vents until he checks his phone again to find that someone is calling him, but immediately hung up before he could answer it, so he shrugs it off and moves on. But he stops to find a set of blue and orange lasers blocking his path. He examines the pattern to try and avoid them, but was interrupted by a call coming from Alphys.

Alphys: "Uhh… hi. So there's some lasers I have to point out to you." She said nervously as she starts

Human: "Blue and Orange lasers I'm only seeing here. I'm guessing the blue ones won't hurt me if I don't move?"

Alphys: "Uhh y-yea… something along those lines. How did you know?"

Human: "Let's say that I had some help from a friend with something similar back in Snowdin."

Alphys: "Anyhow. The orange lasers are actually like a vice versa of the blues. You can move through them without any harm."

Human: "Better get used to them fast then… Anyway, thanks for the heads up Alphys."

As he hung up, He moves fast through the orange lasers, but he was more worried about the blue lasers that could sneak up on him. But as he was moving through them, He hears his phone ring off again, but he decided that getting out of the lasers was more important, but then his phone rings off a second time as he managed to get past the last laser, followed by a soft bash on a nearby button which turned the lasers off behind him. He then takes a short break to check out the posts Alphys made as the phone rings the third time, now he's reading three posts. Starting with the first one. "OMG, I DID IT… claws haven't shook like that since Undyne had called me about the weather… v.v" He then scrolls down to her second post. "WAIT, THERE'S NO WEATHER DOWN HERE. WHY DID SHE CALL ME?" Then he goes to the last post. "Oh my god. I forgot to tell them where to… wait nevermind, He looks like he can figure it out." But then as he was about to put his phone away, it rings the fourth time. The human sighs out of annoyance from the frequency of posts as he looks at Alphys' last post with a photo attachment to it. "Has anyone ever seen the Human out of his Armor? Anyway, here's a cute pic of me. ^.^" As he scrolls down to the photo, He sees the picture from what appears to be her taking a selfie with a full set of black armor being worn from what looks like a mannequin in the middle of being boxed up. Realising that she's actually honoring her promise of ensuring it's delivered to him at the Hotel. He presses the like button with a thumbs up emoticon. He then puts down his phone and moves on up to another room. But as he looks up to notice a locked gate in front of him, but with two other side entrances, he calls up Alphys to be sure, but the ringing was short lived as Alphys immediately picks up.

Alphys: "A-a-alphys here."

Human: "Hey, I have a big large gate locked here and I can only see two possible entrances beside them, what should I do?
Alphys: "Uh-uumm… they're actually two different puzzles that you'll have to solve in order to unlock… They should be easy for your-"

Human: "Alright, that's all I need to know."

*(Alphys' POV)*

As Alphys hangs up on the phone with the human. She continues to pack up the Human's Armor and carefully packaging the stored inventory that is attached to his armor. Alphys couldn't help but take a peek at some of the inventory. She even finds a phone in one of the pouches, tempted to peek inside, but back away and looks back at the screen.

Alphys: "Looks like this Human is pretty self dependent. Hope he can handle Mettaton."

After some pondering. Her phone suddenly sounds off as she sees the Human calling. She immediately picks up and looks back in the cameras to notice he got past the gate fairly quickly. But she panics and puts everything back in the Human's inventory

*(Human's POV)*

While the Human is moving away from the opened gate, he jumps on a couple of vents until he lands on white tiled flooring as he ventures further but the room started to get darker with only the light off his phone then he hears his phone going off ringing as Alphys answers the call.

Alphys: "How d-d-did you solve those puzzles so quickly?... nevermind at least you made it through."

Human: "Yea… They were no problem at all. But I do have another… I'm in a bit of a dark spot right now…literally, I can't see (beep)!"
Alphys: "Oh, Are you?... Hang on, I'll find a way to get those lights on for you… Annnnd… There!"

Immediately following Alphys, several strobes of lights are beaming down from above as the human looks around and notices what appears to be a kitchen studio set. But the human starts to suspect he might've stumbled into a trap as Alphys looks at the screen with a worrying look on her face

Alphys: "Oh no…"

Human: "What?... Oh hell no!"

