Those that didn't fully recognize Justin, Verena, Ace, Lizzie, Richard, and Lisa, they were in my very first UT story, 'Our Own Route'. This time they're back, they're stronger, half of them are monsters...and they're significantly less friendly. Though there's a reason for this.
It's not a happy one.
There will be a full explanation on this later, but right now the gang is trying to subdue them safely, while minding their less hesitant allies. The allies that really don't mind widespread destruction of the city...
Chapter Start!
Asgore was much quicker to snap himself out of his stupor than Toriel, which is what allowed him to swiftly jump in front of her and manifest his trident. He them managed to deflect a few of Lizzie's glowing blue knives with a few well-timed swings, each of them shattering in a fashion akin to glass breaking. The other enemies were throwing blue knives as well. He deflected them all via spinning his trident faster, each of them shattering further before disappearing completely. Though a few of them generated knives that punctured through the ground, causing him to jump back slightly. He was staying vigilant, though it wasn't as easily done with Toriel still in shock.
This is unbelievable...we're really being attacked like this? In the middle of the day, no less! It's truly a good thing that we've already dismissed nearly everyone else, or we would have had an even bigger crisis. Asgore thought while he deflected another barrage of blue knives, swinging his trident horizontally while looking back towards Toriel. But Tori is in shock, and Linda and the others are still in the building...golly, this day isn't going to be pleasant after all...
Sans was quick to assist Asgore, seeing as multiple bones shot towards the enemies ahead of him, not willing to waste too much time with them. They prepared themselves for the attack, though Richard manifested a shield around them to protect them from the projectiles. Lizzie immediately follows this with multiple blue knives shooting towards him, in which he swiftly moves out of the way before they could hit him. His eye sockets narrowed as a cyan light glowed within them. cheeky brats...they know what they're doing. Having all the other intruders distracting him wasn't serving to be a very good situation, either. He was quick to pick to pick up that they were each being attacked in moments they didn't expect, in which it would not be easy for them to get into contact with one another and try to prevent civilian casualties. They would be given very little time to breathe.
If what they say is true, then Lisa is definitely behind the planning of this. Purple souls tend to be very skilled at planning.
Lizzie was gazing towards Sans while the former kept generating knives from all directions, while she hand one in her hand. It extended long enough to be considered a sword as she slowly advanced upon him, while he casually stepped back down a hallway. "Sans. Older and shorter twin brother of Papyrus. Laziest monster is also the most pragmatic and irony isn't lost on me."
"ya don't seem to care much about what you're doin', bud." Sans said while dodging more cyan blue knives trying to slice at him. In his haste to avoid the barrage of knives, he's been separated from the others, which was quite troublesome for him. Lizzie responded by slashing at him horizontally, in which he dodged by bending backwards. Several lockers have been sliced in half as a result, which Sans whistled a bit nervously at. "sheesh. ya seriously cutting it close with those blue knives..."
"Your jokes are stale." This hurtful insult was followed by Lizzie actively jumping forth and slashing at Sans, very nearly slashing his chest. He barely dodged, but a part of his jacket was cut in the process. He hesitated a bit because even though she was an enemy, Toriel still very much cared for her, which explained her hock in the other room. Still, Sans won't stand around and let her hit him. So he was qucik to throw a barrage of bones her way. Though he was slightly surprised as the bones were easily slashed apart by the opposing barrage of knives. A wall of bones separated them as she leapt towards him, though he mentally cursed as she effortlessly slashes through the wall and a bit of his shirt. She almost cut his ribs, though he swiftly threw her down the hall with telekinesis when he turned her soul a darker blue. She didn't seem bothered by this at all.
"sheesh. that hurts. i actually think i'm pretty funny." Sans sweatdropped while again narrowly dodging a flurry of knives. His eye sockets hollowed and he ducked again, the knives behind him returning to try and impale him from behind, and he backed up again when knives in front of him tried to impale him from below. He began sweating even more as multitudes of knives began manifesting above Lizzie and all of then connected via the handles, and began spinning rapidly like a razor sharp magic saw. ooooooooookay. she definitely wasn't knife manipulation. she absolutely trumps chara in that aspect. no contest whatsoever. Lizzie mentally threw the knife-saw towards Sans, and he teleports away from it completely.
Though he found it both lucky and unlucky that he teleported right back in the middle of the room where Linda and the others were, landing on his back with a grunt. Linda's eyes widened before they narrowed slightly. "Sans? what were you...wait a minute, what happened to you?"
Sans sighed as he got back up quickly, waving his hand and glowing cyan. "sorry, ladies. gonna have to take you outta this building for a bit." Not giving them the time to process the sudden change, Sans teleports them out of the room. Not long after, the very same knife-saw slashed all over the room, cutting most of it with the knives separating and spinning on their own, slashing everything within, and even shattering some of the windows within, but ultimately missed their intended target. Lizzie acknowledged this as she dispelled the glowing knives. She sighed while nonchalantly scratching her head.
