"Speech"
'Thoughts'
"Past speech and Gman"
"other"
'Damn it Sans. The one time you intervene during a run!' The ghost thought nervously to herself as Adrian rolled out of the way of one of San's attacks. 'Do you not realize that this isn't Frisk, you brain dead asshole?'
Before she can further stress about the situation, she notices that another bone is heading in Adrian's direction. Already she can tell that the marine doesn't have the time to dodge the speeding projectile, nor the protection against something going so fast. While he does have some vest on, it looks too slim to block such a large projectile. So Chara can only watch at it comes closer to the young soul, expecting it to impale him.
Only it doesn't.
Instead, Chara watches as the bone bounces off of Adrian's vest, knocking him back as large blue sparks fly off from the point of impact. Widening her eyes, Chara can only stare at the marine as she tries to comprehend what just happened.
"I will however give you one chance to prove that you aren't a bad guy." Sans interjects, cutting her off from her thoughts. "And when I say one chance, I mean it. You kill even a single monster…" The comedian's right eye burst into his signature blue flame. "You will face judgement." And then he was gone, leaving the two alone once again in an uncomfortable silence.
"That never happened before." The ghost of the Underground said to herself, momentarily forgetting that Adrian is right next to her.
"Chara?" He asks. "What the hell just happened?"
'What the hell is going on?!' Chara thought to herself. Everything has been going so differently, it's maddening. After so much time going through the same process of pacifism, and genocide, the ghost can only take so much change all at once. Not only that, she doesn't even know why everything is suddenly changing around her. She's only been getting useless hints from an unknown third party as more and more questions pile up unanswered. Not only that but she doesn't know how long it'll take before the stress of not knowing everything makes her snap. So, she decided, she is going to have to confront the root cause of it all. Adrian Shephard.
Now she knows that he might not fully trust her, not completely, nor will he understand why everything changing would be such a big deal. So she's going to have to take a risk. A big risk.
She has to tell him about the reset.
There's one problem with this detail however, he will most likely have questions. Questions she won't want to answer, but she needs to know. So, she'll tell him about the monster that she was once was.
"Adrian..." She hesitates for a second as doubt spreads through her mind, but quickly she squashes such thoughts, and with DETERMINATION in her eyes she continues. "When we get to Snowdin, there's something I need to tell you. I've been hiding something from you."
"Chara… What is going on?"
"Please, Adrian, I can't tell you here, not out in the open. I don't feel comfortable here." While she might be a ghost, that doesn't mean she'll just spill everything in the open, especially not something so important.
"I thought…" He tries to speak, before he's cut off by Chara.
"I don't feel comfortable here Adrian. I know no one should be able to hear me but…"
A gloved hand makes it wall onto her shoulder, cutting her off.
The first thing she notices is how warm it is. 'I can feel his hand!' She realizes as warmth radiates from his hand and onto her shoulder. `Why the hell can I feel his hand?! I could never feel Frisk, so why him?' She thinks as the strangeness of the situation falls onto her.
"Chara, it's fine." He speaks, not noticing her inner turmoil. "I need you to calm down and focus. We don't have to discuss anything here, but please, tell me what did Sans mean by LV 26, and how the hell he knows about how many people I've killed. Please."
It's at this point this point Chara realizes that she can still feel his hand on her shoulder, making all of her previous thoughts disappear as non existent heat rises to her face. Quickly she walks away to avoid him from seeing anything and prompts him to follow.
"Come on. Let's get out of here. The sooner we get to Snowdin, the better."
The two continue their walk down the path, passing by both of the watchpostes, and stopping by the intersection with the box that she remembers from every other reset.
"This box carries your stuff." She points to said object. "It saves whatever you put in it. The box will also appear in a few other places as well, with everything you put in it."
The marine nods, opening the box to view its contents inside and possible put his ammo away.
"Holy Shit."
Now Chara would say that an overreaction to seeing a rubber glove, but at this point, she's not even sure if the glove is even still there. It's been over 20 years since the box was last there, for everyone else at least, and with everything else going on, she wouldn't be surprised if it was a new weapon for Shephard. Hell it might even be from the surface.
Bringing his hands into the box, the marine takes out and brings out, as she expected, a weapon.