Following the realization. Mettaton shows up wearing a chefs hat and the same Microphone he held earlier.

Mettaton: "OHHHH YES! WELCOME, BEAUTIES, TO THE UNDERGROUND'S PREMIER COOKING SHOW!"

(Cooking with a Killer Robot)

Human: "Another gig, Mettaton? Thought you would try again at the Quiz Show."
Mettaton: "REPEAT SHOWS ARE NO FUN, DARLING. NOW FOLKS, PRE-HEAT YOUR OVENS, BECAUSE WE'VE GOT A VERY SPECIAL RECIPE FOR YOU TODAY! WE'RE GOING TO BE MAKING… A CAKE!"

While the human is growing impatient with the Robot, he remembers that he's on TV and he decides to play along and looks around for the simple ingredients as he looks towards the camera with a fake smile as he collects the milk, sugar and eggs to bring to Mettaton.

Human: "I do love a delicious cake, My sweet tooth might be craving for a good slice. The first thing we need are a carton of eggs, a bag of sugar, and a full carton of milk. Those are the key ingredients to make a cake."

Mettaton: "THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT IT NEEDS… OH MY! WAIT A MAGNIFICENT MOMENT! HOW COULD I FORGET! WE'RE MISSING THE SPECIAL INGREDIENT, THE MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL!"

Human: "Really? What is it?"

As the human finishes asking, Mettaton suddenly pulls out a chainsaw pointing straight at the human. Causing him to skip a couple of beats and panic as the robot prepares to rev up his chainsaw.

Mettaton: "THAT WOULD BE… A HUMAN SOUL!"

Mettaton just saying a Human Soul had caused the Human to panic even more as the chainsaw revs up with the robot inching closer to him, He had to find a way to stop him fast, but suddenly he came up with an Idea.

Human: "Woah woah woah woah… hey, WAIT A SECOND! Don't you think there might be some sort of substitute that's similar to a human soul? Think about it... What if there are people watching that might be… Vegan?"

Mettaton: "VEGAN… THAT'S ACTUALLY A BRILLIANT IDEA. I HAPPEN TO HAVE AN OPTION RIGHT HERE! MTT-BRAND ALWAYS-CONVENIENT HUMAN-SOUL-FLAVOR-SUBSTITUTE! A CAN OF WHICH… IS JUST OVER ON THAT COUNTER!"

Human: "I guess I'll go and fetch it for you then. I also have other flavor suggestions that you'll like"
Mettaton: "THOSE WILL HAVE TO WAIT FOR NEXT TIME"

As the human moves close to the counter, it starts to get ready to move up like an elevator, but he had to be quick as he grabs hold of it, but realises it's glued to the counter, but as the counter start to rise, he jumps on fast beforehand and continues to pry the can off. After a few failed attempts, he kicked hard at it to loosen the glue, but he put more kick behind than expected as he knocked it down. Fortunately, it lands flat on the kitchen counter in front of Mettaton himself. But it left the human at a height that would've been fatal if he just simply jumped or climbed down. Then his phone suddenly rings as he picks up.

Human: "Alphys… I'm in no position to talk, I don't want to fall to my death…"

Alphys: "Trust me, I have a plan to ensure that doesn't happen. When I was upgrading your phone, I added a few… features. There should be a huge button that says 'JETPACK'. Press it… You should have enough fuel to be able to land safely."

Human: "Really? That's a huge relief, Thanks again Alphys for making this a whole lot easier."

The human presses the button and the phone transforms into a jetpack only small enough to press against his back as he takes the leap of faith down back to the kitchen floor. The thrusters fire to cause a slowdown in his falling speed as he inches closer to the white tiles. But then the fuel ran out as the jetpack turned off. Causing the human to fall again, but enough to make a safe landing. As he makes it back to Mettaton, he scowls at him with a clearly irritated look on his face.