"He teleported the remaining civilians to safety...how noble." She noted with a shrug as she turned around and made her way back to the gym where Toriel, Asgore, and Gerson remained fighting.
Well...mostly the latter two.
Gerson found himself relatively impressed by Richard's shield abilities. When he swung his hammer towards one of the enemies before him, his shield protected them and it didn't really get a scratch. Of course he wasn't really trying, but it still left the elder fairly surprised. He then found himself pushed back by Richard as he pushed a green sphere at his chest, though he landed on his effortlessly landed on his feet. More balls of green magic were thrown at him, but he learned his lesson and applied more force behind his swings, shattering the energy balls into small green shards that scattered around.
"You're still plenty good at fighting like I was told! Really, it's amazing!" Richard exclaimed, while using another green shield to protect himself against Gerson's hammer strike, which also glowed green. "And we're both using the color green as our energy! That's pretty sweet!"
"Who is your superior, and what on earth have they done to you, boy...?" Gerson responded with a narrowed eye. There was no way the Richard that passed him during his own trek through the Underground would be acting like this. And he was certain he had perished along with the others. And yet they were alve again...something must have happened to him and the others. This one...he seemed to eager to please the one who brought him back. It's like his soul trait has become completely overblown. Never would he had thought that too much kindness would be a bad thing.
Asgore generated a ball of fire in his paw and pushed outwards, burning some of the human magic users within the room. Though he grunted as many blue knives from others pierced his arm while he did so. He easily shrugged it off, but this is one of the times his armor might be incredibly useful. He deflected other knives, as well as multiple green shards sent from Richard. He growled at the slight difficulty, and managed a powerful swing in an uninterrupted arc, blowing them back from the sheer force. He took the distraction as he turned around and grabbed Toriel's shoulders.
"Tori? Tori!"
"Why...why are they...?" Toriel mumbled, still dazed on the issue with Richard and Lizzie, which was understandable. One of her darker thoughts have been brought back up with this unexpected encounter. They've been revived for the purpose of tearing things apart for the Dreemurrs and those within it. She also considered that this might be some type of retribution. Her selflessness has lead to their deaths...they might desire revenge on her. Because even though Asgore ordered their deaths, they were for the good of their people. Toriel...just lead them walk away, knowing that they would die without her protection. Now seeing two of them alive and well, as well as determined to kill her and ruin Ebott...despite that...she didn't want to hurt them.
She didn't know what to do.
"Tori, I need you to look at me! This is not the time to be frozen up!" Asgore tried to be firm, but was briefly distraction by a storm of knives raining down on them from above. Asgore wrapped his arms around Toriel and jumped out of the way, allowing them to stab through the ground. Lizzie walked up to them, multiple blue knives hanging over her head.
"What's the matter, Toriel. Are you feeling unwell?" Lizzie said, tilting her head in mock curiosity. "You seem surprised to see us. Dreadfully so. Even though it's been six years, it's nice to know you've been thinking about us...even though it might have been in your nightmares."
"Ngh..." Toriel whimpered, holding her paws up to her ears.
Asgore shook his head as he fired another ball of flames towards one of the humans throwing more magic knives at him and his wife. A shield of flames soon formed around him on his command as Gerson swung his hammer at them, sending a shockwave that sent them back into the walls once again. "Lizzie, cease this assault! Can you not see how much pain you're causing with your words and actions?!"
"I'm not really obligated to care." Lizzie shrugged. She then held her hand out again as a knife in her hand extending into a sword again. It then levitates above her and spun towards Asgore, foricing him to deflect the slash with parries of his trident. He gritted his teeth as some were too fast to parry, and he got numerous cuts on his chest as a result.
"What about when we last saw each other?! What about your forgiveness?! Have you suddenly forgotten all of that?!"
"It's not that. Just that one's thoughts can change when their soul is forcibly pulled from the afterlife. And our thoughts towards you didn't turn for the positive." Lizzie responded coldly.
"It's no use, Asgore! They're under heavy influence!" Gerson shouted, ducking under a barrage of knives and swinging his hammer as Richard sent a green magic wall towards him, managing to turn it back on him. He dispelled it simply enough, however. Whoever revived them made sure to put them through some serious reconditioning...I've seen this kind of behavior from Richard before...foolhardy blind loyalty to their leader...
Richard smiled as multiple green force bullets shot towards them, but Gerson was there to deflect most of them via hammer, and with expert timing even sent a few of them back to the sender. He once again dispelled them easily enough. "Our superior says that we cause as much destruction as we can...I wonder if something like this will do for him..." He says as one particular bit of energy expanded, and turned into a Clean Pan. Asgore was puzzled at first, until he saw green fire slowly growing within it. And once Richard deemed it large enough, he launched it forward towards the wall, creating a medium sized green-flamed explosion that took out a significant portion of the gym.
Asgore's eyes widened once he realized what he was doing.
"RICHARD! DON'T DO THIS!" Asgore and Gerson attempted to stop him, but multiple blue knives from Lizzie and the other humans kept them from advancing very far. Richard smiled as his pan generated more extremely volatile green flames, as well as most of the green soul humans among them. Asgore could try to dispell it, but coupled with the distractions from Lizzie and her own platoon, that was not going to happen.
