Chapter 9: Whatcha Gon' Do?
The closer Asriel and Jenessa got to the crime scene, the shabbier the houses around them looked. They passed houses with the vines and other vegetation growing on the sides of them, while others had lawns with small patches of grass here and there. Tons of old, rusted-over cars, some missing a few or all of their wheels, sat parked in the grass near the gates of backyard fences.
It was interesting to see blue and red lights flashing in the distance, glistening in the dark of night. Asriel had never seen such a phenomenon. He'd heard something where people in the northern parts of the world could see lights in the sky. What he could see, however, wasn't as impressive as those he'd heard about.
He also wondered if the noise pollution associated with it was standard.
Loud sirens whoop-whooped as more black and white vehicles entered a cul-de-sac. Men and women in dark-colored uniforms with gold badges swept the perimeter, placing yellow tape around the area. Asriel could guess that the humans' version of the Royal Guard was investigating a crime scene that they didn't want civilians being involved with.
The best they could do was survey the crime scene from afar, rubbernecking alongside a few other curious onlookers. There were about a dozen young males in pools of their own blood. Many of them died carrying firearms, some with what looked like bullet holes, others having had their flesh scorched by powerful spells.
Asriel watched the officers investigate the cadavers, some responders covering them up in bodybags and putting them on stretchers. He could only observe with a silent mixture of shock and disgust. He closed his eyes, then let out a sigh. "Can you feel it?"
Jenessa stared at the crime scene wide-eyed, not answering for a while before saying, "F-feel what?"
"Heat...and sparks. Fire and lightning. I can feel my fur standing on end. It's almost as if I can just...feel the malice that festered here. Tobias had to have been here."
"You sure this isn't a trap? Like he wanted us here?" Jenessa started looking around them, likely scanning the surrounding area for any potential threats.
"Oh, come on, it's not rocket science," said one of the onlookers beside them, a middle-aged man wearing a grey skull cap, a jacket, and pajama pants. "It was a gang shootout. The survivors ran off before the police got here."
Asriel turned to the onlooker who spoke. "Did you see it happen?"
"No, but this sort of thing happens all the time around here. A bunch of idiots with guns screw around and wreck the neighborhood. Some fools set my house on fire from blowing up a propane tank the other day."
"Oh, yeah, I heard about that," said a female onlooker. "Is it true that three kids died in your neighbor's backyard?"
"Yeah...they were burned alive from the explosion. Poor bastards didn't stand a chance."
Asriel shook his head. The explosion incident was new to him, but it had to have been related to Tobias. His mind flashed back to the instance where he saw four dead young men in an alleyway when he first escaped the underground. The way he casually dismissed their deaths by his hand as insignificant was unsettling, but unsurprising. It was a few of the damning evidences of Tobias's disregard for human (and monster) life.
Now the prince was aware of two more evidences where Tobias went around killing humans. The more he thought about it, the more he concluded that Tobias was starting a guerrilla war against the humans. His misanthropy likely grew from hearing the story of how the monsters were stuck underground. There was a clear distinction between his disposition when he first fell and his disposition weeks before the Flowey plan was first put into place. Living underground had clearly made Tobias happier than living on the surface.
He still couldn't shake the optimistic outlook he had towards Tobias. The human's bodycount was in the 20s, and that was after he and Asriel were both resurrected. He thought, briefly but darkly, that Tobias was proving unredeemable, and his newfound powers could escalate their next meeting to be a fatal one. However, he also thought of the example Sergio set. The hood rat was by no means a role model. Nonetheless, Sergio was able to not only escape the underground, but destroy the barrier in the process. He did all of this with no blood on his hands.
Asriel knew this was in defiance of what Flowey had told Sergio, but it didn't change how astonishing the whole situation was. Sergio had done the impossible. If a disgruntled hoodlum could have changed the underground, and the world, with minimal violence, it could have changed Tobias's outlook on humans.
"Has anyone seen where the survivors of this gunfight ran off to?" Asriel asked the crowd.
The small crowd all turned to the goat prince, not as unsettled to see a monster walk among them as he expected. A few mumbled, "No," "Uh-uh," "Nope," others shook their heads. One of them said, "I saw a truck go out when everything quieted down."
Asriel approached the female crowd member. "Did you see where the truck went?"
"Right there-a ways." She pointed the way he and Jenessa came.
He gritted his teeth. It was possible he passed by the vehicle Tobias stole while they were walking down here. If they had intersected, Tobias was likely long gone.