Human: "Now that I have the substitution…"
Mettaton: "HAVEN'T YOU EVER SEEN A COOKING SHOW BEFORE? I ALREADY BAKED THE CAKE AHEAD OF TIME! SO FORGET IT!"
Human: "So you decide to waste my time and send me on a wild… GOOSE CHASE?! H-HEY, COME BACK HERE! (censored)"

Mettaton takes off in the middle of the human's words as he starts having another fit. But then he clenches his fists but then he suddenly hears his phone ring again as he picks up and answers

Alphys: "Wow! We… we did it! We… we really did it! You did great out there by the way. Handled yourself very well."

Human: "Not over yet… I don't think Mettaton will stop from here, I've got to keep moving before this gets any worse."

The human then hangs up the phone as he then moves on to continue his journey. During then, he starts to see a large mechanical structure surrounded by magma, but gets another call while looking off into space.

Alphys: "S-see that building in the distance? That's the Core. the source of all power for the underground."

Human: "How… how is this even possible? How did you acquire such technology to achieve this? What does it do?"

Alphys: "W-well… It converts geothermal energy into magical electricity, by…"

Human: "...By what?"

Alphys: "Uhh, anyway, that's where we're going to go after your armor is returned to you."

Human: "How far will I have to travel to reach the Core?"

Alphys: "It's entrance is actually next to the Hotel, so there's the convenient part for you. A-a-anyway… In the Core, You'll find an elevator that'll lead directly to Asgore's Castle. And from there… You can go home."
Human: "Directly to the king himself… *censored*..."

As the human hangs up the phone.. He looks back at the core, now knowing exactly where he needs to go. Making him more and more determined to get there as he stands there staring at the lava lake around the core, thinking to himself.

Human: "I am beginning to really hate this King. If I make it to his castle… He and I are going to have a serious talk. One way, or another!"

He then looks away and moves on, storming down the rest of the walkway until he comes up to a nearby elevator. As he walks in, he punches for the highest floor available, showing to be Right Floor 2. As he rides the elevator upward, he checks his phone for any more social media posts, as none have shown. He types down on the post showing his current status.

"Got out of the first floor, so probably won't be as much heat anymore. Heading for the Hotland Hotel that Alphys mentioned."

He then puts his phone away, the elevator stops and opens up, showing exactly where he needed to be on right floor 2. He steps out and walks down on the pathway. But then as he walked more, he saw a sentry station on the side, looking like to be covered in snow on the roof, leaving the Human completely confused. He decides to investigate only to be short concluded by the sight of none other than Sans at the station. He noticed some of the packages looking like crates full of hot dogs beside Sans as he looks around and notices the other monsters around the station. He then looks back to Sans with a very curious look on his face.

Human: "Selling hotdogs, Sans?"

Sans: "Oh, hey buddy. Yea, they're pretty good, want to buy one? Only 30g"

Human: "Actually, I'm not hungry, but thanks anyway."

Sans: "How's Hotland do-... wait, where's your armor?"

Human: "Had to ditch the gear in Alphys's lab, Hotland is as boiling hot as in a sauna."

Sans: "Ah.. to be light on your feet and not get a heat stroke. Smart."
Human: "However, Alphys promised to have my gear delivered back to me when I reach the hotel."
Sans: "The hotel huh? That's good. Maybe I'll meet you there sometime tonight."

Human: "I only plan on staying around for the night after I deal with Mettaton first, so I'll have some free time, maybe get caught up with Papyrus back at Snowdin.

Sans: "Why not just crash at my place? Me and Papyrus like having company over."

Human: "Come to think of it, the last call I got from him was during my duel with Undyne. I think he wanted me to hang out with her."

Sans: "No way, really?"

Human: "Not kidding, I think she's mad about the duel though…"

Sans: "Knowing Undyne, She'll probably get over it in a couple of hours."

Human: "Anyway Sans, I better get going before I run into any more trouble."
Sans: "Alright, take care buddy."