Or at least she assumes it's a weapon. It nothing like she's ever seen before. More like an alien cannon compared to the rifle holstered on Adrian's back. Green in color, and with many exposed tubes and wires, the thing gives off an impression that it wasn't exactly fully finished. Interestingly, the weapon is split between two segments, the cannon and the grip, with both being connected by an exposed blue core. A vertical grip with the trigger below it is located on its underside and a large stock is located in the back with another horizontal grip on its left side. Above said horizontal grip is a screen that can be seen on the left side the main of the weapon. With Adrian shifting it around in his hand, Chara is able to get a better view of the front and right side of the weapon. The right side is very much the same as the left, with the exception of even more exposed wiring and tubing. The barrel of the cannon however is much fearsome. With four "mandibles" with a spike surrounding the exit port where she assumes some type of projectile is shot out from.
"Adrian… What the hell is that?"
"A Displacement Cannon." The marine says, with untold amounts of awe in his voice.
She doesn't respond, instead she crosses her arms, still waiting for a full explanation.
"It's a prototype weapon from the facility I was fighting in before I came here." The marine continues. "It can fire a portal that sends whatever it touches, or the user, to another dimension."
The ghost gives a deadpan stare as a response. "Okay… but what is it doing here?"
A moment of silence passes between the two, before a soft reply is heard from Adrian. Barely audible to Chara
"I don't know."
"..."
"Anyways, would it be safe if I put my ammo in here. Since you said it moves throughout the place, I'm assuming it's magic and that no one else can get into it. Right?
Chara nods.
"Okay then."
She doesn't say anything as Adrian turns around and takes ammo out of his backpack and starts to place it in the box, leaving him with 1 40mm grenade, 2 magazines for his M4, and another 4 for his sidearm. The marine zips up his now empty backpack, sans the aliens, and turns to Chara once again.
"How much further until we reach Snowdin?"
She shrugs, "not long, a 5 minute walk at most." The ghost points further down the path. "There are guards up ahead however, so that might add another 10 depending on how many we encounter."
Falling in behind the soldier, the pair make their way down the path once more. It's not long until they meet another monster. Doggo to be exact.
"Who's there? Did someone move." The dog monster spoke from his watchpost, causing Adrian to freeze. "I can only see moving things," it continues as it took in its surroundings. "If something was moving… for example, a human…"
The marine stayed still.
"Don't move and you'll be fine." The ghost motions to Doggo, still in his post. "He can't see you if you don't move."
The marine nods, "Yeah, I think he made that very clear." His hand slowly moves to the pipe wrench on his person.
"AHA! I KNEW SOMETHING WAS THERE."
Adrian quickly brings up his trusty weapon of choice as a sword with a blue glow surrounding it speeds towards him. Thinking quickly, he smacks the pointed end of the weapon away from him at the last second, causing it to fall harmlessly onto the snow-covered path.
"Fuck!"
"Adrian, don't move!" The marine's companion shouts from behind him as yet another sword makes it way to him.
Acting on instinct honed from hours upon hours of combat and even more training, Adrian promptly ignores the advice given to him by Chara, and instead tries to roll out of the way of the incoming attack. Unfortunately, the sword maneuvered itself mid-flight to adjust for the marine's sudden movements. Getting out of his roll and back onto his feet, Shephard is meet with the sword going straight to his heart. Luckily, his PCV came in handy once again, absorbing the kinetic energy of the thrown weapon through its shielding system. Sparks fly off from the point of impact as Shephard is pushed back.
Not wanting to stay idle, the marine quickly runs towards the monster dog, hitting another sword away.
"Adrian! Don't move when he throws another weapon!"
The marine stops as another sword falls harmless against the snow. "It's kinda too late for that." Another glowing sword fall onto the ground.
"Just trust me!"
So, against all of his training and better judgement, Adrian drops his arms to his side and grits his teeth as the fast moving projectile coming his way gets closer and closer until it makes contact.
Expecting to be skewed, the young marine widen his eyes in disbelief as the sword phrases through him, bypassing both his armor, and his body without leaving even a scratch.
"Where did the human go?" The dog looks around, clearly confused by the lack of movement.
"Pet him!"
To distracted and confused to question Chara, Adrian lunges for the monster and roughly pats the dog on the head.
"I've been petted! Patted? Pet? Doesn't matter, this requires more treats!" The dog monster, without any warning, jumps into the watchpost he came out of, ignoring the utterly bewildered marine in favor of the dog treats littering the watchpost floor.
"Good job out there" Adrian ghostly companion walks ahead of him. "I knew you could do it."
