Chapter 5:
I soon found Papyrus next to Sans (who was very good at teleporting all over the darn place) with a piece of paper on the ground in between myself and them. And it looked like a bit of snow was disturbed around the paper.
"HUMAN! I HOPE YOU'RE READY FOR SANS'S PUZZLE... WHICH I HAVE TWEAKED SLIGHTLY DUE TO IT BEING POINTLESS AT FIRST!" Papyrus said, me frowning at that. Flowey probably told him to up the ante of his puzzles. "ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS SOLVE THE JUNIOR JUMBLE PAPER. BUT THE CATCH IS, YOU ONLY HAVE 30 SECONDS TO DO THE DEED. IF YOU FAIL, YOU WILL BE CAPTURED! THE MOMENT YOU STEP ON THAT SNOW IS WHEN THE TIMER WILL START!" Papyrus exclaimed, me frowning at this and simply reaching for the paper over the snow without disturbing it, as well as grabbing the pencil that was along with it.
"i think this human is pretty crafty, paps," Sans said, me smirking as I then started to do the Junior Jumble and saw that it was incredibly easy, even by junior standards. I managed to get done with it easily and in only 15 seconds. And when I was all finished, I then handed the paper over to Papyrus after dodging the trap and he groaned at that.
"VERY CRAFTY, HUMAN! ESPECIALLY CONSIDERING YOU SOLVED JUNIOR JUMBLE IN RECORD TIME! I AM EVEN MORE DETERMINED TO CAPTURE YOU NOW! NYEH HEH HEH!" Papyrus sneered as I looked at Sans and he smiled.
"So how come Papyrus said he altered your puzzle?" I asked, Sans then flicking his wrist and me being shocked at how the moved snow actually slammed upwards into a box, one that would've hurt me as well as catch me, as the wood slammed very hard.
"he was told by flowey that you needed captured and that the methods to do so needed to be more drastic. otherwise, you'd kill everyone down here. so he's making the puzzles more dangerous for you," Sans said, me frowning at that.
"And you don't want to tell him anything about how the flower is a liar?" I asked, him sighing at that... while smiling.
"i've seen many different outcomes, kid... all of them due to the system forcing me to remember every single instance... this is the first time things are sufficiently different... i'm so used to doing nothing but the bare basics because of how everything goes in this world... but i think that, just this once, i could try to talk it out with him," Sans said, me smiling at that as I then moved ahead and saw that the way forward was to the southeast, but it was blocked by a spike trap.
"Don't worry, I got this one," Chara said as she temporarily took control and went in between a trio of rocks and found a switch, her pushing it and the trap going down shortly after. I then thanked her in thought as she then retreated back into my subconscious. "You're welcome," she smiled as I then turned around to see that there was a duo of monsters behind me. One looked like a monster with a large icicile-shaped hat and a round head... and the other was a dog wearing armor and having a bone in hand.
"Hi there. How are you guys doing?" I asked, the duo looking at each other and then at me.
"Aren't you that human we've been told about? Not just that, but that we were told two completely different stories?" the monster with the ice hat asked.
"Yeah, I am. And I can tell you that the flower's story is bogus," I said, the dog monster looking at me and sniffing me intently before then whimpering and barking a small bit of stuff to the ice monster's ear.
"So that part of the story is true also, huh? Your soul is a billion times tougher than regular human soul? And just one hit to the barrier could demolish it?" the ice monster asked.
"Yes. And it's also why I refuse to hurt anyone with the intent to kill. Because, if I did so, then the whole universe would be destroyed from the power of this soul... I'd go into more detail, but let's just say it suddenly appeared inside of me while I fell Underground. And it's from an alternate reality than this one," I said.
"An alternate reality? And what's it like? Obviously that soul must have some kind of memories in it, right?" the dog monster asked, Chara being surprised by it speaking while I wasn't. I then tried to think a bit to contact whoever this Thorn girl was... and I then got a flash of certain memories. How there were no such things as monsters in the true world and how the humans were the true monsters.
"In the alternate reality, the only monsters around are the humans. While a human in this world is a 6 out of 10 in terms of evil, the humans in the world this soul comes from can range from 15 to 200, still on a 1-10 scale. And this soul actually belonged to a borderline pacifist, who happened to also be a common street thug," I said, the duo looking at each other and then at me.