The human then walks away from Sans' -hotdog- stand, moving on further towards the long walkway up until he sees a minor detour, so he checks it out to only find it to be empty except the only thing left behind was a chef's apron on the floor. He picks up the apron and stores it into his only bag he took with him. As he was leaving the detour, he heard his phone ring twice in the same tone, assuming it was Alphys again. While he walks along the path, he looks to find two posts, with one of them belonging to someone else named CoolSkeleton95. He looks at Alphys' post first and suddenly notices the picture attachment, appearing to be an Anime Catgirl figurine beside a bowl of Instant Noodles following a message "Dinner with the girlfriend ;)". The human then goes to the comments to respond to the message. "Those Noodles look good, I might've had some before on the surface." As he sends the comment, he then looks on over to the other message from CoolSkeleton95. Seeing yet another picture as he sees that it's Papyrus showing off his -biceps- in front of the mirror. As he reads the message "ARE WE POSTING HOT -PICS?- HERE IS ME AND MY COOL FRIEND." It was enough to cause the Human to sigh in disappointment. But he got a mischievous idea to troll Papyrus as he goes to the comments on his post as he responds, hoping to see his reaction. "That's a very -Bonerific- posture you got there. ;p" He sends the post and tags Sans as he immediately gets a reply from Papyrus. "OH! MY! GOD! HUMAN! STOP CORRUPTING SANS WITH DIRTY PUNS!" He bursts out into laughter as soon as he saw the response while he also gets a bunch of laughing emote likes on his comment, including from Sans and Alphys. He puts his phone away as he walks into a couple of moving floors, His phone rings again as he answers Alphys.

Human: "Hey Alphys, What's up?"

Alphys: "Hi.. This p-puzzle is kinda… um… timing-based. You see those switches over there?"

Human: "I only see three switches, I'm guessing I'm going to need to press them all. But the question is, How much time do I have to get them all?"
Alphys: "Y-you only have t-three seconds. But there's a certain rhythm to it. I'll help you out with it."
Human: "Hope those switches aren't hard to press.."
Alphys: "N-nope.. Not at all."

As the human steps onto the moving floor, he focuses on all three of the switches, thinking about the full second pattern as he pounds his hand onto each of them. One… Two… As the human was about to hit the third switch, he heard his phone ring, throwing him off focus as he missed the third switch. He picks up his phone and answers again, this time clearly agitated with the interruption.

Human: "Alphys, what the hell… I almost had the third switch!"
Alphys: "Ooh.. uhh… umm… sorry… Looks like you… only needed to press… two of them!"

Human: "Two?... you tell me this now? How do I get past that-... oh.. It's gone… nevermind then. Sorry Alphys"

Alphys: "It's all good. Anyway… I'm going to the bathroom, so I'm going to be MIA for a bit."

Human: "Umm… okay? TMI…"

The human then hangs up his phone before moving on to another puzzle, noticing some gaps along with vents to get over them. He hops on each of the vents as they keep changing with each platform he lands on, He somehow got lucky and got the last vent exactly where he needed it to be as he jumps off it and leaves the area, moving on to another walkway while he comes across a small table with a Microwave. Looking to see that it's not plugged as he flashed back to the microwave back in Snowdin Forest. "Deja vu…" He said as he moved away from the microwave before his phone sounded off again. He looks to find more of Alphys's posts "Omg? Ppl think Mew Mew 2 is better than Mew Mew 1? LOLLLLL… that's a joke, right…" He scrolls out of it and looks at another post of her's "omg… DON'T THEY GET IT RUINS Mew Mew's ENTIRE CHARACTER ARC! My Mew Mew 2 Review: Mew Mew Kissy Cutie 2 is neither Kissy nor Cutie, It's trash… 0 stars." The human responds with the comment in her post. "I never thought that type of Anime would find its way down here." It didn't take long for him to immediately receive some likes on his comment as he puts away his phone and moves on. So far, no obstacles on the long walkway. He stops for a moment to look over the edge of the volcanic Hotland. But he suddenly hears a pair of male voices from behind

Monster #1: "Hey! You!"
Monster #2: "Stop!"

"Oh, come on…." He said quietly to himself as he facepalms before turning around. His annoyed look on his face turned into full alert as he saw two armored monsters approach him, he soon recognized them as the Royal guards he met just after his duel with Undyne.

