Day 54
Of course, when Catty, Bratty and Syphus arrived to the hospital carrying Burgerpants, the medics took care of him immediately. The inert monster was taken into a room, and his friends were told to leave the hospital. It was useless to argue, but Syphus was inwardly glad about it. Bringing the rest of the team while Catty and Bratty were around would be troublesome. The next day it would be much easier to get ready, fuse a few Personas, and sneak into Burgerpants' hospital room, and do what they had to do.
"It makes me nervous, being in the heart of the kingdom of monsters" Cohen admitted, glad the armor covered him entirely. Nobody would notice he was a human.
"There's nothing to worry about, geez! You're with me, if anyone even looks at you funny they're getting suplexed!" Undyne reassured him, guiding the group through New Home towards the hospital. Syphus mumbled, his voice muffled by the armor:
"Please don't suplex anyone while in the hospital. We're trying to stay unnoticed"
"So who's the monster we're going to rescue?" Ananas asked.
"It's the guy who works at the burger restaurant at the MTT resort"
It took Ananas a few seconds to remember who he was talking about. Him? "The cat?"
"The one who looked like he was dying of boredom behind the counter?" Cohen piped up, not very helpful.
"Exactly, that one. He and I are friends, and I sure don't want to leave him at the mercy of his Shadow. We have to help him"
"I don't know that guy at all but I agree. Let's get him out of his own soul!" Undyne would have helped no matter what monster fell down.
Sneaking into the hospital was impossible. The window Burgerpants' room had was too high to reach from the outside, and there was a receptionist at the entrance. Instead of trying anything dangerous, they instead did what anyone would do: enter through the front door and simply go towards the reception desk. Undyne being the captain of the Royal Guard had a lot of perks, all she had to do was say she needed to check Burgerpants' room, under orders from Asgore. Nobody contradicted her, so in matter of minutes everyone was at the right room. She didn't like to use her position gratuitously, but it was for a good cause here.
Burgerpants looked worse than the night before. Now that they were seeing him at day instead of under the rather dim light of the garbage dump, Syphus could notice how haggard and tired he looked. Not even unconscious Burgerpants could catch a break. "Does everyone have their weapons and accessories?" he confirmed. Everybody had everything he had given them, it was time to enter and face what Burgerpants' soul had for them. While Undyne locked the door and the humans sat against the wall, Syphus put the brooch on Burgerpants' uniform, ready to activate it. "Give me your hand, Annie"
The girl put her hand in Syphus', and gave the other to Cohen. Having made sure everyone would come along, he pressed onto the brooch, the already familiar fainting sensation overtaking them. What kind of place would Burgerpants' soul be? From what Syphus knew, his conflict was about Mettaton being the biggest obstacle and deterring him from even wanting to give acting a serious try. Just what kind of Shadows would there be inside his soul?
As soon as they had recovered enough to take a good look around, it was rather obvious to what extent Mettaton was present in Burgerpants' psyche. The place mimicked the fast food restaurant, bright and yellow. The humans in the group looked around with interest, recognizing the place even if they had been there only once. "We should be done soon. The restaurant wasn't that big" Cohen said.
"I wouldn't be so sure about that! Alphys' laboratory isn't too large either but in her soul it was much bigger" Syphus said.
Ananas shivered. It was a rather warm environment, but she felt chills despite that. "I don't like this place...it's making me feel scared." She was right. There was a constant feeling of dissatisfaction, with a tinge of despair. It permeated everything like a miasma, contrasting with the bright environment. Between the tables and the chairs there were Shadows waiting for them. They didn't even have a defined form like the Shadows in the other monster souls they had explored, it was more similar to a human soul than to a monster. "Can we start walking now? Please?"
The glass doors that led outside were sealed shut. On the other side they could barely see the lobby of the MTT Resort, covered with a thick, purple mist. Vague shapes were moving on the other side. "Want me to force this open?" Undyne asked, cracking her knuckles and ready to pull from the glass doors with all her might. Syphus shook his head.
"No. First let's take a good look at the inside of this restaurant" There could be something deep inside. The fast food restaurant extended way beyond its real size, looking like a continuous hallway lined with booths and windows. Plates with cold junk food were served on some of them. Far back, a grill could vaguely be seen, as well as a brown form pacing back and forth. "Isn't that Burgerpants?"
"Or his Shadow," Cohen said. "What's the plan?"
