Hello! Apologies for the lack of chapter uploads these past couple of weeks, I've been busy moving into a new apartment. I should have everything settled out within a month, and I'll be trying to make efforts on uploading more frequently. Thank you for your patience!
Nearly an hour had passed by the time Frisk, Carter, and Kris had made their way through the passage in the small mountain range, stepping into the blistering heat of Hotland. It took Kris all of two minutes to slip their jacket off, tossing it over their shoulder as they trudged on. Carter wiped some sweat from his forehead, glancing over at one of the large railings, able to spy magma down below. The heat emanated directly up to him along with an almost soothing bubbling echoing through the chamber.
The light provided more than enough to see the way, making the purple, crystal lamps along the path a bit overkill. The heat almost reminded them of a hot summer day, yet the light appeared ominous, quickly fading from amber, to crimson, then blackness. The shadows cast overpowered the once glistening stones high above.
"Well...guess we know why it's called Hotland now…" Carter panted, trying to fan himself with his hand with limited success. The heat was already starting to make Frisk somewhat weary as he took the lead, able to spy a larger white building rising from the dirt and gravel path a little ways ahead.
"What do you think he'll be like?" Frisk queried, eager to say something, anything to take his mind off of the furnace-like atmosphere around them. His question seemed to fall on deaf ears, the only sounds greeting him being the incessant crunching of gravel beneath them.
As they neared their destination, Frisk could just make out a large black shape looming just beyond. From the metallic rumbling that seemed to stem from it, it was easy to guess it to be the famed CORE.
The white building drew closer. It appeared to be two stories, devoid of windows, with the only oddity being a set of double sliding doors at the entrance. "Laboratory" was scrawled in a red, electronic sign over the door. As Frisk neared, he spied a tablet fixated to the wall beside the door, appearing to be built into the foundation itself. On the tablet was a notice, scrawled in green text over a black background.
"The laboratory is presently closed to visitors."
Carter groaned under his breath as he read the notice. "Welp...guess they're closed."
Kris scoffed. "It's still afternoon, like hell they're closed." They stepped past Frisk, ringing the buzzer beside the door before stepping back. A couple seconds passed, and Frisk was about to suggest turning around...before the doors slid open, revealing a yellow, reptilian monster. She stood just two inches shorter than Frisk, hands clasped in front of her, shuffling around. From behind her, cool air from the air-conditioned lab rushed out to greet them.
"Hey, we're here to see Doctor Gaster if he's available?"
"O-Oh!" The monster squeaked, pushing her glasses further up her nose. "The tablet o-outside might be dead, the d-doctor isn't accepting visitors…" She narrowed her eyes, squinting as she examined each of the visitors in turn.
"You...l-look familiar, are you-"
"No, we aren't." Kris cut her off, already imagining what she was going to say. Frisk glanced over his shoulder at his sibling before clearing his throat.
"Sorry, uh it is rather important. We might have some news about how to break the barrier, something I can guarantee you haven't seen yet."
"It's about humans!" Carter piped up. The monster squinted her eyes again at Carter, trying to study him.
"Where a-are you people from?"
"Snowdin." Frisk blurted out, letting the words come to him without further thought. "Cabin, deep in the woods, we're pretty far from the town, never come out here at all, you wouldn't recognize us." Kris glanced nervously at Carter, starting to get antsy. After readjusting her spectacles one more time, she shook her head.
"N-No I'm sorry I can't right now. D-Doctor Gaster is in the middle of a-an experiment, and he is n-not to be disturbed under any c-circumstances. But...I-I'd hate for you to have come all this way...do you have a mobile phone on you?"
Frisk shook his head. He did have one, but he had left it all the way at his home, on the surface. The scientist immediately nodded.
"Wait one moment!" The doors slid shut as Alphys receded. Kris leaned over, whispering to Frisk.
"Come on let's go, what if she calls the guard on us?"
"No, let's wait just a minute, I want to see what she's got." Frisk hissed back, straightening up just as the doors slid back open. The scientist immediately placed a phone in Frisk's hand.
"Th-There. That's my s-spare phone, I made it when I misplaced my o-old one for a couple days. I don't n-need it anymore, so keep it w-with you. When there's time, I'll g-give you a call to come back, okay? Oh, I'm A-Alphys by the way. Just, so you know. Uh, c-can I get yours?"
"Frisk." He smiled, tucking the phone into his pant pockets. "Thanks! Look forward to it."
"Uh huh, I-I need to go, I'll c-call you later!" The doors immediately swished shut again. As they turned away from the door, Frisk pulled the phone out, looking it over. It appeared to be a sort of flip phone. When he opened it he found it didn't require a password.
"Now what?" Carter squinted, as the heat once more enveloped them.