Difficult choices had to be made. Toriel and Gerson came first.
Sans was meanwhile outside with the other four women, attempting to placate them on what's going on as well as keeping an eye out for any more enemies. Though he knew something was wrong when he sensed a rather strong concentration of magic energy gathering within the gym. And moments later, a large explosion of green flames engulfs the a majority of the school, bring most of it down on itself. Green smoke rose up into the skies, and the wreckage spreads out a bit with slight smoke trails. Sans' eye sockets darkened at the sight.
Though he was relieved to see that Asgore suddenly landed right in front of them, a rainbow flamed shield shaped like a sphere surrounding them. Asgore sighed as he allows the shield to fall, as well as setting Toriel and Gerson down in their feet. The former slowly gazed at the remains of the school, her eyes dulled in disbelief.
She couldn't bring herself to form words. The school building she was entrusted with, which is supposed to be a safe learning haven for human and monster children, has been destroyed in such a destructive manner, without a care in the world. Richard, Lizzie, and the human mages walked out ot the wreckage, protected by a green shield. They didn't seem very bothered by Toriel's distress. Enough was enough.
And very soon, the four monsters souls began flashing rainbow for a few brief moments, before eventually returning to normal. Their magic began to surge off their bodies.
"Tori told everyone that it was her dream to be a teacher...and that this was her big chance..." Asgore began, the heat around him increasing intensely, along with rainbow flames covering his body and trident.
"she's worked her amazing ass off to make the best of this opportunity..." Sans snarled, both of his eyes generating a bright cyan light as both bones and telekinetic power gathered around him.
"And you destroy the institution that is supposed to be a safe learning haven for young monsters and humans alike...the institution she was entrusted with preserving..." Gerson growled, the ground beneath him cracking slightly as his hammer glowed, shifting from green to gold.
Toriel opened her eyes as her paws lit on fire, her hesitation quickly burning away. "...I am sorry, children. But it seems you are willing to endanger innocent life for the vendetta you seem to have against me, my co-workers, and my loved ones. If you are truly determined to continue with this course of action, then I have no choice. I will stop you." Toriel didn't forget about Linda and the others, either. They were still her responsibility despite the current events.
She'll definitely keep them safe.
(Meanwhile...)
Chara found himself in a rather delicate situation, glaring at the hostiles ahead of him. He did however, wish that two of the hostiles in front of him weren't so familiar to him and Frisk; Lisa and Justin were opposing them and helping the others cause chaos in Ebott. There was no mistaking that unlike the first two times, this was an outright attack on the city itself. Undyne for one didn't forget either of those times, either. And unlike those other two times, she wasn't willing to let such an offense go so easily. She could tell through the malevolent intent within their souls, they were going to be completely unrelenting. There was no doubt that they meant great levels of harm towards the city.
Not gonna fly. She was one of Ebott's protectors, and she was going to protect both it and it's citizens. Not even the monsters are getting off the hook for their hostility.
Though she was taking cover behind a yellow techno-magical force-field that Alphys immediately conjured up for her friends as the attackers began firing multiple streams of magic bullets towards them. Alphys glared while wincing slightly, though she managed to hold her ground for the moment as she turned her head towards Mettaton. "Mettaton! Do me a solid and prioritize civilian safety!" Metatton readily nodded as he turned away from the main battle to properly guide civilians away from it, helping them ease their concerns somewhat. Though they still had more pressing matters to attend to, such as the ones currently attacking them.
Which Frisk currently didn't understand why. Chara simply did not care. Lisa slowly tightened her purple chains around Frisk and pulled him swiftly towards her and Justin's side. Chara narrowed his eyes and followed him, but she blocked him off by one of her other magic traps activating, a erupting wall of fire separating them from one another. How many of these did she set in advance? she couldn't have planned THAT far ahead...unless most of these are only aimed at me...
"I'm sorry, Frisk...but I'm afraid this is for your own good." Lisa mumbled apologetically while loosening the magic chains around Frisk, though not enough to allow him space to free himself. "Believe me, I don't like how this is panning out, either."
"Lisa...I'm more worried about how you and Justin are alive? And as monsters..." Frisk said, having already seen their monster forms. Their current human forms are only illusions placed by her. Illusions that'll stick until she says otherwise, most likely. "Why are you doing this? If you came back to life, then why are you helping these people attack us..?"
"It's...it's complicated..."
"No it isn't Lisa." Justin reprimanded her harshly, his weapon still trained on the glaring Chara. "They are the enemy, Frisk is better off without them, and them keeping Chara alive is a mistake. There isn't anything else they need to know."
"Really? That's what you have to say, Justin?" Chara said crossly. "But of course if you had to come back, you'd point your magic gun towards me. With the 'Justice' soul and all. Though if I were to be completely honest, you're being rather extreme with your methods right now." This was ignored as Justin's gun fired an extended beam of yellow magic, which Chara dodged easily. "I'm curious too! Why are you doing this? Surely those reasons you listed can't be the only ones, even though I remember what you said six years ago. I've been a decent person ever since!"