"Undyne goes first. Get the spear prepared, we're going to try to save as much of our energy as possible. Physical attacks should be our first move" he instructed, preparing his own Persona as well. "I don't like how this place is bigger but is like one single room...it gives me a bad feeling." It seemed a bit too simple. "I will support her and keep her attack increased from time to time"
It sounded like a plan. As agreed, Undyne rushed forward, spears at the ready. From the seats and the booths the ink and sludge that covered the seats gathered together, forming the Shadows. Robed Shadows, resembling people chained to bars, got in middle of the hallway. "Out of our way!" Undyne hollered, the Shadow not intimidated at all. A spear flew through the air, aimed at the center of the Shadow. The Trance Twins blocked the spears with its steel bars, moaning threateningly, like a bull about to charge.
"Annie!"
Hippolyta's fire burst forward, striking the Trance Twins and throwing them down on the floor, chance Undyne used to jump and throw a volley of spears onto the Shadow, until it vanished. "Everything is starting to get way stronger than before".
"We don't have time to bother with the small fries. Come on, let's try to reach him as soon as possible!"
Despite their intentions of avoiding distractions, the restaurant was eerily empty. Many puddles of ink covered the surfaces around them, but the amount of Shadows emerging from them was very low. Was there something about Burgerpants' soul that hindered Shadows? That wasn't the only problem right now.
Even though they tried to hurry, it was like the environment itself was trying to stop them. Someone who could be Burgerpants was visible, all the way near the grill and the counter, but even though they were going at a good pace in that direction they didn't seem to be getting any closer. They were indeed moving, it was obvious thanks to the booths and junk food they were always leaving behind, but the grill continued to seem far away. After twenty minutes of trying to get closer, Cohen punched a Shadow and stepped back onto the group, changing places with Ananas. "How can this place be so long?"
"Maybe we're missing something?" the girl wondered, a bit tired from running without advancing much.
Syphus thought for a moment. Could there be a way to get to the grill faster? There didn't seem to be anything, other than the seemingly endless restaurant, Burgerpants' soul seemed to be rather straightforward. If we can't reach him then maybe he can come to us? "Burgerpants!" he called, "Over here!"
The orange shape at the grill seemed to react. They couldn't tell for sure, but it seemed like he had heard them. "Get over here, now!"
"Do you think he'll come? He could be possessed by his Shadow already" Cohen wondered.
"We won't know until we try," he waved the halberd, as if Burgerpants hadn't seen him already. "Do you think he saw us?"
"He did," Undyne said. Even though she was missing one eye, her eyesight was pretty good. She could see much farther away than the humans. "He didn't seem very happy to see us"
Why does he have to be so stubborn?! Syphus was about to call for him again when the floor shook, like an earthquake had happened just underneath them. Ananas shrieked and fell to the ground, holding onto Undyne. Syphus barely managed to stay standing, he had to grip one of the tables, spilling burger and parfait all over the ground. From the depths of the restaurant, the sludge seemed to expand, covering the counter, yet Burgerpants didn't react. Slowly, something rose from the ink. Stone pillars broke through the tiles, only two rising through the floor. The pillars looked like they were going to crumble – like they were part of a Shadow that failed to spawn, missing most of it. "What's that supposed to be?" Undyne asked Syphus, who tried to analyze it.
"I got nothing. There's not even a name"
It was an enemy and that was all that mattered. Cohen took the initiative, summoning his Persona and bringing down the sword onto the pillar, without the target making any effort to defend itself, attack back or even move. The hard steel hit the stone, making it shatter and crumble apart. "What...?" Cohen murmured, surprised. He hadn't expected this to be so easy.
"My turn!" To test if the obstacle was weak to the Personas, Syphus swung the halberd onto the stone, breaking it apart as well. "This is very odd..." Could this really be so simple?
It proved not to be when more pillars emerged, forming a wall in the way. Encouraged by the lack of retaliation, the entire team attacked the pillars with their weapons, glad to not have to use their Personas for a while. One after another the pillars kept coming up, replacing the ones that were destroyed, but it was undeniable the team was advancing! They got into a rhythm, destroying more than one pillar at once, overwhelming whatever was making them appear until it just couldn't keep up with the rate the pillars were being destroyed.
"That's it, keep going!" Syphus cheered, managing to pierce through two pillars at once. When they fell apart, he saw a glimpse of Burgerpants, closer than ever before. It was like with every pillar they destroyed the restaurant shrunk, reducing to a size that made more sense. He could already see his friend, leaning on the counter and watching them all with disinterested expression, as if what was going on right now was the most natural thing in the world.