"That's pretty spooky... but it seems you're in full control, though... so what's your name? I'm Ice Cap and this is Lesser Dog," the icicle hat monster smiled.
"I'm Frisk... and as for the name of the other soul, her name was Thorn. It's nice to meet you both," I smiled, them nodding at that as they then went on ahead and I tried to follow after them... but I got jumped by a duo of dogs that wore hoods and had giant axes in hand.
"Where's the smell?" asked one of them.
"... find the smell..." the other one said in a shy voice. They then waltzed around me before putting their noses on my cheeks and sniffing hard.
"Here's the smell... strange... it smells... dangerous..."
"should we fall back, hon?"
"No, we have a duty. Destroy all humans, never give up."
"o-okay, schnookums," they then proceeded to attack by trying to chop me with their axes, me managing to dodge out of the way and I ended up rolling in the snow a bit, me then getting an idea. I proceeded to roll all through the snow until I was sure I got the scent off of me. The dogs then sniffed again and gasped.
"Huh? That smell... are you..?" the male of the duo asked.
"are you actually a weird puppy?... strong weird puppy..." the female said, her obviously being very shy. They then holstered their weapons and I proceeded to pet both of them behind the ears, them gasping at that before they then scratched each other on the chins and then giggled.
"Amazing... dogs can pet other dogs!" the male of them smiled.
"thank you, strong weird puppy! you've opened our eyes! here, take some money for showing us a new way of loves and snuggles," the female smiled, her then giving me 100 gold coins.
"Thanks... my name's Frisk. What's your names?" I smiled.
"I'm Dogamy... and this is my sugarlumps, Dogaressa," the male dog smiled.
"thanks, weird puppy... please stop by snowdin town at some point," Dogaressa smirked as the duo then waltzed on ahead and I smiled as Chara then spoke.
"Seems those two weren't told anything by Flowey. Probably because he's tried to talk to them before, only for them to try and uproot him so they could give him to the other as a gift," Chara said, me smirking and making raspberries trying to hold the laughter in. "Yes, I also find it a bit humorous," Chara chuckled. We then went after the duo of dogs and soon found Papyrus was trying to adjust another puzzle... this time, it was one that was pressure activated for the spikes. He had two squares shown and a pressure plate above them. But it looked like Papyrus had accidentally trapped himself on my side.
"Excuse me, it appears you may be a bit stuck," I said, Papyrus gawking at that and turning around with sweat coming from his bones... somehow.
"O-OH! T-THE HUMAN!... UM... IT APPEARS THAT I HAVE MY BACK BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE... W-WHAT TO DO..." Papyrus said with obvious fear as I simply stepped on one of the square tiles and saw it turned to a circle. I then did the same with the other one and then stepped on the pressure plate, Papyrus being a bit surprised at that.
"You go on ahead," I said, him immediately doing so and me following from a fair distance and seeing that Papyrus had just did the same thing and accidentally trapped himself behind a spike trap, once again correlating to a pressure switch puzzle. "Don't worry, I got this," I said as I looked at the puzzle and smiled at how it looked strikingly similar to Papyrus's face. Even more so considering one of the eyes was slightly bigger than the other, much like Papyrus's face already looked like. I then completed the puzzle easily and Papyrus looked a bit confused.
"YOU... YOU CHOOSE TO COMPLETE MY PUZZLES RATHER THAN TO HURT ME? I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT'S GOING ON WITH YOU... BUT OBVIOUSLY, THE RUMORS I HAVE HEARD ARE INDUBITABLY FALSE! FOR I KNOW THAT IF YOU WERE A TRUE MURDERER OF INNOCENTS, I'D BE..." Papyrus said, me shushing him with a simple shush and him being spooked by that.
"Come on, the Great Papyrus, killed by a little girl? Impossible, right?" I said, him then smirking widely at that comment.