What...? While she too was hiding behind the field that Alphys was putting up to protect from the many magic bullets, she didn't miss a single bit of the exchange. it seems that Frisk and Chara knew about these two, and they seem to harbor a particular disdain for Chara. For Justin it's much more noticable. Why would that be? Unfortunately she didn't have much time to ponder it with the current attack going on. She narrowed all five of her eyes as she eventually decided that sitting around wasn't going to help progress things, so she chose to take action. When the others were properly distracted by going after Chara, she slipped out of sight.
Undyne and Alphys decided to turn things around. Alphys adjusted her force-field so that the magic bullets would be reflected instead of absorbed. Most of them were returned to sender, knocking most of the offenders over. Undyne gritted her teeth and jammed the butt of her spear into the ground. "You all are seriously testing our patience! Ebott's been attacked twice already! The second time you deliberately went after my girlfriend! And now you're doing an outright assault?! You're askin' for it now!" With this loud declaration, multiple spears manifested over her head and all of them shot towards their targets. All of them were quick to catch n though, and they dodged the spears quickly while shooting more magic bullets towards her and Alphys. Alphys swiftly puts her shield back up, though not before a few of the shots grazed Undyne's arms and legs. She pushed through it while raising her hand; multiple spears rose from the ground and attempting to pierce their arms in order to disarm them. They managed to briefly avoid that as well, then resume shooting at their targets. Undyne again gritted her teeth as more magic bullets grazed her.
They knew what they were doing.
Unfortunately for them, so did Muffet.
"Peeeeek-a-boo~" Muffet reappeared from behind a few of them, and tugged on a web attached to all of their feet, tripping them over and making them land hard on their faces. "Ahuhuhu!~ Tripped you up, didn't I?~ Sucks to be y-" Muffet was immediately blindsided by a yellow explosion that sent her sprawling across the ground, eventually landing on her face herself. She groaned as she managed to sit up on her knees and rub her aching head. "Owwwie...I suppose I should be paying more attention...hm?" Muffet muttered while looking up, only to come face to face with the barrel of Justin's gun. Her only reaction to this was to blink owlishly and tilt her head. "Oh...this is a bit of a predicament. Hm."
"Muffet. You have played quite a hand in allowing Chara to continue his atrocities. A very significant hand. All six of them." Justin stated with glowing yellow eyes. "You're not getting off for easily letting him by. You'll be joining him in his death."
"Hey! That's not fair!" Muffet pouted, thrusting her arms downward. "Sure the two of us have caused our fair share of trouble, but they could hardly be called outright atrocities!"
Justin was about to correct her, until he was unceremoniously punched in the face, feeling it crack slightly as he was sent skidding backwards. He lifted his head and adjusted his hat, greeted with the sight of a dangerously angry Chara. "I'm gonna give you ONE chance to piss off from taking that route, Justin." He snarled. He was able to fend off most of the attackers that surrounded him, but Muffet could see the damage. There was quite a bit of blood streaming from a harsh wound on his forehead. Yet he didn't look one bit bothered by it.
Justin was unafraid, glaring back at Chara while his gun stayed poised on him. "Why should I? Are you going to attempt to stop me? She deserves execution just as much as you do."
"I'M the only one you should have a vendetta with, Justin. I'M the one who's got the most sins on his back. I'M your real enemy in this little siege of yours. Compared to me, Muffet is innocent." Chara voiced angrily while swiping his single arm to the side. "So do me a favor, Justin, keep all vendetta's between us, and ONLY between us. She has nothing to do with this, and neither does my family. Keep them out of this or there WILL be hell to pay! Got that?!"
Chara...? Muffet mentally wondered, confused by his words.
Justin was unfazed by Chara's threats, simply aiming his gun towards him and shot multiple magic bullets his way. Chara was even quicker to grab Muffet and jump out of the way, as the bullets pierced through a building behind them. To heir concern, the building immediately collapses in on itself a few moments after, signifying how strong the shots were. Chara gently sets Muffet down while his hand conjures a ball of black fire, and throws it towards Justin. One of the other attackers countered the blast with multiple shots of their own, dissipating the fireball. Chara was quickly irritated by this, lunging at Justin and proceeding to punch him across the face. He skids back from the blow, but was still adamant, shooting more magic bullets at Chara. Every one of them were dodged, merely grazing him a couple times.
The three cloaked humans watching the entire exchange shared looks of amusement at Chara's resistance, as well as hidden disgust.
He's still as unstable as ever, just as they described him.
Indeed...always so emotional, it seems. Nothing's changed.
Was there ever any doubt that he couldn't?
Undyne snarled while she deflected most shots heading in her direction, while Alphys pitched in again and puts another field up, gritting her teeth. "This...is becoming very tiresome. They're persistent..."