Ananas was the first one to reach the counter. She avoided one of the pillars and kicked another, getting rid of the last obstacles before she could get to where the monster was. "We're here to rescue you!" she said, grabbing onto the counter like she was going to try to hoist herself over it. Burgerpants didn't have much of a reaction to that, he just nodded like she had said anything he had heard a million times before. "You're not the Shadow, right?"
"I dunno what you're talking about" he said.
The girl stared at him intently, trying to figure out if Burgerpants' Shadow had invaded him and made him disinterested, or if that was just how he was. The eyes did seem to indicate he was okay. "Here, I'll help you jump over here" she tried to grab his hand, he just stepped back to avoid her.
She had been about to pass over the counter and the grill to reach him, if it hadn't been for Syphus stopping her she actually would have. "Burgerpants, we should get going"
"Who are you?" he seemed rather distrustful of them, more than Syphus remembered ever seeing him. Maybe his Shadow really had caught up to him? Or was this Burgerpants' normal behavior? Syphus couldn't remember how unwelcoming Burgerpants had been at the beginning of their friendship.
Hoping it would help, Syphus showed the firefly brooch. "It's me, Syphus. You have to trust me here"
"Really? I know who she is, she was at the restaurant before," he pointed at Ananas and at Cohen, who had just reached them. "They had a bad disguise but it was them. You're the one I have never seen before!"
"We should let Undyne deal with this" Cohen suggested, looking back at Undyne who kept destroying the few remaining pillars. Burgerpants recognized Undyne, his eyes widened, filled with an emotion Syphus wasn't sure how to decipher. Respect mixed with something else?
"Why is she here?"
"That doesn't matter! Come on, move!" Syphus was losing his patience. He was considering getting the others to hold Burgerpants while he attached the firefly brooch and got everyone out. The only thing stopping him from making the suggestion was that he wasn't sure the Burgerpants he was seeing wasn't possessed by his Shadow Self. His demeanor was like his hostility had no more inhibitions. That kind of exaggerated behavior could be because that was Burgerpants' Shadow.
Or maybe it truly was Burgerpants. He really couldn't tell.
"He doesn't want to listen?" Undyne had finally reached them, and was looking at Burgerpants with disdain.
"Apparently not. You should grab him while we put the brooch on him" Cohen suggested, inadvertently stealing Syphus' possible idea. Undyne, annoyed the person they came to rescue was behaving like this even though he was seemingly not affected by the Shadow. Seeing how they were serious about manhandling him, Burgerpants yelped and tried to put the closest object between him and the team – a table.
"I'm not leaving, I can't leave! I ran out of vacation days already, you know"
"Are you trapped by your other self?" Ananas looked around, like he expected Burgerpants' Shadow to ambush them.
"What? No! By Mettaton!" he grinned nervously, talking through his teeth. "I'm at work right now, can't you see?"
Ah. So that was it. Burgerpants seemed to be under the impression he was in the real restaurant, not in a weird creation of his own soul. It also didn't help that, from Burgerpants' perspective, three strangers and Undyne had arrived to harass him at work. The bad employee raised his voice, tinged with panic. "If Mettaton sees me talking with you all I'm going to have a rough time for the next month! Please, get out!"
"I-I don't think he likes us..." Ananas looked weirded out by Burgerpants.
"Please, get out already!" the table he was holding started dripping ink. "Do I have to get on my knees and beg?!" the sludge flow intensified. Cohen raised his fists slowly.
"Syphus, I don't like the look of that"
"Out! If—If you're not going to order, you have to leave!"
Syphus, not liking at all how this was turning out, stepped back, away from the cascade of ink on the table. Around them, more tables were starting to do the same. "Please calm down, we're leaving" he tried to appease, barely managing to keep his tone even.
"Okay, thank you for coming, come back soon," he said like he was reciting a script he had said a million times before. It didn't stop the tables from turning worse than before, blue plastic faces grew slowly on the front of the tables. Lowering his voice and placing a hand on the halberd, he got closer to the rest. The team huddled together, getting ready.
"I think this will be a fight"
"We're going to fight tables?" Undyne couldn't believe this seriously was their opponent.
"Think of it as if we're fighting the entire restaurant," Syphus said. "We'll die anyway if we do nothing!" How their foes looked like was irrelevant, it could all kill them anyway. Everyone grouped together, glancing at the glass doors on the other end of the hallway. Retreating could be a good idea! Syphus pointed at the doors with the halberd. "Go!"
