Monika stepped off of the elevator and into the next area, taking a look around. In her panic to escape before Undyne had finished with Mettaton and instigated combat with her again, the girl had quickly pounded one of the buttons, accidentally leading to her ending up here on level two.

Player looked up at the elevator sign above them, noting the acronym "L2" and furrowing his brow- or trying to, Monika couldn't tell due to his more ghostly features. "Huh... You know dear, I think you might have managed to seriously shortcut us here." He tells her, placing his hand against his chin in concern.

She looks over at him, an interested but pensive expression on her face. Taking a shortcut through a game was fine, but it meant that she could have missed out on some kind of important progression. "What do you mean?" She asks.

"Well my memory isn't the best, but I'm pretty sure this elevator can be used to access all three of the levels. If we wanted, we could get back onto this elevator and skip over this section entirely..." He explained to her. "Going to level three, I mean."

Her eyes lit up with surprise. "I hadn't planned that. I had just assumed that this was the way forward since the Lab wasn't open to me. I guess the way I beat Undyne really messed something up here, huh?" She says, glancing down. Yet more evidence that this was, in some way, real and not a video game. After all, if she had jumpstarted events this quickly in her world... It's possible that the other girls might have noticed something was wrong or they were moving too fast, but to have entirely different AI patterns and shortcuts open up as a result of her actions is... Insane! No one could have had this much attention to detail!

She had started to accept this fact a while ago, admittedly, but more evidence of that fact was definitely... Something that made her smile a bit more.
Maybe...

Maybe she could really live out a life here.

However... The fact that her Player was able to code things into reality was a mark against this being reality, although its possible that she's not entirely aware of how that ability functions for him. After all, she isn't able to access the code menu. If this world really did run off of coded logic, then by virtue of her knowing about it she should be able to use it as well, since that was how it worked in her world.

She sighed, definitely something she'd have to ask him about later.

For now, she focused ahead. She could either explore here a bit or move ahead to the next floor.

Behind them, the elevator shut and began to descend, making the choice for her.

"Well, we definitely need to hide somewhere to slip past Undyne first." Monika stated matter-of-factly, placing a hand on her hip and gesturing with a finger back towards the elevator. "So I vote that we do a little exploration of this floor before trying to reach the next one. Besides, its a little rude to skip over all this content. Someone put a lot of hard work into making it, right?"

Player glanced down at the code menu for a moment before glancing back up. "I don't know if that's really the case in this version, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to check out how certain things looked in a 3D space. Lets go, darling." He gave her what she guessed was a smile and then a thumbs up, causing her to giggle softly. He was such a nerd sometimes...
She loved him.

Monika walked forward a few feet before suddenly hearing something odd- a strange thunk behind her which caused her to look back. A moment later, irritated shouting could be heard from the elevator. She walked back to it in curiosity and found that its lights were... deactivated. "That's... weird." She muttered, looking at the shutdown elevator, cocking her head a bit. "Hey dear... Do you think Mettaton shut down the elevator to keep us trapped up here?" She asked, looking back to her partner, who shrugged.

"Its a possibility." He admitted. "Although I personally think this has something to do with someone else..." He says before quickly adding. "And I don't intend to tell you about her- THAT!" He corrected himself, crossing his arms and facing away from her to hide his shame for revealing even that little bit of information.

Monika giggled at him but furrowed her brow at the deactivated elevator. If that wasn't working, she'd have to find another way to progress upwards. Oh well, at least Undyne was trapped in there, by the sounds of the muffled screams and cursing... And the pounding she could hear coming from within.

In any case, she progressed on, turning a corner and heading down a cavern, trying her best to avoid getting vertigo for now, being high enough up that the previous cavern below her looked like it was more than a hundred feet below. She shuddered. "They really need to add guardrails to this place..." She remarks. "This all just looks like an accident waiting to happen."

Monika turned another corner before stopping, seeing Mettaton flying with his jet function just a few feet ahead, trying to set up some kind of movie set. He looked over at her silently for a moment, staring as if he had been caught off guard. "Ah... Well this is a bit awkward. Not many people get to see my production value after all!" His initial awkwardness morphed back into his bravado and showman style with ease. "Well since you've ruined this surprise, I suppose I'll simply have to go with plan B!"