Kris reached up, wiping more sweat from the side of their head. "Let's get out of this hellhole first...you know what, let's head back into New Home. Try to see if we can find a place to stay. You never know, might end up being here a while."
Frisk nodded. While he had secretly hoped they wouldn't have had to go into such a social place, he could get on board with getting out of the blazing heat first.
"Ladies and gentlemonsters, put your hands together for your host, the fabulous, the glamorous, Mettaton!" A cheerful, jazzy fanfare rang out across the studio as Mettaton rolled out on his one wheel. Off-stage, Asriel finished readjusting his collar to better accommodate the small microphone clasped to it for the final time, hardly paying attention to the robot's opening monologue on-stage in front of the studio audience. Undyne muttered into his ear opposite the mic.
"Hey don't worry kid you look great."
Asriel gave a little nod, straightening up. "And now, beauties...we have got ourselves a very special guest. He lives in New Home, and happens to be the son of the six time annual baking competition! It is my honor to welcome the one, the only, Prince Asriel Dreemurr!"
The fanfare sprang to life as Asriel walked out onstage amidst the applause and whistles ringing out from the audience. He squinted for a split second at the bright lines shining down on the stage, giving a wave to the enthusiastic members. Mettaton gestured to a little couch sitting close to one of his own. The prince took his seat, noticing a cup of water on a coffee table in front of him. Mettaton flopped back onto his own couch, propping his wheel up as the applause and fanfare faded.
"My oh my! What an applause, you seem to be quite popular, your majesty!"
"Please, Asriel's fine." Asriel chuckled, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. He still felt a bit giddy, doing his best to appear calm and collected, as though he didn't have a care in the world.
"Well it has been a very long time since we've had royalty on this show, that was back when your mother won that pie contest for the fourth time! Does she still make that Butterscotch and Cinnamon?"
"Oh yeah, still tastes great too." Asriel replied, slowly starting to settle in.
"Oh lovely dear, just lovely. Well this is the first time anyone's really been able to interview you one-on-one, so tell us what it's like being the son of royalty!"
"Honestly it's pretty chill. Those that know us know we don't really have a big mansion or anything, Dad always wanted to live more like the common family. But I like it! You know it makes things feel a bit more normal."
"Oh, humble! You've also got a younger brother, how is little Ralsei? I imagine there's a lot of brotherly love there."
"Uh…" Asriel broke into a more confident grin. "Depends what he's doing that day." The audience broke into little chuckles. The prince leaned forward, taking the glass of water before leaning back into the couch a bit more. Even Mettaton got a little kick out of the dig.
"Oh my gosh I know, siblings am I right? Well anyways, this really is your first actual interview is it not?"
"Yeah, it actually is." Asriel took a small sip. "You know the press, cameras and all that is definitely more my Dad's thing. I just liked to kind of keep to myself you know? But when you reached out I just figured 'One day I know I'm going to have to do this sort of stuff, may as well start now before pressure sets in right?'"
"Oh haha!" Mettaton chuckled. "I completely understand." As Asriel began to take a second sip from the water, his interviewer asked the next question.
"So what's this I hear about a human running around?" Asriel nearly choked on the water, struggling to swallow it. In that instant the mood seemed to take a sharp turn.
"Come again?" He croaked, hoping maybe he had just imagined it.
"A human? You know, the beings that put us down here? I heard there was one or two zipping around the underground. What's up with that?"
Asriel paused, letting out a nervous chuckle as he scratched his head by his eye. "Where are you hearing about this from, if I can ask?"
"Oh I just heard it from everywhere really. One of the librarians at the...do they still call it 'Librarby'? My goodness do they ever need to change that sign, anyway he got in a bit of a tussle, and I heard there was a ruckus up near Snowdin! Is it true they shot a member of the guard?"
Nervous mumbles began to filter up from the audience. Asriel glanced over at the eyes staring intently into his soul. All of a sudden air seemed hard to come by, and he didn't even notice his grip tightening on the couch arm beside him.
"How is that guard member doing? I heard he was in surgery!"
"The…uh…" Asriel hesitated, trying to pick his words carefully. "The guard's fine, I've been told he'll be able to recover."
"Oh, so there WAS a wounded guard!"
"Dammit…" Asriel spat to himself. He had just pinned himself in a corner. He could practically hear the demands for answers racing through the audience's minds.
"There...has been a confirmed sighting of humans. I've been working with Captain Undyne and the royal guard on investigating the matter." Immediately anxious murmurs once again began to spring up left and right, while Mettaton seemed to be staring intently at Asriel. If the robot had a face, the prince imagined he'd be enjoying watching him squirm.
"But…" He tried to calm the growing anxiety in the room. "Rest-assured, the humans do not appear to pose a significant danger to the public, we can just continue on with life as normal."
"Oh, that's wonderful news!" Mettaton exclaimed. "So that means you've made an arrest?"