Since these were tables, they hoped that meant they wouldn't be able to follow them, that putting some distance between them and the Shadows table would be of help. Those hopes were dashed when, with disquieting movements, the tables grew hands, extending to the floor. The Sleeping Tables crawled towards them, anything on them levitating and swirling around. It really was like the entire restaurant had a will of its own and wanted to eliminate the intruders.
"What's going on?!" Cohen yelled, covering his face with his arms, a cup of soda hitting him on the back of his head. To his side, Ananas yelped when part of a sandwich smacked her right on her face, followed by one of the Sleeping Tables lunging at her. "Annie!"
"Got 'em!" Syphus swatted the table with his halberd, the table flew back, surprisingly light. "There are just too many to fight at once!"
"I can handle it!" Undyne's spears emerged from the floor, piercing several of the tables at once. Some of them disintegrated, defeated, while others grew from the floor, even right in their way. Retreating was just not possible when more Shadows kept getting in the way! Undeterred, Undyne kept bringing spears up, over and over in quick succession, flashes of bright blue combining with the white and black of the tables. "Syphus, think of something!"
"I-I'm thinking, I'm thinking!" Retreating to get more space didn't seem possible. Not too far from them, Burgerpants was watching, impassive. Did he seriously not realize what was going on?! What was he seeing? Protecting Burgerpants would have to be the priority. Any stray attack could hit him if they were not careful! "We're taking him with us" he decided.
Saying that aloud was a mistake.
All the Sleeping Tables reacted to Syphus' proposal of taking Burgerpants. A couple of them shuffled from the sides to the middle of the hallway, forming an obstacle, a third table jumping on top of them and raising everything that used to be on it high in the air. The mask on the table seemed to shift, contorting in a rather foreboding smile, so creepy Syphus felt like the temperature of the air lowered to freezing levels. Undyne felt it too, her spears stopped when she felt herself gripped by an irresistible urge to flee. Dropping Alphys' spear, Undyne ran away, abandoning the humans.
"Undyne!" Ananas screamed, in disbelief. Cohen tried to catch Undyne, but she was too fast for him, his fingertips brushed against her armor when she passed by his side.
"What the hell came over her?!" he demanded an explanation. Nobody answered him. "Syphus, what was that—Syphus?" he was not in condition to answer. Syphus had fallen to his knees, staring at the three tables with such clear fear in his eyes Cohen grabbed him immediately, fearing Syphus would flee too. "Snap out of it!"
"...we can't do anything...this is it. We can't do anything!" Syphus suddenly shouted, eyes wide open. "We'll die here! We're dead meat!"
"Shut up and listen, we're not dying—!" the old man tightened his grip on Syphus, leaving Ananas to be the only one keeping the tables at bay with her Persona. "—so shut up and get up—"
Cohen never finished his sentence. One of the Sleeping Tables threw its objects up in the air with a lot of strength, and screeched loudly, a wail that made everyone stand still and made their hearts jump to their throats. Syphus, being the only one left who had been struck with fear earlier, went silent, going limp in Cohen's arms. "Wait! Syphus!"
He didn't hear Cohen. Syphus felt cold, so cold, like his soul was leaving his body. He didn't even get to say anything before he simply shut down. He didn't even get to say a word or wish the others good luck.
-ooooo-
Burgerpants wasn't sure how he got to a hospital bed. He just woke up and found himself in a hospital room and without any memory of anything that happened in the last few hours. Confused, he crawled to the edge of the bed, looking around.
There sure was a lot of dust in the room. There also were two humans slumped against the wall, seemingly asleep. Burgerpants wasn't sure why, but he felt like he had seen them before. Where was it...a young girl and an old man...
Oh! Right! They had gone with Syphus to get food. Burgerpants stared at them a little longer and shrugged. For some reason he couldn't bring himself to care about the humans' presence in the room. In fact, now that he thought about it, he couldn't bring himself to care about anything except one thing: he was supposed to be at work now! Why was he dilly-dallying around?!
"I'm never gonna live this down!" Burgerpants shouted with panic, getting off the bed and running out of the room. As an employer, Mettaton was a nightmare, so he really didn't want to bring more of his derisiveness if he could avoid it.
After all, his job was the only thing his life had. That job was the only 'meaningful' thing he ever had.
...
...
...