"Am I going to have to pet every monster I encounter Chara?" The ghost keeps on walking. "Chara…?"
"Hey human! Can you guess my favorite cereal?... FROSTIES!" A monster the size of a small child and the shape of a snowflake shouted, as it launched ice shurikens at the lone marine, who dodged them effortlessly. Compared to the alien hornets, plasma and lighting thrown his way, the ice shurikens might as well have moved in slow motion to the corporal.
"Kid, just go home. I'm not fighting children."
"Shut up human! You won't be talking much longer after your dead!" Another wave of shurikens are thrown Adrian's way.
"Just give the kid a scare and he'll leave," Chara said, leaning up against a tree.
Dodging the shurikens, the marine puts away his pipe wrench.
"Ha! Too scared to fight human? You shriving in fright?" The monster smiles.
Only to go pale as the human takes out a very large pistol.
"Kid, go home," the marine brings his standard issue Desert Eagle up, "or else."
The Snowdrake, now terrified beyond belief, flees from the armored human soldier as it realizes just how close to death it came today, leaving behind a few golden coins.
"So Adrian." The marine puts away his pistol, holstering it on his thigh. "I almost forgot to ask earlier, but how did you survive San's bone attack? Or even the swords?"
Adrian turns to the girl, and points to his chest.
"My armor has a shield that deflects most harmful substances, radiation, toxins, electricity, plasma, along with any fast moving projectiles."
The girl gets off from the tree, and walks next to the marine as they move forward down the path. Looking at his vest for a second, Chara ask, "does that mean your invulnerable?"
Adrian chuckles as he picks up the gold on the ground and hands it to Spitball in his backpack. "I wish. No, I'm not invulnerable. My Powered Combat Vest, PCV for short, has a battery that powers the shield. Why do you think I was near the outlet at Toriel's for so long?"
The girl doesn't respond. "The more damage it takes, the more power is taken from the vest. Right now I'm on 35% power. San's bone did a lot more damage then I was expecting, bringing me down to 55% and the sword draining another 20."
"So are you like special forces?" Chara ask, curiosity in her eyes.
"Kinda. I'm part of the HECU, or Hazardous Environment Combat Unit. As the name implies, we're deployed to highly hazardous environments. We're still marines however, first and foremost however... Semper Fi..." Remorse can be heard in Adrian's voice as he said that last bit of information.
It wasn't long before the pair were stopped by a dog in a knights armor. The monster makes a barking sound before lunging at the marine with a sudden burst of speed with it's long sword held high, causing Adrian to instinctively push Chara out of the way and dodge at the very last second.
"Rude!"
Ignoring Chara for a second, the marine takes a stance with his pipe wrench, and gets ready for the dog monster knight thing to lunge at him again.
As if on cue, the monster swings it's sword in a broad stroke, intending to cut the marine in half. Again, Adrian dodges the attack, and brings down his wrench on the dog, only for it to bring up it's large shield to block. The wrench impacts the shield with a loud bang as metal meets metal. Quickly disengaging and backing up to dodge another swing from the creature he glances over to see Chara sitting on a fallen tree swinging her legs around and watching the two fight.
"So how do I get rid of this guy?" The marine shouts as he dodges another swing of the long sword.
"I'm sure you can take him." The girl smiles with faux innocence "You don't need someone holding your hand throughout the entire Underground, do ya?"
"Fine, damn ghosts never lending a hand." The marine mutters the last part.
Running forward, the marine swings his wrench overhead, causing the dog to bring up it's shield to dodge the oncoming projectile, only for Adrian to change his aim towards the long sword poking out from behind the monsters defenses at the last second. The two collide, causing a clang of metal, as the sword gets stuck in the mouth of the wrench. Using this to his advantage, the marine yanks the pipe wrench back, bringing the sword with him and out of the monster's reach. Too shocked to properly respond, the dog can only watch as it's only offensive weapon falls harmlessly out of reach.
With it now almost completely disarmed, Adrian prepares to bash it's shield away as well, only to see the monster take a step back in fright. The monster turns around and flees the scene, but not before Adrian call out to it.
"Hey!" The monster turns around for a second, expecting another attack, only to be confused as the human tosses its sword back to it.
"You forgot your sword."
The dog, looking at its sword, looks at the marine for a second before it starts to wag its tail and bark in excitement.
"Now get going."
The dog turns around and flees down the path, leaving the pair alone.