"That's not necessary-!" Monika said, waving her hands in front of her desperately while taking a step back, hoping that maybe this time would be different, and she'd get off easy.

"Oh I think it is, beauty! After all, I never disappoint my fans!" Mettaton said, and Monika could almost imagine a wide grin as the robot snapped his fingers and activated the camera, as well as did away with all of the previous set construction. Immediately gameshow music kicked into gear again as he began to address the audience.
"WELCOME BACK BEAUTIES! I am sad to inform you that the original plan for today's show at this timeslot was skipped. Its for the better really, cooking shows are so out! What's in you might ask? Well, as one of our very enthusiastic fans has made very clear in a series of letters sent to the show- special thanks to CoolSkeleton95- puzzles are in this season, and it happens that I have one of the most amazing puzzles to date already prepared!"

Monika lets out a sigh of relief. After all, if she was right about who "CoolSkeleton95" was then she had nothing to worry about. Papyrus was sweet, but his puzzles were entirely harmless in every way.

"After all, who doesn't LOVE the scene in my action film Mettaton XIV (now available on Laserdisc for only seven easy payments of 9999!) where I defuse a bomb?! Honestly it was one of- if not my favorite- scenes in that film. Of course, the best scene in all of my movies is the one where my luxurious body has rose petals rained down upon it."

Immediately, her relief is stifled as she looks towards the robot, who was now standing in front of a large pinkish colored bomb, having produced it from who-knows-where. "Okay... A bomb. I took coding class, I can probably disarm it..." She says, lying to herself. Despite all of her efforts, coding had never really been her strong suit. Hacking her world had been easy enough, actually getting it to do exactly what she wanted on the other hand...
Plus, bomb defusal wasn't exactly like hacking it, was it?

"Well I certainly hope they taught you how to work under pressure, beauty. Because if you can't disarm this bomb in two minutes then this entire cavern will be brought down!" Mettaton says, looking over at her and having heard her little mutter earlier.

"Isn't that a little excessive? People live and work here!" She complains, but Mettaton chuckles and waves it off without a care in the world.

"Well, I don't think that our eleven viewers will mind that at all! After all, no pain, no quality entertainment as I always say!"

"You literally have never said that since the moment I met you!" She replies with her face a complete deadpan.

"To be fair, that was only five minutes ago." Mettaton replies with a tone that made Monika imagine a smug grin, causing her to glare at the machine, but Mettaton simply laughed her off.

"Huh, witty banter, you're good at this, my dear." Player remarked somewhat dryly, causing Monika to shoot him a slight glare. She loved him, but his dry humor could get a bit on her nerves when he decides to make jokes at the wrong time.

"IN ANY CASE, darling~ I'd suggest that you get to work. Unfortunately I was unable to set up the rest of the bombs, but defusing the big one should be more than enough entertainment!"

Monika sighs, not having much of a choice in this matter. If she allows the bomb to go off, she'll die. And its not like running will help. Going up will just cause her to come back down once the cave falls in and going down is a great way to get crushed to death. Sure, if she was fast enough she could try rushing to Waterfall, but that would just mean that she'd be trapped down here. A fate she could not allow herself to undergo.

She rushes towards the bomb and comes to a stop in front of it, kneeling down and starting to take a look at it. Her eyes searched every inch of the bomb, trying to see if there was anything obvious she could use to deactivate it, such as an off switch or some kind of button or keypad. It wasn't unreasonable, Papyrus had given Mettaton the idea, and if she was right in her assumption that he and Sans put together the puzzles, it wouldn't be out of the question to assume that Mettaton's had some kind of silly and obvious solution as well.
The bomb was large and colored a bright pink, it was at least as tall as a small child if not a few inches more and an electronic timer sat in the center with an obvious fuse at the top. The fuse was lit and was seemingly in tandem with the timer.

"Huh... That shade of pink kind of reminds me of an anime villain..." Player remarks, and Monika looks over at him curiously but he shakes his head. "Its not important. Just a weird detail is all."