The revelation had left him more than a little bit deflated, the same with Jenessa. A look of understanding and shared annoyance toward the situation passed between them. Though Asriel felt bold enough to walk without covering his face, he didn't feel like attracting too much attention from the law enforcement by crossing the police tape and conducting his own investigation. Besides, the magic used here was so raw that he could detect the magical type from at least 40 feet away.
"Could you take a picture of the crime scene?" Asriel whispered to Jenessa. "We'll need this for when we meet my dad...and Sergio."
Jenessa stuck a trembling hand in her purse and took her phone out. She brought it in front of her face, then dropped it suddenly. She found that her screen had cracked after it hit the pavement. When she unlocked it, her phone died.
"What? It was at 10 percent!" Her voice was about as tremulous as her hands.
Well, picture or not, there had to be a report on the news about this incident. "Come on." He nudged Jenessa and started to head back with her.
After they were out of earshot, Jenessa said, "So...we're dealing with a serial murderer."
Asriel paused for a second upon hearing that. While he danced around that subject, trying to find some way to justify...no, explain his misguided behavior, Jenessa bluntly stated her observation of people dying around the human. It was an easy assumption to make if you'd never known Tobias as Asriel did, and he realized that Tobias's case was getting harder and harder to defend.
"It would appear as such," he finally spoke, sticking his hands in his pockets.
"If Tobias can do all of that," Jenessa gestured toward the crime scene, "and blow up someone's backyard, what makes you think we can stop him?"
Asriel looked at Jenessa. "Are you having second thoughts?"
"It's just that...well..." She fumbled with her words, tapping her index fingers together. "Maybe we're overestimating ourselves. Maybe I'm just not cut out for this kind of thing. I mean, I still don't know that much about magic. If Tobias was around that corner and wanted to kill me...I couldn't stop him. He just killed like 10 or 15 guys a few hours ago! We're just two people!"
Asriel stopped walking and turned his entire body toward Jenessa. "When we meet him, I'll make sure he doesn't touch you." He put a hand on her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her."
"He beat you at the mayor's house." She shunted his hand away from her shoulder. "He could have killed us! Now that he knows we're after him, he's probably looking for us just like you're looking for him!"
He felt a twinge of guilt for his defeat at Tobias's hand, but he answered, "No...he wouldn't-"
"He's killing strangers, Asriel. He's never met me! He has no reason not to kill me!" A combination of frustration and fear appeared in her face, her shoulders moving up and down slightly with her quick breaths.
Asriel wondered what had changed Jenessa's mind so quickly. She was determined to head over to the underground, then annoyed that they turned back, and now she was terrified for her own life. "Did seeing the dead bodies scare you?" he asked earnestly.
Jenessa looked down and sighed. "Yeah. I mean, I've seen a few crime shows, but that was the first time I've seen a dead body in my whole life. And there were so many of them...and I know that the person who did it is still around, and we're looking for him..." She fingered the hem of her scarf. "Look, Asriel, I think you should go on without me. My phone's dead, my parents are probably worried sick, and I don't think I should be out here in the middle of the night in this part of town."
The thing was, Asriel couldn't blame her. The prince had seen, and caused, his fair share of death and bloodshed ever since Tobias's suicide plan was put into play. It actually sickened him to realize how desensitized he'd become to seeing such atrocities.
Jenessa, on the other hand, was living a completely normal life before the Battle of the Barrier. She went to school, paid attention in class, stayed out of trouble, went back home, did her homework, slept, and repeated. A month prior to right then, she didn't have to worry about magic as a tool for murder, ambitious princes, or potential royal conspiracies.
Oh, what he would have given to live the life she did before sparks came out of her fingers.
"My next plan is to go back to the underground. No diversions. If we see Tobias..." Asriel took a deep breath. "If we see Tobias, we'll keep going. We'll just have to tell the Royal Guard his last known position once we get there." After working in a forced companionship with Tobias for so long, however, he didn't want to present this situation as if she had no other choice. "But what do you want to do? I understand if you want to back out after seeing all of that."
Jenessa shook her head, rolling her eyes. "Face it, Asriel, I'm just slowing you down. If we have to fight Tobias, you're gonna have to waste time teaching me how to use magic. At that point, we'll probably never find him. If Tobias found me before I could even tell my parents what was going on," she closed her eyes and shuddered. "I can't do that to them."