"QUITE RIGHT, HUMAN FEMALE! THE GREAT PAPYRUS CAN NEVER BE KILLED! I AM VERY GREAT AFTER ALL! NOW FOR YOUR NEXT PUZZLE!" Papyrus smiled as he rushed forward quickly and I saw that he and Sans were next to a strange computer machine that looked like a television for some odd reason. "THIS IS YOUR NEXT PUZZLE, HUMAN! WHEN I FLIP THIS SWITCH, THIS PUZZLE WILL HAVE NUMEROUS COLOR-CODED TILES THAT WILL HAVE DIFFERING EFFECTS! I SHALL NOW EXPLAIN HOW THEY FUNCTION!" Papyrus said, me nodding at that.
"RED TILES ARE INVISIBLE WALLS. YOU CANNOT MOVE PAST THEM! BLUE TILES ARE FILLED WITH WATER. YELLOW TILES ARE ELECTRIFIED AND WILL ZAP YOU IF YOU TOUCH THEM! ORANGE TILES WILL MAKE YOU SMELL LIKE ORANGES... HOWEVER, IF YOU SMELL LIKE ORANGES, THE FISH IN THE WATER WILL ATTACK! FURTHERMORE, BLUE TILES CAN ALSO HURT YOU IF THERE IS A YELLOW TILE ADJACENT TO IT! GREEN TILES WILL SOUND AN ALARM AND YOU MUST FIGHT A MONSTER. PURPLE TILES ARE SLIPPERY, AND SMELL LIKE LEMONS, WHICH THE FISH WILL STAY AWAY FROM. AND FINALLY, PINK TILES DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ALL OF THIS?" Papyrus asked, me nodding at that... and I simply smiled as I felt that Chara would help out with remembering.
"That I can do easily," Chara smirked.
"NOW FOR ONE LAST THING... THIS PUZZLE... IS ENTIRELY RANDOM! ! ! WHEN I FLIP THE SWITCH, IT WILL CREATE A PUZZLE THAT NO ONE HAS EVER SEEN BEFORE! NOT EVEN I WILL KNOW THE SOLUTION! BEGIN!" Papyrus smirked as he pushed a button and the lights on the ground started to flash numerous colors that made my eyes hurt slightly... but then, it ended with the most easy puzzle ever. Just a straight line of pink all over. Papyrus then gawked at this and simply rushed off ahead as I looked at Sans and he smiled, as per usual.
"hehe, usually there's a bit of red here as well, but this time, it was all pink," Sans smiled.
"Yeah, that was kinda silly how that all happened," I smiled at him as I then went to the east and saw that Lesser Dog was there with Ice Cap and they looked to be making snow sculptures that looked like themselves. Lesser Dog's tail wagged a lot as his neck actually extended while making his sculpture, as he looked like he was trying to look it all over for any possible small details that needed fixed. Ice Cap, meanwhile, was making a small round ball by simply using magic and then put his own hat on the snowball, him then sighing afterwards before then putting it back on his head... though I had to admit, I didn't expect that Ice Cap without the cap... looked an awful lot like an ice cube.
"Hey there, guys," I smirked at them, the duo smiling and waving hi to me. "How much farther until I reach the town?"
"Only a little bit, I'd say. Just be careful if you happen to run into Greater Dog. He's very huge and he could crush you just from being too excited," Lesser Dog said, me smirking at that.
"I'll keep an eye out," I said as I then moved forward until I saw the next puzzle was another pressure plate puzzle, only this one was more tricky as it also had ice covering the entire place minus the pressure points.
"Be careful not to fall off," I said to myself as I then proceeded to move carefully across the ice while stepping on the plates... which was easier said than done, considering I wasn't wearing shoes and my feet were just inside of small socks. I'm not gonna lie, I did end up tripping a few times and found it was much easier to do the puzzle when crawling on all fours. And when I pushed the final switch, I smiled at how a small bridge emerged that I then crossed while crawling until I made it to the other side... and directly face-to-face with another monster, this one looking like a deer that had a very creepy mouth and had antlers that were shaped like evergreen trees. And he had a bunch of junk that was hung on his antlers and he looked at me with what looked like a frown... though his mouth was hard to decipher.
"Hi there, mister," I said, him sighing at that.