RG #1: "We've, like, received an anonymous tip about a human wearing black armor, carrying around a large sword and shield."
RG #2: "We were told he has a beard too."
RG #1: "We were also told that he was wandering around hotland right now… Sound scary, huh?"

The human had to come up with something fast in order to get the Royal guards off his back before they recognize that he's human.

Human: "Ooh, uhh.. Yea.. I heard something like that, It's why I'm armed right now, so if he comes to attack me, I'll defend myself if necessary… r-right?"

RG #1: "Sorry dude, but like, that's the Royal Guard's job. Just stay chill, follow us and we'll take you someplace safe, okay?"

"Damn!" He said quietly as he has no choice but to follow them to wherever they're taking him. But one of the Royal Guards suddenly stopped. Which got the other guard worried.

RG #1: "Huh? What is it, bro?"
RG #2: "The sword and shield he's carrying on his back? Don't they fit the description?"
RG #1: "That can't be the human.. He doesn't have, like, any armor on."

RG #2: "He fits the description on, like, everything else except the armor."

Royal Guard #1 took a good long look at the Human. Staring back at them with an obviously impatient look on his face. RG #1 had come to a full realization that his partner is right.

RG #1: "Bro, are you thinking what I am thinking? Bummer… this is, like… mega embarrassing."

"I don't have time for this…" The Human said quietly but clearly irritated before he reached up to grab the hilt of his blade with one hand, and grab the shield with the other before glazing at both guard menacingly.

RG #1: "Sorry bro, but we, like, actually totally have to kill you and stuff."
Human: "Don't think I'm gonna let you two chase me around all over Hotland. Back off, now!"

RG #2: "No can do, buddy. This is, like, orders from our boss."

*Fight starts*

The human then pulls his sword out and assumes his defensive stance as he inspects both guards as they come attacking him one at a time. He blocks each of their attacks before getting himself knocked back before he notices that one of the guard's armors looks to have been dirty. Before they make their simultaneous attack, He trips up one guard, stunning him as he gets up and kicks back the other, using his magic to bind him down while he's away from him. With both of them stunned, he wipes down the dirt off of his armor using his fire magic to make it easier as he gets done. But unaware that he made the guard's armor too hot for him to handle as the other guard breaks free from the human's bind magic, resuming attack on the human as he evades the strike. As RG #2 gets up. He couldn't breathe from the hot armor as he suddenly strips it off. Revealing reptilian scales everywhere on his chest, Making RG #1 completely nervous, looking like he's hiding something. The human takes advantage while they're both distracted as he leaves behind a piece of paper for RG #1 to tell him to open up to his partner about his feelings. While finishing up, he tosses it to them in the form of a paper plane. Leaving them both distracted as RG #1 reads it. The human eventually sneaks away from them. Moving on onto the rest of the walkway as he puts the shield on his back and sheaths his sword in between.

*Fight ends*

As he was walking down further. He the suddenly hears a phone go off again on another post made by Alphys. "oopswait, how's the human doing?" He immediately responds with a comment. "Had to deal with a pair of Royal Guards that got in my way. Didn't kill them." He then sends the comment before walking off before he sees another post "Top 10 shows that make you forget to do your frickin job." As he continues, he notices the room getting more and more darker as he continues in. Once it hits pitch black, he illuminates the area around him as he pulls out his phone to call Alphys.

Alphys: "Hey, Alphys here."

Human: "Hey… uhh, yea… I seem to be in another dark room. Possibly another one of Mettaton's traps."

Alphys: "Ooh yea, don't worry! M-my hacking skills have got things covered"

Just as Alphys takes care of the lights as they turn on. He notices Mettaton sitting in a chair. Appearing to be posing as a news anchor. The human just stands there as he Is about close to blow his anger fuse at Mettaton as he clenches his fist

Human: "I f-*censored* called it!"

Alphys: "Are you serious?"

Mettaton: "OHHHHHH YESSS! GOOD EVENING, BEAUTIES AND GENTLEBEAUTIES! THIS IS METTATON, REPORTING LIVE FROM MTT NEWS! AN INTERESTING SITUATION HAS ARISEN IN EASTERN HOTLAND!"