"Any ideas on what we should do?" She asks him, eying up the fuse as it begins to tick down. It looked just like an old-timey bomb, albeit a bit more advanced than one she would have seen in a 60s cartoon, with the electronic timer counting down and all...
A thought struck her, although she shook her head to keep herself focused. How... did she know what 60s cartoon bombs looked like? Had her creator programmed her with that knowledge? If so, why? It seemed to be a bit of a waste of time to add that in. Or had she watched a cartoon of that nature in her backstory at some point? So much about her world was filled with logical errors, it made her head hurt sometimes.

She forced herself off of that thought though, chalking it up to just one "plot hole" of many that exist in her game. Besides, actually dwelling on the matter could lead her to some uncomfortable realizations- ones she didn't want to be having while death ticks down the clock in front of her.

"I think you're thinking what I'm thinking." Player says with a nod. "If we take out the spark..."

But Monika was ahead of him, taking a bit of saliva and pooling it in her tongue before licking both her thumb and forefinger. It was gross, but she needed enough water to be sure she could halt the fuse. She reached forward and pinched the spark, extinguishing it and leaving her shaking her hand off and blowing on it- that hurt a lot more than she had ever seen in a movie! And no, she was not going to question how she knew this kind of thing happened in movies. She could handle one existential crisis at a time.

Besides, what hurt more were the robot's next words as it's voice box crackled to life with that dang mechanical showman's voice. "A fantastic job beauty! However! A REAL star never arrives without a backup plan!" He snaps his fingers again and the timer starts ticking down on its own. "If you cannot solve the puzzle in the next minute and twenty seconds, it the electronic detonator will go off!"

"I should have seen that coming..." Player states dryly, looking down to Monika with worry in his eyes. "I think I have another idea. We need to get this thing open though."

Monika nodded and produced her toy knife. "...This is plastic..." She sucks in a breath through her teeth and places the blade between the cracks of the orb-shaped bomb, attempting to twist the metal casing open. She wrenches with all of her heart, and Player frantically opens up the File Menu and starts pressing buttons.

She's not sure what he's up to, but her knife seems to glimmer a bit and holds strong, holding up to her might and even starting to bend open the metal.

With a heavy grunt of effort and one last heave, Monika forces the side panel open, exposing a series of wires as she falls back. Red ones, blue ones, yellow ones and green ones all in some mad tangled up mess. She hisses as she looks at them, her mind racing for an answer. "Okay... Darling, what was your idea?" She asks, looking over at him.

Player nods at her, faking some confidence. "If Mettaton is playing this like a movie, then the cliche answer is to cut either the red wire or the green wire." His tone is entirely serious even if the situation is a bit insane. "But since I know who probably built this..." He sounds conflicted for a moment. On one hand, Monika knows that he doesn't want to give her the answers, on the other she also understands that not telling her is a dangerous game, and he probably doesn't want to lose her. Momentarily, she wonders if there's a respawn mechanic... And if there is, what kind of implications that could have...

Yet she swallows those thoughts for now, she can't afford to be dealing with them right now.

With a sigh and a nod, Player makes his choice. "Is there a pink wire?"

Monika peers inside, pulling out her Phone she got from Toriel and shining a flashlight in it, looking around-

"Oh! Yeah, there is! Do I cut that one?" She asks, pointing with her knife. Despite her calm tone, she raises her other hand to wipe some sweat from her brow. She's always been good at faking confidence in tough situations, and she's still hanging on even now, but being face to face with a bomb is... Well, her heart won't stop pounding.

Oddly, she's not really as... Afraid as she had been against Undyne. With Undyne, her death was so much more real than this.
This was just a... A freaky gameshow!

"That's probably our best option." Player nods. "Do it."

"Stop!" A shout reaches her ears and the Club President stops just as her blade begins to dig into the pink wire. Sparing a glance over to the sound of the voice, her eyes widen in a bit of surprise. She knows that by now nothing should surprise her... But...