In New Home, nobody was sure where the humans found unconscious and without a SOUL came from. Questions abounded for a few days. Some of the residents of New Home wanted to talk with the king and ask if he had taken the humans' souls to open the Barrier, others wondered if that could mean there were other humans hiding around. The child who had been sighted in Hotlands was the only one most of them knew about.
Of course, the human child was asked if they knew anything about the other two humans who had appeared at the hospital. Those who witnessed were there when the child was asked that would later say the child had looked at them with absolute horror, having found out the humans had lost their souls, and ran towards Waterfall, crying all the way. It wasn't a problem, the monsters thought. They could ask again once the child calmed down.
Nobody saw the human child again. Some monsters asked the residents of Snowdin and the Ruins if they had seen the child, but they hadn't. It was like the child had vanished in thin air. The disappearance of the captain of the Royal Guard caused unrest in the Underground, too. What had happened to her? Was her disappearance, the child's disappearance, and the two human husks related in any manner? It was all too strange to be unrelated, they judged.
It didn't help when, two weeks later, a great commotion shook Mt. Ebott. The entire cavern shook, bringing calamity to monsterkind. Later they would determine an explosion originated in Waterfall, the rocks blocking the pathways and dividing the caverns into two different sections proved it. Uncommunicated, Snowdin and the Ruins, and Hotland and New Home, had to learn how to survive without any contact with each other. Some families were separated, never seeing the relatives on the other side of the rocks. Economy was devastated by the sudden loss of access to half of the Underground.
Adapting to the new situation was difficult, and would take years before everything was stable enough for life to continue on without much trouble. Toriel stepped forward to rule over that part of the Underground, having decided she couldn't ignore the plight of her people anymore. The Underground, forcibly divided in halves now, continued their lives, with much less space than before.
Nobody in the Underground ever found out about the recently-made large gaping hole on the side of the mountain, without the Barrier blocking the way.
xx/xx/21xx
RE: Mt. Ebott
Sir:
Got notification two of the humans are missing. Presumed dead or captured by monsters. Could be matter of time before rest are captured too. Decided to take action. We will open the mountain by force and get the humans out.
-Sergeant Roger Wilco, Third Brigade.
GAME RESULTS
-o-
Celia: Alive. Escaped the Underground.
Cohen: Dead. He shall be missed.
Byssa: Alive. Escaped the Underground.
Ciruel: Alive. Escaped the Underground.
Graham: Alive. Escaped the Underground.
Ananas: Dead. She shall be missed.
Frisk: Alive. Left the Underground against their will.
Syphus: Dead. Once again he proves to be useless.
-o-
Asgore – Alive, with a kingdom half what it used to be.
Toriel – Alive, with a kingdom half what it used to be.
Asriel – Alive. Escaped the Underground. May the world outside not suffer for long.
Chara – Alive. Escaped the Underground. May the world outside not suffer for long.
-o-
Sans – Alive.
Papyrus – Alive. Misses his new and old friends
Undyne – Dead. She could never be replaced.
Alphys – Alive. Never stopped looking for Undyne
Mettaton – Alive. Blissfully unaware of his role in the current situation
Burgerpants – Alive. Pretty much living in the restaurant
Scylla – Dead. A casualty nobody heard about.
-o-
0% of the monsters in the Underground died. With the kingdom divided, the future looks bleaker than it did before.
The winner is Cornio. Most humans in the Underground escaped. Monsterkind is not going to be okay.
-ooooo-
Syphus blinked, groggy. He flexed his fingers, staring at his hands in disbelief. He had been careless...or perhaps just not well prepared, and he had paid dearly for it. Even though he was the leader of the team, he sure had led them wrongly this time.
It was a bit of a blessing nobody else would know how badly he had screwed up.
"Syphus, can you speed it up a notch?" Cohen asked, already ready to dive into Burgerpants' soul. To his side, Ananas and Undyne were waiting, unsure why Syphus was taking so long to join them. Syphus closed his eyes, shaking his head.
"I believe we need to wait a little longer"
"What? After coming all the way here?! Undyne protested, not pleased by Syphus apparently getting cold feet. "We're as ready as we can be, let's get going already!"
"Just trust me on this one!"
Ananas didn't even protest. She figured Syphus would know better. "I'll follow him" she said, going to Syphus. "What will we wait for?" The girl's decision settled the matter. There was no way only half of the team could go and attempt to find Burgerpants. Reluctant and unsatisfied, the team left the hospital, going with Syphus to 'make sure they will be okay'.
Their frustration made Syphus feel guilty. Someday I'll tell them. Someday.