"Well...no-"
"Oh you haven't! So what you're saying is you have humans in the underground, that have wounded a guard member, and are just running around? Forgive me Asriel but it...er...doesn't really seem like you have it under control."
Asriel forced the lump in his throat down, slowly rising from the chair. "This has been a real pleasure, there are things I have to do though, so we'll have to cut it short."
"Oh, that's a real shame. It's fine though, I imagine you have lots of work to do. Ladies and gentlemonsters give another round of applause to Prince Asriel Dreemurr!" As Asriel filed off, the applause rose, but it sounded uncertain...more subdued...even forced. As soon as he was off-stage he ripped the mic from his collar, seething as he stalked to Undyne.
"What the hell was that?! How did he know?!" He spat angrily as he stalked for the studio exit, with Undyne following close behind.
"News travels fast Az, clearly a couple people have been chatting around."
Asriel shoved the door open, rejoining with two other guards just outside.
"Well this ends now. Let's start looking, I'm not going back home until we finish it."
O-o-o-o-o
As afternoon began to turn to evening, the trio found themselves re-entering New Home. The events of the day had proven tiresome, and they ended up wandering almost aimlessly up and down the streets.
"So what do you think?" Frisk sighed, somewhat sarcastically as they turned yet another bend onto one of the main avenues.
"Find a hotel, knock on doors and hope somebody's got a spare bed, or just find an alleyway to curl up in?"
Carter yawned. "Well I don't have money on me, I doubt it'd be any good down here...could go for a nice rocky pillow right about now."
"You're telling me…" Kris muttered. The sound of a door slamming up the half-empty street caught their attention. A moment later a goat monster stormed out from behind a building just up the road, a purple cape flowing behind him. Behind him three more monsters followed. One appeared to be a sort of fish monster, the other two Frisk couldn't tell due to the helmets accompanying the suits of armor they donned.
As the goat monster looked up the road though, he immediately locked eyes with the trio. Kris could sense the trouble.
"Really wish I had my gun about now…" They muttered.
"Run!" Frisk shouted, immediately turning on his heel! As they sprinted down the cobblestone street, they could hear the monsters starting to give chase behind them. Frisk took the lead, hanging the first left off of the main street he could find onto one of the side bends dicing between shop doors.
As they turned, Carter slipped on the uneven stones, sent sprawling to the ground! He let out a yelp as his ankle twisted the wrong way, shooting pain through him! Frisk stopped, turning around to help him.
"Leave him, we'll come back later!" Kris shouted first, grabbing Frisk's shoulder before taking back off. As much as they wanted to help, Kris knew full well it wouldn't do anything by getting caught themself.
"Down here, hurry!" They turned right into a small alleyway. As they neared the end though, a large fence, taller than either of them, blocked the path! The footsteps could be heard getting closer. No time to find another way. Kris knelt down by the fence.
"Frisk put your shoe on my hand, I'll boost you!"
Frisk nodded, putting his foot in Kris's grip. He launched himself up with his other foot, and the extra boost was enough to get Frisk up to the top of the fence! Frisk held on to the other side, reaching his hand down to Kris. Asriel skidded around the corner.
"Kris, hurry!" Asriel was faster though. A fireball unleashed from the prince's hand, and Frisk had to swipe his hand back! The fire struck the fence, sending Kris reeling backwards! Kris gasped as they were thrown to the ground, yelling at their sibling.
"Frisk go! Just go there's no time!" The fish monster jumped on Kris while Asriel took a running leap at the fence! He launched a second fireball beneath him, using the momentum to propel him up. His feet cleared the fencing perfectly. A sharp tug wrenched him off-balance though as his cape hooked on the top! Instead of landing gracefully, he crashed to the cobblestone, striking his head as he rolled.
Immediately he stumbled to his feet, staggering out of the alleyway, breathing heavily as he looked around. The marketplace was crowded, as it often was in the later afternoon. He rubbed his eyes, still dazed from the hit as he tried to find any sign of where his prey had fled. A firm hand grabbed his shoulder first.
"Hey…" Undyne huffed. "Just chill man...he's gone. We'll never find him in all this crowd. You alright?"
"I'm fine." Asriel spat bitterly.
"You're bleeding." Asriel reached his hand up to a throbbing pain just above his eye, pulling two fingers back to find them stained red.
"Come on Az. We got two of them, that's good enough for now. Let's get you back home, have Lady Toriel take a look at that."
Asriel pushed her hand off, still glaring into the market.
"Kid...we're going to get him. Okay? We just need some more time. This is a start."
Asriel took a deep breath, calming his racing heart. His adrenaline began to die off...and he already found himself longing for the thrill of the chase again. However, the logical side of his brain won out, and he turned away, glancing one final time at the marketplace behind, before turning back to the alley with the captain.