Human: "The kind of F*beep*ing situation where a human threatens to fry a certain robot's circuits if he doesn't leave the human alone!"

Mettaton: "INTERESTING, BUT NO. THAT'S NOT TODAY'S NEWS! BUT TONIGHT FOLKS, OUR CORRESPONDENT IS OUT THERE REPORTING LIVE! WOULD YOU MIND HELPING US FIND SOMETHING NEWSWORTHY TO REPORT? OUR TEN WONDERFUL VIEWERS ARE WAITING FOR YOU!"

Human: "Looks like nothing out of the ordinary… well, except for the dog of course. Wait, what's a stray dog doing out here in Hotland? Ah.. yea, This'll be my report!"

Mettaton: "ATTENTION, VIEWERS! OUR CORRESPONDENT HAS FOUND… A DOG!"

(QUE AUDIENCE AWWS) THAT'S RIGHT, FOLKS! IT'S THE FEEL-GOOD STORY OF THE YEAR! LOOK AT ITS LITTLE EARS, TINY PAWS, FLUFFY TAIL…"
Human: "Maybe this dog could find his way… back… wait… this isn't a real dog… METTATON!"
Mettaton: "IT SEEMS OUR CORRESPONDENT HAS DISCOVERED SOMETHING. BECAUSE IT'S TAIL… IS A FUSE! THAT'S RIGHT… THAT DOG… IS A BOMB!

Human: "A WHAT?!"

Mettaton: "BUT DON'T PANIC! YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE REST OF THE ROOM YET!"

Mettaton flips the light switch to reveal the rest of the room, allowing the Human to look around to notice other objects that are obviously bombs too, realizing that Mettaton plans to blow him up.

Mettaton: "OH MY… IT SEEMS THAT EVERYTHING IN THIS AREA IS ACTUALLY A BOMB. THE BOOK, THE BASKETBALL, THAT PRESENT.. EVERYTHING!

Human: "You really plan on blowing me up to bits and pieces?! This is way overkill!"

Mettaton: "BRAVE CORRESPONDENT… IF YOU DON'T DEFUSE ALL OF THE BOMBS, THIS BIG BOMB WILL BLOW YOU TO SMITHEREENS IN TWO MINUTES!

Human: "Wait.. WHAT?!"

Mettaton: "THEN YOU WON'T BE REPORTING -LIVE- ANY LONGER! HOW TERRIBLE! HOW DISTURBING!"

He turns around and looks where Mettaton is pointing, and he wasn't bluffing about a bigger bomb. Causing him to go into full panic mode as he sees all the other smaller bombs start to fly around.

Human: "Oh *censored*... way more than overkill…" (Not even frost magic will stop them in this environment…)

Mettaton: "OUR NINE VIEWERS ARE GOING TO LOVE WATCHING THIS! GOOD LUCK, DARLING!"

Human: "HEY! I'M NOT DONE WITH YOU YET. COME BACK HERE! …"

The Human continues to scream at Mettaton in a fit of rage as he flies away, Unconsciously tossing down a blast of Frost magic on the ground underneath him. He looks down to see what he did as the Ice underneath him melts quickly and evaporates in a few seconds. He then suddenly hears his phone ring with Alphys's caller ID. He immediately answers the call in a panic state.

Human: "Alphys.. I got a problem on my hands… a booming problem if this doesn't go fast!"

Alphys: "N-not to worry! I installed a bomb-defusing program on your phone! Use it when the bomb is in the DEFUSE ZONE!"

Human: "How can I get them in if they're constantly moving?"
Alphys: "I-i really d-don't know about that part… N-now go get 'em!"

The Human takes out his phone and enables the Bomb-Defuser program as Alphys instructed. He looks around for what to disarm first as he sees the dog he reported earlier. He conjures frost magic from his free hand while holding the phone on the other. He tosses the magic at the dog first to ensure it doesn't move as he puts it in the defuse zone, effectively disarming the Dog Bomb as it quickly melts free.