"Their persistence is threatening the city and pissing me off!" Undyne grumbled while she forgoes defense for a few moments as multiple spears generated around her and shot out towards the attackers. A few of them managed to effectively dodge some of them, but most of the spears managed to slice at their legs and sides, briefly bringing a few of them down. She could just barely hear Mettaton over most of the noise, evacuating the citizens to safer areas and placing a protective shield over a large crowd. She narrowed her eye while looking towards the opposition again. She twirled her spear and attempted to continue her attack.
Lisa sighed, shaking her head as she takes out her Magic Notebook/Tome. She whispered a silent apology to Frisk as she gently chants a spell. Undyne's eyes widen as she then saw more purple chains reaching out towards her and Alphys to restrain them. Undyne swiftly sliced most of the chains apart when swiftly shifting to a naginata. Lisa then shakes her head again as she softly chants another spell. From a symbol right above them, purple lightning generating from them and intending to strike them down. Alphys expanded her shield to protect them from the blast, though the strain could clearly be seen on her face.
Frisk turned to Lisa while struggling in his chains. "Please, Lisa! Why are you willingly participating in this?! You can't possibly be okay with this!"
"...It doesn't matter what I want. It's what my superior wants. And I have to follow through..." Lisa said sadly. "And it also means...letting what happens next happen...no matter how much I dislike it..." Frisk was greatly worried about what she meant by this...until he felt the ground shake, as well as the buildings around the group...and soon after, they began crumbling down and completely falling apart, until eventually collapsing. Frisk's worry soon turned into complete disbelief. Not all of them were properly evacuated. The loss of life was felt by all members of the group, an placed all of them in a fit of shock.
N-No...why...?
Alphys heard one of the human attackers chuckle a bit at the devastation. She clenched her fists, and prayed that for whoever the voice belonged to, prayed that it wasn't him, or else she would get dangerously angry very quick. She turned around to see the one responsible...and there he was. The one who attacked her, the one they managed to imprison. That one man was wearing one of the cloaks as well, his hand lightly glowing a faded yellow and black. Yellow lightning generated from her paws as a headpiece connected to her phone levitated out of her pocket via her mind. She had already dialed the person she knew would lend some advice.
"...Did you feel that?"
"...Yeah. Seems like our little guest was busted out by these guys within the confusion...then they had him do something like weakening the foundation of the buildings around you. And you already saw what happened after that." Geno Alphys was on the other side, sounding solemn, and angry. "They're trying to piss you all off, Al. Unfortunately for them, that's going to fail. And you already know why."
"...An angry Alphys is a focused Alphys. And focused Alphys is dangerous." Alphys snarled. More electricity generated from her paw, before she pulled back and throws said paw forward. The resulting blast surprised the opposing side as it goes straight through one of them, knocking them down with more force than usual. Alphys' glasses gleamed as she raised her paw again, clenching it. "Electricty gives me access to Electromagnetism...it can be a pretty versatile power...especially I the paws of someone with a mind like mine...and you just made it very angry..."
"Likewise..." Undyne said lowly, her hair shadowing her eye. "If you lot were just attacking the monsters, I could somewhat understand. But you've just killed plenty of humans as well...you've truly made your intentions clear..." The soul within her chest pulsed with a brief flash of rainbow, before the light dying down. She raised her head, and her eye turned black, with a white pupil slitted with rage. "One last chance. Stand down. Or else Frisk is gonna see me do something he'll be SORELY disapproving of." She raised her hand upwards. Space rippled slightly, generating multiple glowing blue weapons behind her.
Chara was briefly shocked by this atrocious act, before he clenched his fist and turned towards Justin. "You see that, Justin? You think getting rid of me and taking Frisk is going to be worth all of that? Or is it as you said, you simply hate Ebott as a whole? Is that why you don't care?"
Justin stood up and rechared his gun, which was beginning to recharge with magic. "You already know my answer."
"Yeah. I guess I do." Chara said lowly. Soon Muffet would watch the stump that used to be his other arm. Very slowly, a black substance was emitting from the stump, easing from under his poncho like a dark black steam. Justin and the opposing side immediately grew cautious at the dark energy, before it eventually shapeshifted into something. It slowly formed into a sort of claw. A closer glance at the appendage would clear things up; the arm was generated entirely out of black flames. It greatly surprised Frisk to see this, as well as Lisa. Justin was unimpressed, but he was still looking cautious. One fo the other mages tried to cast their magic at Chara from behind, though he swiftly turned around and slashed disagonally, defeating them instantly. Chara's crimson eyes glowed menacingly.
"Too bad for you, I couldn't care less..."
(Meanwhile...)
The Pack were nearby in the park, having spent their time playing with the pup of their group, and were enjoying a relaxing day with her. They then proceeded to allow Red to speak with her friend Asriel, and they've respectfully kept their distance when it seemed that what they were discussing was personal. Their day was going completely fine without any troubles. Until They eventually sensed trouble coming their way anyway, and Parvos was the one who brought it, along with some backup for him. Monsters. Other monsters. Surely one would expect the pack to hesitate. To 'hold back' because they haven't seen other monsters themselves that aren't from Ebott. They might assume that they don't have it in them to attack fellow monsters from outside the city, wanting to satiate their curiosity.
