*insert your regularly scheduled apology for being late here*

But seriously, I'm sorry I always take so long. Feel free to yell at me in a PM if a month goes by without a chapter.

Anyway, let's get to reviews!

DragonKnight Shaun: Thanks for the feedback! I get that Sweet Mask has been a bit OOC for quite a bit of this story. I'm still trying to figure out how to write him correctly. Hopefully this chapter does a better job of that. I also do plan on going through and editing the story once it's written to completion. I may even completely redo some chapters from scratch.

Memelord2000: Thanks man! Glad you're enjoying! This story is definitely getting finished, and then I'm going to move on to the One Punch Man plot.

Reviews are always appreciated. Now, on with the story!

"Man, it really is hot around here."

"It's called HOTLAND, Badd, what did you expect?"

"I dunno, summer heat?"

Zenko slapped her forehead in exasperation. "Your stupidity astounds me sometimes big bro."

"I'm gonna choose to ignore that."

Seito and Badd's pockets buzzed for the umpteenth time since they had left Alphys' lab.

Seito snatched his phone out of his pocket, his eyes red with annoyance. "That's it! I'm turning off notifications!"

"Is she seriously still texting? I've just kinda tuned it out."

Seito slowly looked over to Badd, his eye twitching. "YES."

"Wow. She's even worse than the girls at my high school."

Chara snickered at Seito's exasperation. "I know she's supposed to be a scientist, but she really is a nerd."

"It's been half a fucking hour."

"Really? Wow. She has a problem."

Badd chuckled, walking for a few more steps before stopping abruptly.

"Shit!"

"Huh? What is it bro?"

"I totally forgot to talk to Alphys about the artifact!"

"Oh yeah. Gaster did say that she would be able to help us with that. One of us should call her, and it's not going to be me."

Badd rolled his eyes. "Save the drama for your talk show pretty boy. I'll call her, just a sec."

The hero reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, calling the scientist.

Ring...Ring... "U-uh, hello?"

"Hey Alph, I just remembered that there was something I needed to talk to you about. Is there somewhere that you could meet up with us?"

"W-well, why can't we t-talk about it over t-the phone?"

"It's something we need your help with in person. Someone said that you were the only person who could do what we need you to."

"...Oh, oh gosh. W-well, I could m-meet up with you guys at MTT resort if you w-want. If you're heading to t-the core, then you'll h-have to pass through there a-anyway."

"...Kay cool. One more thing. Could you stop posting so many status updates? It's getting kind of annoying."

"...Oh yeah, I d-did add you g-guys to my contact l-list didn't I? Oh god. How much did you see?"

"Eh, I stopped checking after about your third post."

A long sigh escaped the other end of the line. "Thank GOD. I-I'll stop posing as m-much If it's b-bothering you."

"Thanks a mil Alph!"

"H-hey, If you need any h-help with any of the puzzles you encounter, g-give me a c-call, okay?"

"Sure thing. See ya."

Badd hung up, pocketing his phone.

"MTT resort. The robot has a fucking resort. As if he couldn't get any more pompous."

"OHH! Tem has never been to a resort! Tem Wants to go!"

Badd sighed at Temmie's overexitedness. "We'll have to go there regardless. The core's behind it, and Alphys is meeting us there."

"Can we spend the night when we get there bro? I'm getting kind of tired."

"Definitely not. I'm not spending any money at a place run by that rolling nokia."

Seito rolled his eyes. "And you were calling ME dramatic. I'll pay Zenko."

"Yay!"

Badd huffed. "You're not the one who was made a fool on live television."

"You made a fool of yourself Badd."

Badd whipped out his bat, looking at Seito menacingly. "You saying you coulda solved those problems huh? That thing was rigged!"

"If you had payed a bit more attention, you would have realized that Alphys was giving us the answers."

Badd blinked. "...Dammit."

Zenko laughed at her big brother's expense as the group continued onward. Eventually they came to a strange area. There was steam coming out of pipes, which were stationed on multiple islands around a lake of lava.

"Jesus. This looks more like a death trap than a puzzle! One wrong step and you're going for a hot swim!"

Seito looked at the lava. "I'd rather not find out if I can survive magma. We should be careful here."

Badd looked at his little sister. "Zenko, grab onto my shoulders and hold on tight."

Zenko gulped. "Y-yep. Sure! Temmie, Hold on!"

Zenko climbed up onto Badd's shoulders. Once he was sure his sister was latched onto him tight enough, he took a running jump, using the steam coming out of the pipes to propel him.

"AAAAH!/UWAAAA!"

Temmie and Zenko, needless to say, were not enjoying the life or death situation they were in. Badd wasted no movement, jumping from island to island until they made it safety across the lava lake.

Zenko slid off of Badd, clutching her chest.

"I vote that we.. never do that-huff-again."

"T-Temmie seconds!"

Seito caught up to them a couple of seconds after they made it across.

"That was... An unpleasant experience."

"Oh come on! It wasn't that bad!"

Everyone, including Temmie, gave Badd a very unamused stare.

"Badd, your nonchalance about staring potential death in the face never ceases to amaze me."

"That's big bro's entire hero gimmick, it gets pretty annoying worrying about him."

Badd gave a lighthearted laugh. "Come on! If you don't face a threat head on, then you're not really a hero!"

Seito scoffed. "There's far more to being a hero than that, though I suppose you're technically right."

As they turned the corner, they found that the path was blocked by a myriad of lasers.

"...Are you serious?"

"Man, Hotland really likes to make their puzzles deadly."

Badd groaned. "Guess I'll call Alphys."

Ring... Ring... Ring... "H-hello? Alphys here."