Human: "One down…"

He gets up and runs like a madman towards the nearest active bomb, but gets stopped by a trio of Lasers with both glowing orange and one blue. He has no time to stop for the blue laser as he jumps over before making a mad-dash towards the Game bomb, freezing it with his frost magic once more, disarming the game bomb as he backtracks out of the lasers.

Human: "Two down… can't slow down now!"

PA Announcement: "WARNING: DETONATION TIME IN : 90 SECONDS"

Human: "Not helping…"

The human then looks around quickly and notices another bomb has become reachable, appearing to be a script book as he moves closer, He conjures his frost magic at it as the book is become temporarily frozen. Giving him just enough time to use his disarm feature on his phone, He misses a couple of times, but eventually he manages to get it right as the bomb becomes defused.

Human: "Just three more left…Hope Alphys is finding a way to help me"

The human sprints to get off the moving floor as fast as possible but loses control as soon as he is off the moving floor and ends up getting lucky as he stumbles onto the vent and recklessly jumps over, causing him to flop around in the air before landing flat on his back, causing him to groan from the pain inflicted from the fall. He quickly gets up as soon as he sees the Present Bomb beside him as he freezes it in place, effectively disarming it with ease.

Human: "I got lucky there… Only 2 left"
PA Announcement: "ALERT: DETONATION IN : 30 seconds"
Human: "IT'S NOW OR NEVER!"

The human hops back off the platform via another vent, this time landing properly, but as he was making it to the Basket Bomb, he felt something different inside of him. Almost like he was given extra doses of adrenaline rush, but it's something much more powerful that fuels his goal of disabling the bombs quickly. Next thing he knows, he feels as if time is slowing down on him and notices his frost magic on his hands looked amplified. He reaches out his hand as a beam of ice shoots directly at it, causing it to instantly freeze in a thick block of ice. He gets his phone out to disarm it, but it says that it was already disarmed, but he uses the disarm tool anyway just to be sure. But then he hears a call from Alphys as he tosses another beam of frost magic at the last bomb. But misses because it was flying too fast.

Alphys: "You're doing a great job so far, Head for the center! I'm using, uh, EM fields to trap the glass of water there!"

Human: "Oh good, I'm on it now! Thanks Alphys."

The human immediately hangs up the call and aims the phone at the last bomb as he rushes to the center, but he's struggling to get it to it's disarm zone. He looks up at the Big bomb to notice that he's now only got 10 seconds left on the timer. Upon seeing that, he feels the rush once more, but feeling another rushage dose inside of him, He feels much more determined than he had ever been to put a stop to Mettaton's plans as he aims at the Glass of Water bomb and pushes. As he looked back at it, he had realised he had actually disarmed the last bomb. Causing him to let out a huge sigh of relief, but that becomes short lived as Mettaton shows up again.

Mettaton: "WHAT WAS ALL OF THAT WE JUST WITNESSED, FOLKS? FROST MAGIC? HOW DID A HUMAN LIKE YOU LEARN TO USE MAGIC IN THE FIRST PLACE?!"
Human: "Let's just say… I'm full of surprises."

Mettaton: "ANYWAY, YOU HAVE DEACTIVATED ALL OF THE BOMBS! THE BOMB WOULD HAVE EXPLODED IN TWO MINUTES IF YOU HADN'T DISARMED THEM. INSTEAD… IT WILL EXPLODE IN TWO SECONDS!"

The human had gone into full panic mode as he feels that time had slowed down heavily on him, causing him to now use both hands to charge up his frost magic, tossing both of his hands together towards it as a much larger beam of frost at the big bomb, causing it to freeze up into a large block of ice, freezing everything inside of it too. As the human finished, he turns towards Mettaton with a clearly furious look on his face, even his own eyes look like they're about to glow.

Human: "NOW YOU LISTEN TO ME YOU SMUG PIECE OF *beep*! I GROW TIRED AND FED UP WITH YOUR *beep* GAMES HERE! YOU'RE ALL TALK AND NO ACTION! IF YOU REALLY WANT ME DEAD, THEN YOU BETTER COME DOWN HERE AND *beep* FIGHT ME!"