One action from Dogressa was more than enough to prove that theory completely wrong.
"KEEP AWAY FROM MY PUP, FILTH!" Dogressa barked as she swung her axe downwards, slamming it onto the ground and sending some of the monsters flying, aside from the three cloaked ones. She gripped tightly on her axe and prepared to strike at anyone else who got too close, gritting her fangs. The rest of the canines were quite shocked about how quick and how ruthless she was with her retaliation. Though Dogamy was both that, and slightly...excited. Nevertheless, they didn't hesitate to help her fight back against the invading monsters. Dogamy was quick to assist first, standing by Dogressa's side and attacking the monsters as well. They weilded their axes in unison, as some of them were weilding magic similar to the Brave soul, such as enhanced magic punches. Those were defended against with the blunt side of their axes, slightly pushing them back.
Doggo was being rather adept at using his dual swords to deflect the punches the magic enhanced punches that were headed his way. They were moving constantly, so it wasn't too difficult for him to see how and where they were attacking and attack/defend as accordingly as he could. He was even able to deflect one of their punches to actively push them into punching another one down into the ground. One was very close to punching his head off from behind. ice Wolf was very quick to stop that, grabbing that monster by the wrist, lifting them up and tossing them aside into another. He and Doggo nodded to one another as Greater Dog and Lesser Dog were attempting to get whoever else was in the park away as quickly as possible.
Asriel, Red, and Papyrus had their own problems to deal with. Parvos was certainly one of them, as well as a few other monsters and humans around them, which includes Verena and Ace. Papyrus kept the trio's souls blue with his magic so that Verena couldn't directly affect them. This was currently just one small advantage, though. Parvos seemed to be amused by how things were progressing.
Asriel was baffled by Verena's actions, as she was a monster like him. A peacock, strangely. He knew that there was clearly something wrong with her, and Parvos must know something about it. But he couldn't focus on that right now. The owner of the dark blue soul walked towards him as he walked back, a plethora of objects gathering around her and launching themselves at him. Multiple benches, poles, and even entire trees were lifted off the ground and tossed right at him. Asriel was nimble, dodging most of them through jumping and ducking, and reluctantly burning the trees to cinders when they got too close. During the exchange, he didn't try attacking her directly. Not yet.
"Verena! Why are you doing this?!" Asriel called out to her after both of them paused their developments. "Don't you remember how much you liked petting my fur? We entered that space of subconscious; you and Ace and the others leant me your power, remember? I'm still putting it to good use! What happened to you?!"
"...I...I can't tell you, Asriel." Verena said with hesitation clear in her voice. "I just can't...please, don't make this harder than it needs to be." She pleaded with him. More objects gathered around her as she them throws them towards Asriel again. He sighed as he narrowed his eyes and continued to dodge again, his hand reaching out to shield himself with a wall of fire against a cluster of trees heading towards him root first. The look in her eyes says she clearly doesn't want to fight, though they also say she has no other choice. There has to be a reason...golly Parvos, what did you do to her...?
Red was busy trying to fend off Ace. She was really beginning to see the point of the gi, he was showing skilled physical fighting ability. The Manly Bandanna and Tough Gloves really made this apparent. Though she was able to keep up with him via her swordsmanship. Thus, she found herself being somewhat of a match for him, if being slightly behind. That part of her mind acknowledging this filled her with embarrassment for a few moments before remaining focused on her opponent. Any mistakes might immediately turn painful, so she had to be as careful as she can be. Ace launched himself at her and punched at her head. She ducked under the punch and slashed at his side. He flinched only for a moment, though he then ignored it as he punched her in the side, sending her flying horizontally across the ground.
"Ngh...that hurt a lot more than I would have liked..." Red growled slightly, attempting to stand back up and adjust herself. She found herself yelping in pain and rolling across the ground a few ties before stopping on her back. "Ow..."
"Tch. Is that really all you have?" Ace huffed, folding his arms and shaking his head. "And here I thought I'd be a part of something that would be an actual chal-" Ace's eyes widened as he jumped back from a slash at his legs. He was cut just a bit below the kneecaps, though he wasn't too worried. "HEY! I was talking!"
"And I wasn't listening." Red rolled her eyes as she rushed towards him with multiple slashes. Ace was impressed by the speed of them. While he was able to defend against five of them, he was siwftly cut ten times right after. Though he was able to see that attacking so swiftly has chances ofleaving her temporarily exhausted, which he would exploit the moment she slowed down. Indeed, she did tire after a few more slashes, though seemed to be reganing her stamina quickly. Before that can fully happen, he retaliated and managed a well-placed punch to her cheek, which was coated with magic.
Red couldn't push it aside in time, already hearing the incessant ringing in her sensitive years as her sword disappeared and she was sent flying again, landing on her face this time. She growled slightly as she placed her paws on the ground and attempted to push herself back up and recover from the harsh blow. Though one of the mages magic punches coming down hard on her head certainly didn't help matters. The multiple punches that followed from more of them gathering around her helped even less, and was leaving her no time to recover. She could see that Ace didn't stop them, simply folding his arms and watching on. She growled at him for not even bothering to do it himself, before her world spun and she slowly falls into unconsciousness...triggering something...