"Hey Alph. We kinda got a bit of a problem with a bunch of lasers blocking our way."

"O-oh. Well, They're actually p-pretty easy to g-get past when you know w-what you're doing. The orange ones only hurt you if you're s-standing still, and the blue ones only hurt if you're m-moving."

"Oh, cool. Thanks."

Badd hung up the phone, looking back over to the lasers with slight annoyance.

"If these are gonna keep showing up, I'll just run through em eventually."

Zenko rolled her eyes. "You have no patience Badd."

"Patience is for the weak! Now come on!"

Badd started moving through the laser field, the others following close behind. It took a couple of minutes, but they eventually made it through harm free.

"Yeah, we run into those again and I'm just running through em."

Zenko and Seito rolled their eyes, but didn't say anything.

Moving forward a bit longer, they came across yet another roadblock. A giant metal door was blocking the path forward.

"...Yeah that's it."

Instead of trying to find out how to open it, Badd just walked up and smashed the door in with his bat, much to the shock of the monsters who were stuck there.

"Whoa! How'd you do that?!"

"Did you seriously just bust that reinforced door up with a bat?!"

"You must be crazy strong!"

"Yeah! Now we can finally get to work!"

All of the monsters ran past Badd, thanking or praising him as they went.

"Uh, no problem?"

Badd's phone buzzed. He looked at it to find out that Alphys was calling him.

"Yo, what's up?"

"T-the signal to one of the security doors just w-went out! W-what's going on over t-there?!"

Badd blanched. "Um, I may or may not have gotten frustrated and smashed it?"

"..."

"..."

"A... Titanium door, and you smashed it?"

"Hey, if it's that important, I'll find a way to pay you back for it."

"N-no, It's fine. I can get a-another one pretty e-easy, I'm just shocked t-that you were able to do t-that. ...Are all p-professional heroes t-that strong?"

"What? No, definitely not. I'm class S, which means I'm one of the best. Don't worry, very few humans can do that."

"Y-yeah, ok. I'll h-have to watch t-the security tape l-later, just to s-see what happened."

"Yeah, ok. I'll call if I need anything? kay? see ya."

"Y-yeah... bye."

Badd hung up, finding Badd and Zenko glaring at him. Chara just looked more impressed than anything.

"So Badd, how much was that door worth?"

"Relax. Alphys said she can replace it no problem."

"Still, you shouldn't just smash everything down here. Who knows what's important and what's not?"

"Fine, fine. I'll be more...Ugh, careful."

Seito dropped his glare, looking beyond the door.

Well, lets advance then, there's no reason to stick around here.

After walking a while longer, Badd's phone buzzed again.

"...Undyne? What's she want?"

"YO! What's up nerds! How are ya?"

"Uh, fine? What's up? you need somethin?"

"Fuhuhuhu! Nah, I just want to see how your meeting with Alphys went! Put me on speaker! I wanna talk to the kid and pretty boy too!"

Badd did as such, calling the others over.

"So! what'dya think of her?"

"Alphys? Well she's pretty nervous around us."

"Fuhuhuhu! That's how she is around everyone! Seriously, I keep telling her to get out more."

"Yeah. Well, she's been pretty helpful so far. She's helped us through a couple puzzles, and she did help us out when that crazy robot made us participate in his stupid game show."

"Hah! Wait, you met Mettaton? Man, I feel bad for you. He came over with Alphys to my place once. All he did was lay on my piano and eat grapes. I don't really like that guy, but I can admire his lifestyle."

"Wow... That guys weirder than I thought."

"WOWIE! ARE YOU GUYS TALKING ABOUT METTATON?! I'M HIS BIGGEST FAN!"

"Haha! Hey Papyrus."

"HUMANS! DID I HEAR THAT RIGHT?! YOU MET METTATON? I'M SO JEALOUS!"

Badd looked beyond disappointed, so Seito decided to take over the conversation.

"Yes we did. He had us on his game show."

"DRAT! I CAN'T BELIEVE I MISSED IT! LUCKILY, I RECORD EVERY ONE OF HIS SHOWS, SO I'LL BE SURE TO WATCH IT! IN FACT, I'LL DO SO RIGHT NOW!"

Papyrus' voice faded out, and Undyne chuckled. "But seriously, be nice to Alphys, ok? Her self esteem is... not the highest. I don't get it! She's a super cool nerd! She had so much to be proud of!"

Zenko giggled. "Sounds like you and Alphys are pretty close huh?"

"You bet! We've been best friends for years!"

"Still, the way you talk about her so passionately, are you sure there's not MORE to your relationship?"

"W-what?! O-of course not! Are you suggesting I love her?! Cuz I definitely don't! Even if she's super cute when she blushes... or when she gushes about her human documentaries... I gotta go!"

Click.

Chara and Zenko cracked up, while Seito just shook his head. Badd was still sulking at learning that Papyrus was a fan of what was probably his second least favorite monster, only beaten out by that stupid weed.

"HAHAH! It's priceless how they both deny their clear crush on each other! Man, I haven't laughed like that in a while!"

"Hahaha! Yeah! You know, as funny as it is, I do hope they eventually confess to each other. They'd make such a cute couple!"

Temmie looked at Zenko confused.

"Tem doesn't get the joke."

After Chara and Zenko calmed down, Seito got Badd's attention, and they carried on.

Turning a corner, they walked onto what was a very odd site.

"...What?"

"A... Kitchen?"

Suddenly, a figure started slowly rising from behind a counter.

"No... Dear god no."

"OOOOOH YESSS!"

Badd's eye started twitching, looking at what was in his opinion the biggest annoyance of this entire journey.

"Mettaton."