At the edge of the cavern on the other side of where Monika had come in was a shorter yellow... Dinosaur person. She was stout and a bit chubby, though that could have just been her lab coat, she wore glasses and seemed hunched over, her hands on her knees- out of breath, as if she had just raced a marathon to get up here.

"Alphys?" Player was surprised. "Why is she intervening now..?" Player muttered quietly.

Monika looked over at him with a quizzical look, but it changed and her eyes flickered, a reminder hitting her. Alphys! She'd heard that name before, back in Snowden or somewhere around there! She couldn't remember exactly where she'd heard the name, but she was sure that Player had mentioned her before.

Alphys rushed over to her, frantically waving her hands around in a desperate attempt to get Monika to stop, and she realized that she was still grinding the blade up against her wire, and quickly pulled back as the dinosaur woman explained. "Listen! You absolutely cannot cut any of the wires in there! It could go off! Please let me help you-!"

"Ah ah ah Darlings! Cheating is obviously against the rules, Doctor!" Mettaton intervened, wheeling himself towards the pair- though not with menace, more like with... Intrigue. "Although I simply must know why it is you're here now, Doctor Alphys. After all, I thought you were busy with the Royal Guardswoman. Quite the scandal there-" He says with a teasing tone, causing the dinosaur to get flustered and blush profusely, yet she manages to find her footing.

"I-Its nothing, I-I w-was just h-helping her get m-medical attention after her fight!" Alphys replies with a flustered tone to her voice, noticing the camera now focusing on her and quickly turning her face away to avoid letting her blush be seen, and Monika notices that while she does that her hands slowly move towards the bomb, directing some kind of... Cellphone at the device. She found that a little odd but shrugged it off, maybe it just looked like a cellphone.

"Oh? Is that all then? The lovely nurse charms the brutish guard with her medical expertise?" He asks her, and Monika notes that even if he is teasing her its in a more... Friendly way. They must know each other somehow... And since Alphys is a scientist...

"Hey, why are you taking this from him?" Monika asks with her own smug tone, noticing that as Alphys pulls her hands back together the bomb stops its ticking. As well as noticing that Alphys looks over at her with a surprised expression as she starts speaking. "After all, he's your robot. Isn't there an off switch somewhere?" As she spoke, one hand moved to her hip while the other directed her toy knife towards the robot in a manner that was meant to be intimidating, as well as evocative of the pose she'd often take when explaining things to others. She wasn't entirely sure how she felt about revoking his right to free choice and shutting him down... But in this case she'll make an exception since he did just try to kill her... Twice. Besides, she has an odd feeling that the computer turning off in her and Player's worlds isn't quite the same as it would be for the robot's AI. Especially since he's friends with his creator and would be able to just... Ask her not to put him into a hellish void whenever its time to deactivate.
Her face falls at her thoughts for just a moment, although only Player can see it as Mettaton chuckles nervously, catching Alphys' attention as he mimes tugging at his collar- clearly, she made a good point.

"Ah ha ha! W-well then, it seems like our guest is trying to jump the gun just a tad! After all, the only switch on me is one I'm saving for a Special Occasion." Mettaton says, backing away from Alphys just in case. "Besides, it seems that our show is concluded for now! Doctor Alphys was able to intervene in time, otherwise the bomb would have gone off several seconds ago!" He chuckles, moving further and further away from the pair before glancing up with his entire body, causing Monika to follow his "gaze" and see another cavern above them. "Well then, ta-ta for now beauties! We really should have a full segment without interruptions next time, Human. I think it would be most beneficial for us both to have some one on one time~" He says this part with a tone somewhere between threatening and flirtatious.

In response, Monika gets an idea. Maybe playing to the cameras in this case could help her case. After all, if enough people were watching she could possibly convince them to relent a bit, making it easier for her to win or avoid battles. "Unfortunately for you, I'm spoken for." She says, playing things up for the cameras. "So I'll have to decline that offer unless you intend on taking me up for a walk on the Surface."

"Well, funny you should mention that-" Mettaton says before cutting himself off with a chuckle. "Ah, but that's a discussion for another segment. See you next time, beauty!"