Tobias's most recent crime had more than rattled her. There was a part of Asriel that wanted to beg her to stay. Of all the people he'd met in this metropolis, Jenessa was the only one who had given him hope that his mission would not be in vain. She was the only friend he had when he started on his path to redemption.
However, from the beginning, he'd been prepared to complete this mission by himself. Now he had no reason to believe it'd be anything different.
He tried to mask the small devastation in his tone as he said, "Do you want to go home?"
"Yeah...problem is, I don't have enough for the subway, and my bus pass expired. I have to get home anyway if I want money for either of those things."
"Hmm. If this place is as dangerous as you say it is, would you like me to walk you home? Just to make sure you're safe?"
The area was almost pitch black save for some dim street lights, a murder happened not too long ago and not too far away, and there was no way to quickly travel. It was enough to put any normal person at least slightly on edge.
Jenessa thought for a bit, then nodded. "I'd like that."
They diverted their course. Instead of heading south, they headed southeast, more directly heading toward what the humans called Times Square. It was interesting to see how the amount of light gradually increased as they walked toward Jenessa's place. For a while, neither of them said anything, giving Asriel more time to take in the ambience of the area. Dogs were constantly barking in the distance. Crickets chirped while a bottle fell to the asphalt, shattering into small pieces. A loud engine revved as a pickup truck drove well over the speed limit in a residential area not too far away. A quarter mile away from the crime scene, Asriel's ear twitched as a strange crackling sound came from around the corner in an alleyway on their right.
They stopped at a crosswalk, Jenessa pushing the button to signal it. After a minute, they discovered the signal was broken. They both looked both ways before deciding to cross, not a word passing between them.
Asriel then broke the silence. "For what it's worth, I appreciate everything you've done for me."
Jenessa quickly turned her head when she heard a vehicle turn into their street behind them. The car passed by them at normal speed. "Yeah, of course. Anything for a friend."
"What's the plan now?" He noticed how different it was asking her instead of the other way around.
Jenessa took another deep breath. "I don't know, I'm still figuring things out. Like, I wanna know more about magic and stuff, but I just...don't feel ready. I mean, those guys over there had guns, and they didn't have a chance."
"Do you remember how the barrier was broken? When I transformed into..." he rolled his eyes at his own name for it, "the 'God of Hyperdeath,' Sergio tried using a knife, an umbrella...and even a gun to kill me." He lied; no gun was used at the Battle of the Barrier, but he figured adding that detail would help drive the story further home. "When none of those worked, he realized that he could use the same magic that he'd seen us use. He freed me from that terrible form because he didn't give up. Everything was stacked against him so that he'd die underground. But he didn't. Don't forget that Tobias wanted him dead, too."
"So...you're telling me that magic can beat guns?" Jenessa raised a doubtful eyebrow.
"I'm telling you that the thing that makes humans special is their determination to see things through. I don't know what it is, but humans seem to get through so many situations that would have easily killed monsters. The only reason I'm still walking is that some of Tobias's determination had fused with my soul somehow. Besides...do you think a ruffian like Sergio was ready for anything in the underground?" He looked over at Jenessa as they continued walking.
She tried to keep the smile off her face. She failed. Asriel smirked, feeling a deeper satisfaction seeing the dimple form on her cheek.
"I guess you're right. And thinking about it, I realized that we don't have to do this by ourselves. You wanted to talk to your parents to see if they could help. I wanna talk to mine before we go any further. I have to."
Asriel nodded. "I haven't talked to my parents in so long. I completely understand. Do you want me to talk with them as well?"
"It's not like I remember all the details."
Asriel let out a small chuckle, one of the first real times he did so after the barrier was destroyed. "What will you do if they tell you no?"
"...I haven't thought that far ahead."
The two made it to Jenessa's apartment without incident. It was a moderately-sized pair of buildings, connected only by a small concrete atrium. Several doorsteps were adorned with houseplants, and small maroon cloth awnings hung overhead. After climbing two flights of stairs, she tensed up upon hearing a male's voice from one of the apartments: "...five-foot-one, about a hundred pounds, black hair, black eyes, Taiwanese...her name is Jenessa Liu..."
"Is that your dad?" Asriel whispered.
"Yeah...they must have just gotten home and found out that I wasn't home. I can't imagine how many times they must have tried to call me." She took a deep breath before unlocking the apartment door. Asriel could faintly hear a gasp from the other side of the door before Jenessa opened it.
The living room was immaculate, enough to compete with even Toriel's eye for organization. The family had a TV mounted on the wall right over a neatly organized entertainment center. A short, all-glass coffee table stood in the middle of the living room atop a rug with intricate patterns.