The sound of clapping comes from behind Adrian, causing him to turn around and see that it's Chara on the tree trunk.
"Encore, encore!"
Giving a mock bow, the marine replies with a simple "thank you."
The pair continue their march down the beaten path, bypassing a number of odd contraptions built onto the floor. Some look like pressure plates with X's and O's on them, while others look like LED tiles that are turned off. Perplexed by the strange contraptions on the ground, Adrian turns to Chara and ask her what these things are.
"There 'puzzles,'" the girl makes quotation marks as she says this. "There's a skeleton that likes to put them down to capture any humans that make their way down here."
The marine vaults over a fallen tree trunk, while Chara phrases right through it.
"Sans?"
"No, his brother actually."
Making their way down a slight slope, the pair end up being halted in their tracks as they find their path blocked by waist high spikes. The treeline around them stops right before the spikes, and instead end with a sudden dip, making the spikes the only way forward. Looking around once again to see if there's any other way to get by, the marine eventually sighs to himself before going in between the spikes like he did back in the Ruins. Looking back shows his travel buddy phrasing through it yet again.
The pair continued walking further down the path, however they are eventually stopped once again by a pair of monsters. However, these two, while still wearing the same knightly armor, also wear hoods covering their canine features. The pair also are brandishing two very large halberds, causing Adrian to instinctively reach for his pistol. While Adrian understand he only have limited ammo, he also does not want to have another prolonged fight, especially against two combatants. The marine aims the pistol at the couple before they get a chance to speak, and fires the weapon. Two loud bangs followed by the sound of two halberds falling harmlessly onto the ground echo across the forest.
The couple are shocked at first, one moment the pair are about to stop this trespassing human from going any further, and next thing they know their weapons are on the floor with the human carrying a gun. The two slowly regaining their senses, back away slowly from the green eyed demon in front of them, understanding that they are completely at it's mercy. One of them however walks in front of the other and blocks the marine lines of sight.
"Don't shoot my hotdog demon!" The one in front said in a deep voice.
Chara visibly flinches.
"He means me." A feminine voice follow after coming from behind the first dog.
Turning his head sideways, the marine lowers his side arm.
"Relax, I'm going to hurt anyone," the marine says in a calm and collective manner. "I'm just a traveler making his way to Snowdin at the moment. I don't want any trouble." The marine gestures to their weapons on the ground. "Sorry for the scare, but again, I don't want any trouble."
"It's no problem Mr. Human," the female dog says, doing a complete 180 in terms of tone. "Just head further down the path and you'll find Snowdin."
"Yeah, what she said." The male gestures down the path. "You can get going, we'll leave you be."
Adrian, suspicious of their sudden change in attitude towards him, holsters his weapon but keeps his hand on it just in case. Walking by the pair, the marine almost shots Dogaressa as she suddenly comes up from behind him.
"You almost forgot your gold Mr. Human."
Now a little bit more on ease, the marine takes the gold coins and waves the two goodbye as he and Chara continue down the path, with him occasionally looking back until the pair are finally out of view. Turning to the girl in green, the marine voices his opinion on the situation.
"That was… Strange."
The girl looks at him. "What was strange?"
"Those monsters back their, they were pretty friendly for people who just got shot at."
The girl shrugs. "It's not that weird actually. Monsters don't really overreact after a fight. This is especially true if you show them mercy." A memory filled with dust flashed through her mind, before she continued. "They'll normally end up helping you and get more friendly once you beat them."
"Even after getting shot at?" The marine asks.
"Um hm."
"Monsters are weird."
After calming down a large knight dog by playing fetch with the large armored mutt, and walking across the bridge the two finally come across a large sign about 2 meters wide with Christmas decorations.
WELCOME TO SNOWDIN
The town of Snowdin was alive with activity this day around. It was the yearly anniversary of THE holiday. The holiday with no name, and with a simple origin.
Years ago, kids from the town decorate a large deer like monster. The town gathered after that and decided to leave presents for the unnamed monster as a sign of their apology. Ever since then, the town would gather together one day every year to put presents under the town tree for said monster.
Today was that day, while it had no name, the town residents still celebrate it nonetheless, even the newer additions from the city are encouraged to celebrate and forget about the modern problems plaguing the underground for just one night. That's why, in the midst of all of the cheer, the lone human soldier covered head to toe in camo clothing and armor didn't cause the people to panic. Every other day was for panicking. Besides, the human couldn't of gotten in if it was hostile.