(?)
Fifteen-Year Old Red was feeling great about today. After years of training, she's actually going out on her first solo mission, and she was trusted with a significant, world-changing one. Escorting the human ambassador to the Monster Capital so they could meet with the King and Queen. Seems feasible enough, she's guarding someone to their destination. Royal Guard, and all that, right? Yeah, she could handle this. Definitely.
"Alright, Red. This is a very important assignment. Dunno why they trusted me with this, but they trust me. I gotta live up to their faith to me, definitely." Red nodded seriously as she slapped her cheeks slightly and nodded strongly. She wasn't too far away from it, she just needed to reach the point of meeting and to begin escorting the ambassador to the Monster Capital after picking them up. It shouldn't be difficult. Just keep someone safe for a while. She couldn't possibly screw that up.
...The smell of blood was beginning to place doubts on that thought.
Trusting her nose, she picked up her pace a bit and tried her best to reach the checkpoint much faster. Red would feel incredibly irritated if something went wrong on her first official assignment. She hoped that it wasn't anything too serious. Though once she reached said checkpoint to see for herself, the worst has been confirmed.
She could see the ambassador slright...their corpse. As well as the corpses of the human escorts. Her eyes widened as she ran towwards the main body in qestion. "No...Nonono!" She stammered in a panic, already realizing this was going to result in a massive political disaster. Even though she personally didn't do politics that weren't absolutely important, like this. "What happened?! Why are they...?" She said as she tried to get a good look at their faceto see what happened, not minding the blood. Though she did notice that their soul was floating above their body, a silver colored soul. Though when she touched it, it immediately disappeared. She blinked, not knowing what just happened, nor acknowledging the strange feeling in her chest.
"What just happened here?!" Red's ears picked up as she swiftly turned around and noticed the number of humans catching up to the scene, glaring at her. Her eyes widened as she stared at the body again, and her eyes widened in realization. "Our ambassador...that monster over there!"
"No...I just got here...I swear it wasn't me!" Red shook her head, stepping away from the growing crowd. "This isn't what it looks like!" She didn't realize that she began generating a lot of power the moment the Ambassador's soul disappeared from her touch. She just didn't know what was going on. She didn't understand. She swiftly turned around again at someone's footsteps.
A tall, dark figure in some sort of lab coat was standing before her. He raised his hand, his eyes...or eye sockets...? Both were filled with regret. "I'm sorry..."
Red was about to question this, but her eyes saw a very brief flash of pink and crimson, and her world vanished before her eyes.
More like she vanished from the world, in deep slumber. The feeling or an orb landing in somebody's hand was the last thing she felt before all her senses disappeared.
(Present)
That...was the last thing she expected. After all this time, after all of that wondering about her past, it ws this that proved to be her final memory before ending up in the Artifact. She just couldn't believe that something like this could have happened to her. She didn't know how, and she especially didn't know why. Just that it didn, and she knew it was out of her control. But that didn't make things better for her, because it ended up with a LOT of people getting hurt in the years to come. Both monsters and humans. She didn't know what to think, as she laid on the ground, still feeling the pain of those trying to keep her down.
Then she heard Asriel struggling with Verena, as well as her fellow Pack having difficulities of their own. These two things immediately snapped her out of her stupor. She could fret about her past later. Right now, she needed to do her part to help the both of them. She didn't understand what any of it meant, but one thing she DID understand, was that there were far more important things to worry about.
"RED! I LEND YOU MY ASSISTANCE!" Papyrus shouted. Suddenly most of the mages and monsters that tried to beat Red to death were suddenly launched backwards by Papyrus's blue magic, hitting various things while flying. Papyrus was quick to help her up, feeling his soul glow brightly for a moment before returning to normal. "ARE YOU ALRIGHT, RED? THAT WAS QUITE DIRTY OF THEM TO GANG UP ON YOU LIKE THAT!"
"Don't pretend like you have a sense of honor, Skelator." Papyrus grabbed Red and raised a bone wall behind him, both of them heard a black ball of energy smash against the wall. It cracked slightly, but it did not give into it. Papyrus sets Red down and peeks out towards the feline, who was still smiling in a sinister manner. "Or better yet...try not to be so determined to uphold it. There's only so much you can do to stay squeaky clean, Papyrus."
"WHAT ARE YOU SAYING, PARVOS?"
"Nothin' much, really." Parvos shrugged as his shadow expands and rises over his head, and soon launched itself at Papyrus with the intention of piercing right through his skull. Papyrus dodges and manipulared his bone wall to seperate and launch at Parvos. The feline yawned slightly before vanishing in a flash of shadows. Paoyrus looked around cautiously, trying to find him. Though one of the bones found their way back to his hand and extended and hardened into a staff, as he swiftly turns around and parries a knife strike from behind.