A slightly burly man with dark hair and olive green glasses poked his head from the kitchen to see who'd just come in. His bushy brows furrowing, he brought the cell phone back to his ear and said, "My daughter just showed up, but I might still need you to be on the line, officer." He looked out into space as the person on the line spoke. "All right." He huffed as he stuck his phone in his jeans and walked over to the doorway, his jaw clenched as his brown eyes flitted from Jenessa to Asriel. "Where were you, and what is this?" he asked, gesturing to the prince.
"Uh, manners?" Jenessa dismissed nonchalantly. "This is my friend Asriel, and I wanted to help him."
Mr. Liu blinked once, then crossed his arms, staring daggers into Asriel. He sniffed, wincing from an offensive scent. "You must be one of the monsters everybody keeps talking about. That explains the smell."
A rush of red came to the prince's face, first of indignation, then of embarrassment. The last time he took a shower was before he became Flowey. He sniffed his arm, now noticing the scent he'd been so used to all this time. "Was it really that bad?" He looked at Jenessa, who clenched her teeth in a similar wincing expression.
"I didn't wanna be rude," she admitted.
"In any case, my daughter will not be involved with any of these political charades," Mr. Liu cut in curtly, gently pulling Jenessa into the door. "Please leave before the authorities come here to arrest you."
Asriel took a step back and said, "Sir, I-"
"Dad, he's not here to hurt us!" Jenessa protested, pulling her arm back.
"No, no, no, I'm not having this discussion with you at 1 in the morning. Do you know how worried I was to come home without you here? I had called you over 10 times, and you didn't answer!"
"Sorry! My phone was dead," she shrugged.
"Where were you tonight?" Mr. Liu repeated.
"Harlem, trying to save the world." She mirrored her dad in crossing her arms.
"First of all, watch your tone with me, Jenessa. Second, you know you're not supposed to go there. You could have gotten hurt! And how do I know this thing didn't follow you home to cause harm?"
"He saved me from a robber, Dad, and he's taught-"
"A robber? What did you expect walking through Harlem? That speaks less about it and more about you. You could have been kidnapped, raped, or killed, maybe by something like that!" He pointed to Asriel again.
The prince could understand Mr. Liu's suspicions about Jenessa's recent activity. He had no reason to trust that a stranger, let alone a non-human being, would randomly bring home his daughter well past her curfew without something fishy going on. Even so, he didn't come back from the dead just to be treated like less of a person.
"MR. LIU!" he interrupted, both father and daughter turning toward him. "If you just gave us five minutes to explain what's been happening, we can show you why we needed to be out tonight."
"No. You leave my daughter alone, and you never come back here."
"Dad-"
"I'm not asking again. Jenessa, get inside. Now."
"I'm not coming inside unless you agree to hear us out. Both of us." Jenessa steeled her will despite the constant opposition from her father.
"Do you really expect to make it out there? You're 14," he answered blankly. "If it weren't for this thing, there's no telling where you could have ended up."
"He has a name. His name is Asriel. He's the prince of the monsters, and he needs our help. But if you won't help us, I'm gonna go with him anyway."
"Jenessa, this isn't the time for bluffs-"
"I'm not bluffing this time. And I'm not gonna ask again. Let us explain, or we're heading out."
"You're not going anywhere." Mr. Liu took two steps toward them.
"Fine!" said Jenessa before clamping her hand in Asriel's, storming off in a huff and pulling the prince along.
"Wait, stop!" Asriel cut in. An idea had just come to him at that moment. "Jenessa, start charging your phone and show him the video of Tobias." He turned to her father. "Mr. Liu, we have video evidence that helps prove why we need to move forward with our plans."
"You have plans?" Mr. Liu scoffed. "Like what?"
"Well, as your daughter put it, saving the world. And if you're not convinced after our explanation, you never have to see me again," Asriel assured. Jenessa walked past him, looking at him with a slightly concerned look at his last statement. Asriel nodded to her, encouraging her to approach her father.
"I'll make sure of that regardless."
Jenessa hesitated before taking out her phone. "You have to promise me that you'll hear us out."
"You want to deal in promises? You told me you were going to a sports game for school. Now I hear that you're involved with a political figurehead from another species? You're skating on thin ice, Jenessa."
When she walked in, Asriel took a step to follow her, but Mr. Liu stuck a hand out. "You stay out here." He closed the door after himself when he entered the apartment.