Right?
As the Marine looked around the small town of Snowdin, he realized just how small it really was. Compared to the urban center that his orphanage was located in as a child, Snowdin wasn't even a quarter of the size. However that didn't mean anything when it came to diversity however. Monster of all shapes, both humanoid in appearance and other wise, roamed around without a care in the world. It was a bizarre sight for Adrian, seeing so many odd looking creatures in one place. The only other time he experienced something like this was when he found his way to Xen, however that place was so alien, while Snowdin much more familiar with it's log cabins and chimneys puffing out smoke. It's very human, yet foreign at the same time.
Walking into the first shop he sees, Adrian is meet with the strange sight of a humanoid bunny standing behind the counter. Walking up to the monster, the bunny person gives him a look over before returning back to her indifferent stare from before.
"Can I help you?"
Looking over the shop once more, the marine takes stock of what he can buy and what's and the essentials he'll need for his journey to the Capital. Looking at a small fuzzy toy giraffe for a second, the marine turns back to the shopkeeper, the marines pulls out some coins from his backpack, taking extra care to make sure the monster doesn't see the aliens inside.
"She doesn't seem to be bothered by the weapon at least. Thank god for that.'
Putting the coins on the counter the marine is about to speak up when Chara beat him to it.
"I would recommend the Bisicle it's very good."
The marine turns to the ghost, giving a look of bewilderment under his mask, before turning back to the shopkeeper again.
"One Bisicle please."
"Make sure to get two!"
Adrian turns to the ghost once again, causing the monster bunny to raise an eyebrow. After a second of just staring at Chara, the marine sighs.
"Make that two."
The woman nods before heading off into the back. Not long after the shopkeeper is returning with two Bisicles in hand. Giving the two treats to Adrian, she regards the human in front of her.
"That will be 30G."
After giving the money to the shopkeeper, the two depart the shop. However, before the marine can continue, Chara grabs his hand and drags the marine into the building next to the shop, named simply, Snowed Inn. The pair go through the door to again be meet by a humanoid bunny, however unlike the last one, this one seems more presentable with a stylized dress and brushed white fur. A far cry from the disheveled purple bunny next door.
"Hello. Welcome to Snowed Inn, Snowdin's premium hotel, would you like to rent a room for only 80G?"
The ghost tugs on Adrian's hand and nods her head yes to the marine. While he might not quite understand why they're renting a room in an inn, Adrian nonetheless doesn't question it and goes along with the idea.
"Yes please."
"Wonderful," the innkeeper beams. "Here's your room key, make sure to bundle up!"
Taking the room key and having Chara lead the way upstairs, the pair eventually make it to the room. Opening the door, the pair are greeted with a small one person sized bed on the left hand side of the room, with a nightstand to it's right and a large table to the south of the large lamp in the right hand corner of the room. Still not understanding why the two needed a room, the marine turns to the ghost sitting on the bed.
"Chara, why did we buy a room?"
The girls gives off a sudden glare, doing a complete 180 in terms of attitude. "Did you already forget? You wanted to know about what's going on here right? In the Underground?"
"Yeah but I don't see why we need to buy a room. So what's going on here Chara? I won't pretend I've known you that long, but their are some things that seem off with you. I feel like you're keeping something from me. I didn't want to pry at first, but after the fight with Sans, I need to know what I should expect going on."
The marine takes off his helmet and respirator, before turning to the ghost again, staring into her blood red eyes. "Chara, what is going on here?"
The ghost stares right back into his bright green eyes, not taking her gaze off for even a second.
"Adrian, what do you know of time travel?"
DUN DUN DUUNNNN
Finally were here, to the moment I've been waiting to write for awhile now. The confrontation between the two. Secrets are to be revealed, true color brought to light, and maybe, a little bit of romance as well.
I hope you guys liked this chapter, I've had a sudden urge to just write for this story, so I'm kinda been going (almost but not really) all out. I do have a question concerning both dialogue and characters in general. I don't know if Chara and Adrian are taking things too fast. As in, are they going from one emotion to the other too quickly? I'm not a hundred percent sure if they are, so I wonder what you guys think?
The Giraffe was an inside joke between a friend and mine IRL. Just to let you guys know. (;
Anyways, make sure to leave a like, comment and subscribe. Also, make sure to check out today's sponsor, RAID SHADOW-
P.S
Changes made concerning grammar.