Mettaton's legs fold in and transform into a single rocket booster which shoots himself into the air and up into the next cavern, leaving Monika and Alphys alone for the time being.

Monika looked over towards the woman who seemed relieved at first before shifting immediately to flustered once again as she realizes that Monika was now looking at her.
"O-Oh wow, I-I didn't think- You're so- up close-" She keeps cutting herself off and stuttering, obviously incredibly nervous.

Monika immediately switched gears, reverting to her more kind and gentle- her truer- personality and offering her a kind smile. "Thanks for the help back there. I was in a lot of trouble. Glad you came in when you did otherwise I might've decided to slice the wire, and that could have ended pretty badly for me." She says with a bit of a light chuckle. Offering the woman her hand, she adds- "I'm Monika, its nice to meet you Doctor Alphys."

Alphys, still flustered, manages to take her hand with a sweaty palm, shaking it quickly. A bit of disgust crosses her mind as she feels just how sweaty the other woman's palm is, but Monika pushes that away. She's obviously incredibly nervous and it's not right to judge her for something like that... Still, she can't help but to feel a bit grossed out, and briefly wonders if her own hands are slick with sweat in any way from the heat- and is relieved to find that her other palm is sweat free.

Despite her sweaty palms, Alphys seems like a nice person, so Monika doesn't plan on treating her any differently than she would anyone else.

Well actually, she will treat her with a few extra kid gloves on. After all she still seems kind of flustered and almost embarrassed, pulling her hand away after a slightly too long handshake and scratching her chin awkwardly.

"W-Wow, y-you... Your hair is just like how it is in my anime!" Alphys manages to stammer out at last. "I-I didn't think it was r-really like that on the Surface! I g-guess I underestimated how similar h-humans were to their animated media!" She's very excited, which Monika finds endearing, however...

Monika is confused for a moment, but it hits her pretty quickly. Her world had been styled after Japanese Dating Sims, which in and of themselves were anime-like in their design. Therefore, her design was probably evocative of anime girls. Which of course led her to question how this woman knew about such things, but she shrugged that off for now.
The major point was that Alphys seemed to think that she was in some way similar to anime girls.

And technically she wasn't wrong about that assessment.

This thought brought out a small chuckle from Monika's lips, and she took a moment to glance back at Player who was not meeting her gaze, already knowing what she was thinking. She had guessed it sometime ago, but her darling being an anime fan was a bit comedic given their situation.

"Well... Thanks I guess? I wasn't ever really an anime or a manga reader, although one of my friends was very avid about reading a particular manga. I can't remember which one though..." She trailed off. She allowed Natsuki to keep her manga in the Club Room (although realistically that would have been up to the teacher in charge of the club- another fact that probably should have clued her in to the nature of her world a lot sooner) since the girl had been so adamant that it was, in fact, literature, but she'd hardly ever gotten a chance to look at the manga volumes.

"Huh... You know dear, I'm kind of curious..." Player interjects. "I know I don't usually ask stuff like this from you but can you ask her about Parfait Girls?" He asks, floating around herself and Monika. His face was mostly featureless as always, but there was a small tilt to his head, betraying his curiosity.

"It was called-"

"Mew Mew Kissy Cutie?!" The excited scientist said, perking up at the idea that her favorite anime might be mentioned, or so Monika surmised based on just how excited she'd become. It was common for people to speak in higher pitches when they were speaking about a topic they were particularly passionate about.

"Er no, actually its called Parfait Girls, have you heard of it?" She asked, choosing to brush off the... weird names of these anime and manga. Seriously, do these game devs (or, assuming this isn't all a simulation, manga authors) all need to name their manga strangely? Monika had read a number of actual novels, and their titles were far less... Embarrassing than these were.

Alphys shook her head in response to her question, looking a bit disappointed as she did. Either from the fact that they weren't able to bond over her favorite anime or at herself for not recognizing the one that Monika offered.