"I'M MAKING ATTEMPTS TO NOT DROP MY GUARD SO EASILY. I SUGGEST YOU SURRENDER NOW, PARVOS." Papyrus demanded a bit as he pushed Parvos off and made the attempt to strike at his head to knock him out. Parvos was faster, ducking under it and holding out his paw, a wave of darkness pushing him back and skidding across the ground. He looked back defiantly at Parvos while his scarf flowed with the wind. "YOU SEEM TO BE HAVING TROUBLE UNDERSTANDING THIS. YOU SHOULD SURRENDER WHILE YOU HAVE THE CHANCE, PARVOS. THERE'S NO REASON FOR ANY OF YOU TO BE DOING THIS. AND WHY MUST YOU DRAG THESE YOUNG CHILDREN INTO THIS? HOW ARE THEY ALIVE?"
Parvos seemed to ignore most of what Papyrus was saying, as he simply stands straight and brushes off the fur on his arm. "You're quite a simple guy, but not simple enough to not attack me. That's progress, I guess." He smirked while adjusting his neck. "I mean really...must you ask me why I'm doing what I do? You sure like to assume that everyone is on your moral plane. You're dead wrong for believing too much in the good of people."
"HOW?"
"Ya really wanna know what kind of person I really am?" Parvos asked slowly, which made Papyrus shiver. Parvos slowly smiled again as the three cloaked monsters each channeled a magic attack, and was quick to shoot them in random directions. Papyrus would then hear the panicked cries of citizens who were either injured by the attack, or much worse. The tall skeleton slowly turned towards Parvos with clenched fists. He only seemed mildly amused by this. Papyrus was well aware that he gave the order, and was not happy.
"PARVOS..."
"Something the matter?" Parvos shrugged. "I'm pretty efficient when it comes to causing a bit of panic and paranoia. Comes with the territory. You wouldn't really get that, would you?~"
Papyrus took a moment to calm himself down. He tried to make sense of Parvos' soul. Surely Parvos couldn;t willingly be this true, right? There has to be some semblance of good within him, even if it's deeply hidden, like Chara's. Parvos seemed to figure out his intentions and smirked as he humored the skeleton. Papyrus took the time to properly sense the soul, what trait it had, looking for something to work with. Only to be shocked by the results.
Parvos' empathy was practically nonexistent. It makes the likes of Flowey, who literally can't contain much empathy except for incomplete small fragments of it ever since separating from Asriel, seem kinder by comparison.
"Heh...feeling happy with my outlook?" Parvos chuckled slightly, as Papyrus shook his head. "You thought life Underground was rough? You're on the Surface...there's lots of things you don't understand. And because of that naivety, you never will. You'll be killed pretty quickly before you can make the attempt...maybe I can show you another example-" Parvos' eyes widened as he ducked under the spinning blade of an axe. He turned around and saw that it was Dogressa, who caught the axe in her hand and patted it agains the paw.
"That is enough out of you." Dogressa growled. "Now, I have nothing against felines, I think they're pretty intelligent if a bit lazy. But YOU...you're fully representing the darker side of felines we canines don't enjoy at all!"
"That's right...what you're doing is a complete offense to what we have assigned ourselves to do. We won't stand for it anymore." Dogamy agreed, snarling dangerously at the feline. Ice Wolf, Doggo, Greater Dog, and Lesser Dog shared their hostility with more intense growls. Red began sharing the very same. The soul within her chest began to become more apparent, a clear silver.
"You're intentionally causing everyone around far too much harm for little to no reason. You need to be stopped, Parvos. You and your little friends are going down!"
Parvos raised an eyebrow as Red's mysterious silver soul glowed for a few moments wthin her chest. The other members of the Pack were sharing a similar sensation of their own souls, and their magic began growing ever stronger with each passing moment. Papyrus's eye sockets grew with surprise as their magic reserves began growing, though not nearly as much as Red's, which was higher than athe others. Though their magic reserves were greatly growing nonetheless. Papyrus was confused for a moment, but he then remembered what Alphys and Geno Alphys discussed when they were attacked.
THE PACK AS A WHOLE ACHIEVED MAGIC AWAKENING...IT SEEMS THAT PARVOS HAS WORN OUT THEIR PATIENCE...
Dogressa was the first to speak after the event, holding out her axe. "Parvos. We will not tolerate your blatant desire to main the innocent. Surrender, or we shall deny you mercy."
Parvos blinked a few times as he gazes at the Pack as a whole, seeing how their Magic Awakening while banding together formed an interesting image above their heads: The menacing, foggy image of a snarling wolf.
The Pack has tapped into their inner wolves.
The assault continues. Lots of things around them have started to get destroyed, innocent lives are being lost, and the six children, don't look like they're going to stop, even if some of them might want to. Unfortunately they don't have a choice. Some of them, anyway.
And a few members of our gang have immediately lost their patience once innocent lives started being placed deliberately into the crossfire, and some of them didn't survive it...
A few of our heros have achieved Magic Awakening for the sake of defending Ebott. Will they prevail? Let's hope so.