"Hello there, human. I've heard good things about you as well as bad things and I want you to prove which you are," the monster said, me smiling at that as I then went over to his antlers and simply removed the items that were stuck on them. One was a photograph of Snowy and his parents, another was a bottle of MTT cologne, and finally, a string of barbed wire. I then decided to keep the photo on hand while leaving the other junk on the ground, as the bottle was empty and I simply threw the barbed wire over the edge of the cliff, the monster sighing a breath of relief afterwards.
"Thanks, human. A weight's been lifted off of my shoulders, as well as a ton of crap I don't need. I'm Gyfftrot. And your name?" he said, me smirking at that.
"I'm Frisk," I said. "Well, I better be on my way. I have a pizza delivery I need to make," I said, Gyfftrot smirking at that.
"Pizza delivery service, huh? Who's the buyer?" Gyfftrot asked.
"Some girl called Alphys called me on my cell phone, thinking I was a pizza service... but I offered to make and deliver her a pizza so she would feel at ease, since she sounded very shy on the phone," I said, Gyfftrot smirking at that. I could tell this time, as his mouth split at the top slightly.
"Alphys, eh? She's not only the Royal Scientist, but she also created a robot entertainer called Mettaton. He's basically the only celebrity in the Underground and Alphys's greatest achievement... as well as her only achievement. Ever since a certain incident happened roughly 20 years ago, she refuses to do any kind of actual work other than acting as a spy. If you'd want to learn more, I suggest talking to Snowy or the Royal Mutts," Gyfftrot said, me frowning at that as I then moved forward to see that Dogamy and Dogaressa were actually petting a dog that looked like it could classify as Greater Dog, as he was in a gigantic suit of armor, he had large hands and feet, and he also had a spear with a face on it.
"Hello, guys," I said, the dogs smirking at my presence.
"Ah! The weird yet strong puppy! What's going on with you this fine day?" Dogamy asked with a smile.
"I um... I wanted to ask something. Do you know of an incident that involved Doctor Alphys that took place 20 years ago?" I asked, the dogs gasping at that and looking at each other before they then whimpered and lowered their ears.
"Yeah, we do... all of us members of the Royal Guard had members of our family that were on death's door from getting badly injured... Alphys tried to get them back to normal health, but we were left in the dark for at least a month. Then, miraculously, every single one of the dying monsters woke up. There were over 30 of them total and everyone was excited to go back home and to welcome our family members... but then, all of a sudden, just before Alphys would let them all come home... something strange happened. She said that the different test subjects needed some more testing and said nothing else. She refused to reply to letters, emails, she even refused to talk to Asgore about it. Hell, she doesn't even tell Captain Undyne, and she and Alphys are best buds... everyone is very worried and we all fear that something terrible has happened to our families," Dogaressa said, her voice actually a bit louder this time and less shy, but she did produce some tears near the end.
And when they said that, I now knew something about Alphys. Something that I could use to my advantage. She had something to hide and I was surely going to find out what it was, if it meant clarity for 30 different monsters and their family members. "But what does Snowy have to do with it? Because Gyfftrot said to ask either him or you guys about it," I said, Dogamy sighing at that.
"It's because one of the test subjects... was Snowy's mother, Flakes. He ended up running away from his father to live in Snowdin on his own because he remembered that his mom was the only one who laughed at his bad puns about snow and ice and he wanted to learn more from a certain skeleton called Sans," he said, me frowning at the fact that Snowy needed clarity between him and his mom. And that, somehow, made me a bit... determined.
"I've officially made up my mind, then," I said, walking past the dogs with a smile. "Mark my words, I will find out what happened to those monsters and I will give everyone the clarity they deserve... and if you see him before I do, tell Snowy that, as thanks for spreading the word about me being a good person, I'll try to find out what exactly happened to his mom and reunite them," I said, Dogamy and Dogaressa smirking at that.
"A very noble goal, though the process of doing so won't be easy. Alphys might let you in if you give her the pizza we were told about, but getting her to spill the beans about the test subjects is going to be very difficult. From what I've heard, she seems to be more at ease if you can get on her good side or if Undyne is around," Dogaressa said.
"Thanks for the tip, guys. Looks like I'm off again," I said, me then proceeding forward again to find a long bridge... and that Papyrus and Sans were on the other side of it.