Howdy, my chinchillas! A quick disclaimer: none of the wonderful world of Undertale belongs to me (if you haven't guessed). Only the plot, head-canons and original characters are mine. Everything else belongs to Toby Fox… aside from the various little nods to other fandoms, which belong to their respective owners.
Now, just so you know… this first chapter, the Prologue, is just setting up a major plot point for later, and partially introducing the OC who will be the main character of this story. Good luck trying to make any sense of it (Hint: You really can't at this point, there's no context), but I'd love to hear your theories in the comments! In addition, encouragement, compliments, waffles, and most importantly, constructive criticism are welcome. I really appreciate if you take the time to help me become a better writer, or even just let me know that you exist.
See you in the next Author's Note, my wonderful chinchillas!
SOUL
Prologue
Before the Story
"huh. always wondered why people never use their strongest attack first." –Sans
A boy ran through a field of rubble, the remains of a once-great city crumbling around him. His footsteps pounded on the cracked pavement almost as fast as his heart in his chest as he sprinted along the street, hurriedly glancing behind him.
It was nowhere in sight.
He slowed as he turned, warily looking all around as he pulled a small triangular device from his pocket. As he pressed all three corners inward, a small glowing display flared from the gadget:
83%
He cursed in a strange language that was not his own under his breath as he placed the device back in his jeans, again analyzing his surroundings.
It had been quiet for too long.
He turned and sprinted further down the street at top speed, quickly turning and entering an alleyway, leaping over chunks of stone that had fallen from the towering structures long ago.
Slipping between a shattered chunk of wall and a rusty, broken hunk of metal that may have once been a car, he slid onto another street, his momentum keeping him from stopping.
And there it was.
A horrible amalgamation of mechanical screeches and human voices sounded from it, forcing the boy to pull up his hood and cover his ears as shattered glass rained from the buildings above. The towering monstrosity twisted and faced him, the lens that served as its eye trained directly on him.
Struggling to see through the now-cracked lenses of his glasses, the boy turned and ran, sprinting through the ruined town as it pursued him, its many appendages and tentacles piercing through the asphalt and pavement with the grating sound of metal against stone.
It was too fast.
The boy leapt to the side as a long, metal coil slammed down where he had been a split second before, as thick as a telephone pole and harder than titanium. The tentacular appendage suddenly swept to the side, following him as he rolled to his feet and leapt over it, barely clearing it.
Another of the coils shot down at him from above, forcing him to dodge back towards the horror itself as the flexible tentacle embedded itself in the pavement, striking it with enough force to create a small shockwave of stone that forced the boy back further.
A storm of these appendages continued to attack him, grabbing, slamming, piercing and slashing. With every second, the machine grew closer, more tentacles coming within range of him by the second.
Breathing heavily, he flipped between another three coils that shot towards him, passing the boy and harmlessly piercing into a tall stone structure behind him. Slashing at one of these appendages even as he dodged yet another barrage of them slamming down, his comparably tiny dagger scraped off of it harmlessly, not even leaving a scratch.
As more of the deadly coils crashed down all around him, he glanced back as a loud cracking was heard. The machine was pulling one of the buildings from its ancient foundations, attempting to crush him with it… again, he was forced back nearer to the machine as he dodged the stones.
With a might crash, the battered building slammed into the ground, shattering into hundreds of pieces that the boy had to shield himself from or dodge, not having been able to make it fully out of range. Using the noise and dust from the destruction as cover, the monstrosity made its next move.
Several of the tentacles surrounded the boy, stacking to form an inescapable circle around him. As they began to coil inwards, several more of them shot down from above, trying to impale the boy. Slipping between these as they shot down and smashed into the street below, he clambered onto one of the vertically aligned tentacles, leaping over and grabbing onto another one as the coils quickly closed below him, crushing the uprooted stones to dust.
The boy was forced to jump off of the coil he was grasping as several more came at him at top speed, slamming into the original appendage with enough force to splatter him into jelly…
As he rolled across the cracked ground, he noted that even the full force of the machine's own impossibly strong mechanical coils didn't leave a dent.
A grinding sound came from behind him as he turned, and there was the core of the machine: where all of the tentacles originated from. Like some sort of spider, the innumerable appendages supported the main body, keeping it roughly twenty feet above the ground; well out of the boy's reach.
As he began to back away, one of the tentacles that had been sneaking silently behind him swept his legs out from under him with great force, causing several painful cracks to come from his legs while flipping him into the air.
The boy flailed around, expecting to hit the ground… but instead, several of the machine's coils shot around him and grabbed him in midair, restraining him. As he struggled weakly, even more of them coiled around his body, crushing inward and agonizingly forcing the air out of his lungs.
As he struggled for breath, the dark blend of metal and magic slowly brought him up to the single large lens that served as its eye. It blinked a few times, scanning him, as it cycled through several colors faster than the eye could follow, flashing: crimson-green-yellow-cyan-violet-orange-green-violet-yellow-orange-crimson-cyan-yellow-green-orange-crimson-cyan-violet– faster than the eye could follow, in infinite patterns, eternal variations.
As it finished scanning him, the boy glared up at the lens defiantly.
Then, an indescribably sound, somehow worse than its glass-shattering roar, blew over him in one overwhelming wave of sound. It tore his hood and dirty blond hair out of his eyes, the pure, deep blue irises appearing fractured through his cracked lenses. He fought the urge to scream in agony as the horrible chorus of screeches echoed across the ruined civilization around them, his eardrums feeling as if they had burst.
It had laughed.
Finally, the pressure of the tentacles seemed to lessen slightly. The huge lens before him suddenly changed to an overpowering, oppressive cyan color. The glow filled his vision, burning into his eyes as thoughts invaded his mind.
JUST CLOSE YOUR EYES.
THERE'S NO POINT IN FIGHTING.
AREN'T YOU TIRED OF RUNNING?
YEARS OF USELESSLY TRYING TO ESCAPE.
FIGHTING. PUSHING. FRUITLESS STRUGGLES.
YOU HAVE NOTHING TO FIGHT FOR. THEY'RE ALL GONE.
IT CAN ALL BE OVER NOW.
YOU DON'T NEED TO STRUGGLE ANYMORE.
JUST LET IT HAPPEN.
These words battered his mind and resolve, striking into his thoughts like a nail through cardboard.
He tried to shut out the thoughts, but it was impossible.
The boy knew that it wanted him to give up. After all… that was the only way it could take his SOUL. That, or it could kill him. It seemed that the machine preferred the former, though…
As the pressure on his already fractured ribs increased, he began to lose the struggle. He was out of breath, out of time, and out of fiendishly clever escape plans that saved him from death by a hair. Agony coursed through his body, the pain unbearable. But then…
Bzzt-bzzt!
The boy mustered a final, weak grin as his pocket vibrated. He stared straight into the lens of the machine, and smiled that same crooked smile that he always did when he knew he had won.
Seeing this, the monstrosity's lens switched to a harsh, intense crimson in less than a millisecond. Its coils tensed, ready to crush its next victim like a bug, the overpowering red spotlight blinding the human.
Then, the boy vanished in a flurry of anti-matter sparks, the machine's coils crushing nothing but the dirty, polluted air that permeated the ruined city.
The mechanical horror's chorus of wrathful screeches brought chills to those three dimensions over.
Again, I'd love to hear any theories or comments from all of you!
Next Up is…
Chapter One: Your Best Friend
Until next time, my confused chinchillas…
~Poodlebot 906