Seeing her look, she smiled sweetly and shook her head. "Its fine, I guess you and my friend must like different authors. It happens. Maybe if you ever met you'd get the chance to compare and contrast the-"

Thunder ruptured the air, cutting her off. Looking to her right, Monika was able to see the next cavern up had a shadow moving through it.
'Crap, Undyne!' She swore at herself internally, realizing that in all of the commotion she'd forgotten about the Royal Guardswoman, and now she was free!

"Well, it was nice talking to you, but I really have to get-"

Monika had started walking, briskly trying to evade the Fish Monster as well as she could, but Alphys grabbed her hand. "W-wait! I-I can help you out with U-Undyne..." She blushed a bit when she realized that she was holding her hand and quickly retracted it. "J-Just hide really quick behind the bomb! Just like with Sans, I-I can throw her off the trail and even help you out! ...I-If you'd let me, I mean. Its fine if you want to do it your way."

Monika might have protested if she had the ability to, but given that she could see Undyne on her approach now, the Club President shook her head. There wasn't time to make any other options on this one.

"Sure! Thanks a lot, Alphys! I'm counting on you!" She said, crouching down behind the bomb, and Alphys' eyes widened.

As Undyne came into the room, Monika vaguely heard Alphys mutter "counting on me..." a number of times before the Royal Guard stepped up...


Author's note: There probably won't be one on Monika's birthday for the first time since ever due to just how long it really takes me to write these, and the fact that my schedule and writers block is seriously killing me, so instead please accept this (marginally later) Undertale Anniversary gift instead!

My my, it is really quite fortuitous that Undertale and DDLC both dropped in the same month, isn't it? Yes indeed, September 15th and 22nd respectively (which also happens to be Monika's birthday~!).

In any case, today I'm kind of dealing with a bout of tiredness so I'm going to get these reviews and then I'm gonna be finished if that's alright with all of you. Happy Undertale anniversary and (if you're reading this on Monika Day) happy birthday Monika!

Now then...

setokayba2n: Well, managed to reach the last chapter, and good to see the change with Mettaton and Undyne, even if I'm not sure how she managed to stay in the area, and too bad Monika did not meet the Temmie or a certain old turtle

Me: I'm pretty sure she did meet the Temmies at least, or in a minor scene with them. Its a bit hard to remember since I've been writing these for years and years now so a lot of the information is faded to the back of my mind, but I'm pretty sure there was a scene involving them.
Though if you are right, its nothing to worry about. I'm sure she'll get the chance to see the Temmies soon.

As for Gerson, we'll have to wait and see.

setokayba2n (chapter 13): In chapter 13, it seemed too short, half of the chapter was only the chapter, the other half was answering reviews (not that it's bad, but make the chapter look short)

Me: That's unfortunately true. When I started writing these I had this issue where I'd only write a very small number of words (1-2k) and then padding the rest with review time. I've hopefully gotten better at that.

ZombieSlayers: It's been a while but I'm glad I came back. This story is really good.

Me: I'm glad you're still enjoying it! Sorry that these chapters take so long to get out, I'm doing the best I can do to keep some kind of consistent schedule with this and my other works, but often writers block or just plain ole exhaustion knocks me out before I can do much, leading to instances like this where it took me two weeks to finish this.

Guest: Did you know that Pink actually means Fear (or is that just a Glitchtale thing?)

Me: That's only a Glitchtale thing. In MoniTale Pink is the SOUL trait reserved for Passion

Gaming to the Max: Interesting direction, though I assume that Monika will eventually encounter alphys? Since otherwise they wouldn't have access to yellow soul mode nor would they know to turn mettaton around.

Me: Well as you can see, they have met, albeit in a more roundabout way since Alphys wasn't going to pass up the chance to play a role in the Human's life, although she was going to tend to Undyne's battle damage first.

Alright, that's everything.

But
Before I go, I want to try something new.

IF you enjoyed my work here on MoniTale and want to experience more of my in-depth character writing as well as have something to tide you over for a bit until the next chapter can come out, might I interest you in some of my other works? Defrost is a good one, even if you're not a fan of DBZ I'm sure you'll still get something out of the effort put in to turning one of Anime's most popular and evil villains into something approximating a good person.

If and if not, then, as always

Until Next Time True Readers!