As the human clenches his fists tightly, Mettaton looks around and notices the bomb hasn't even gone off yet. He then looks back down at the angry human as his phone goes off in his pocket, he answers and puts it on speaker as Alphys speaks.

Alphys: "Luckilly for you, b-before the human froze the bomb and you were monooguing… I…! I f… fix… Um… I ch-change…"

Human: "You hacked and disarmed the bomb? Huh.. guess you were ahead of me there…"

Alphys: "Yeah! That's what I did!"

Mettaton: "CURSES! IT SEEMS I'VE BEEN FOILED AGAIN! CURSE YOU, HUMAN! CURSE YOU, DR. ALPHYS, FOR HELPING SO MUCH! BUT I DON'T CURSE MY EIGHT WONDERFUL VIEWERS FOR TUNING IN!"
Human: "Seriously? You're worried more about your viewers than your human-killing schemes?"

Mettaton: "UNTIL NEXT TIME, DARLING"

Mettaton then flies away, fleeing to who knows where as he calms himself down as he continues the talk with Alphys.

Alphys: "W-wow… W-we really showed him, huh?"
Human: "Never panicked like that my entire life… It's like I felt this… rush that just suddenly came through me. I was so determined to get those bombs disabled as fast as I could."
Alphys: "The way you stood up to Mettaton… That was.. Wow.. never seen anyone rage like that. Other than s-someone I kn-know."

Human: "I do feel a little better now that my last encounters with him, that's for sure. We got him on the run this time."

Alphys: " H-hey, I know I was kind of weird at first… But I really think I'm getting more… Uh, more… M-more confident about guiding you! Just don't worry too much about him, I'll back you up if you need help handling him. A-and if it really c-came down to it, we could just t-turn… Um, nevermind. Later!"

Alphys hangs up on the phone before the human could get a chance to respond as he walks around the room, he notices the pathway leading out that he didn't see earlier, so he starts moving in the direction it's taking him, walking out of the bomb room with some extra sighs of relief. As he walked up further, he steps on the edge to look at the view, noticing the core that Alphys mentioned earlier as he looks around for the possible pathway that he was on in the floor below. But it didn't last long as the shivers at the thought of falling from heights. He continuous on as he stares at the core. Knowing that the goals he'll reach there, including meeting the king himself. The thought of it all makes him stare at the core, making him look more determined with each passing second as he resumes moving along the pathway as he suddenly hears his phone ring again wth Alphys's caller ID.

Human: "Yes?"

Alphys: " Hey, umm… I've noticed you've been kind of quiet lately… Are you w-worried about meeting Asgore…?"

Human: " N-no… not at all… Just pondering about how am I going to deal with him…"

Alphys: "... W-well, don't worry, okay? Th-the king is a really nice guy... I'm sure you can talk to him, and… W-with you human soul, you can pass through the barrier!"
Human: "So I can go home? It's really that simple?"
Alphys: "Yea, S-so no worrying, OK? J-just forget about it and smile"

Alphys hangs up on the phone once more, leaving the human to his thoughts as he walks further along the pathway. At the end, he reaches another Elevator with L2 Over the doorway as he walks in. He pushes the L3 button as the door closes and he rides it up, continuing to ponder along his thoughts.

Human: "Is it really possible that I can go home? Just like that? Or is there something that Alphys isn't telling me? Either way, I am hoping to find the answers I need. First, I have to keep Mettaton off my back."

*The thought of your goals within reach fills you with DETERMINATION*

(TO BE CONTINUED)

Next time on Raw Determination

The human explores the third floor of Hotland while still trying to avoid Mettaton, also meeting a monster with a thing for spiders and bakeries. Alphys looks out for more of Mettaton's traps that he'll troll the human with as he comes nearing closer to the Core with every step he takes. He hasn't forgotten about the hotel that Alphys mentioned back at her lab he still plans on getting some rest before pushing for the core. giving himself plenty of free time to do whatever he wants.

Tune in next time for Metallic Flames - Part III