There was a silent spell, so Asriel sat down near their door, leaning against the cement wall. It was the first time he got to sit down in so long. After walking all over new York, it was nice to have found a seat, even if it wasn't the most comfortable.
He was left with the sounds of the crickets chirping. Unlike what was known as Harlem, this neighborhood was a lot more silent. There wasn't the sound of traffic horns or dogs barking or glass breaking every five minutes. It was easy to see why people chose to live here.
Ever since Mr. Liu pointed it out, Asriel couldn't stop thinking about his personal hygiene. The optimist in him thought that, perhaps, Mr. Liu would have a change of heart so drastic that he could use their facilities to freshen himself up. He shook the thought out of his head. He would have been lucky if Mr. Liu didn't call the authorities for "terrorizing his daughter." Plus, since it was a human shower, he doubted that they would have had the technology to easily unclog all the goat fur that would collect in the drainage system.
It was so much of a relief to see that Jenessa was sticking with Asriel even in the face of her own father. It reminded him of the time he defied his parents' wishes and absorbed Tobias's soul when he was about to pass on. While Gaster's experiments with the soul showed somewhat promising results at the time, it was still too much of a risk for him to take. Both Asgore and Toriel fought day and night to make sure their son wouldn't participate in a "private" experiment headed by their two sons.
All he ever wanted was to keep his brother alive. Though he made a foolish decision, it wasn't enough reason for him to go out like that...
After a while, he could hear voices, but couldn't make out what was being said. He put an ear in the crack between the door and the frame, but it did little to help. Either they were speaking in hushed voices out of respect for their sleeping neighbors, or the architect designed the apartments to combat eavesdropping. Even so, the eventual sound of crackling electricity from Jenessa's hand was unmistakable, followed by a loud THUMP!
Briefly, he assumed the worst, his mind still at unease when a small chuckle left Jenessa. He froze, listening for anything that tipped off what really happened. The lower voice then spoke something, and the two seemed to be conversing as normal.
He prayed that Jenessa would convince her father to grant her his blessing. If nothing else, he really didn't want the human authorities to get involved. Whatever war Tobias had planned, Asriel had to make sure that nobody within the Royal Family would appear to be involved. He then considered how much journalists would twist the stories so that there would be some sort of monster bogeyman to blame for the human deaths occurring all over New York.
His thoughts slowly became less lucid as his eyelids grew heavier. No, no, he couldn't be falling asleep at a time like this, not when he was close to reaching his own family. He needed to make it to the underground before Asgore met with the mayor the next morning.
He was about to doze off when he heard footsteps getting louder towards the door, feeling a warm rush of air as it swung open. Asriel stood up immediately as Jenessa walked out. "Come on, Asriel. We're leaving," she said in a huff. She carried a backpack with her.
"Wait!" Mr. Liu called from inside. He had a concerned and almost defeated look on his face. He sighed. "Is there really no stopping you? Are you seriously going through with this?"
"There is no stopping me, Dad. I thought you'd want to help us do something good for once. I guess I was wrong."
"Then at least stay here for the night. I don't want you out there while it's dark."
"Only if Asriel can stay."
The idea was nothing short of attractive. He could go in, have a hot meal, take a hot shower, clean his clothes, have a warm place to sleep for the night. Even if he only got the latter, it'd be miles better than what he got for the last few weeks.
Yet he was so close to his goal earlier that night, then turned back for a lead that got him absolutely nowhere. He couldn't stop.
"Absolutely-" Mr. Liu began before Asriel cut him off.
"I don't need to stay." He put his arms akimbo. "I'm heading over to the underground after this. I have to get to Dad before the press conference. Jenessa, if you'd like to come with me, you're free to. But I can understand if you want to rest up before you go...or if you want to stay." He turned toward her father. "Mr. Liu, I understand your concern and would be just as worried if I was in your shoes. Just know that I'm not forcing her to make any decision and have always given her the choice to accompany me or to leave. Jenessa," he turned back to her, "if you wish to rendezvous later, you know where to find me."
"I won't have to find you." She took a few more steps toward Asriel. "I'm coming with you, and you're not stopping me, either. I didn't pack this bag for nothing."
Mr. Liu looked at Jenessa, then Asriel, then let out a breath. "If you don't want me to call the police for kidnapping my daughter and teaching her witchcraft, I want a copy of the video Jenessa showed me."
Asriel's breath caught in his chest, Jenessa looking at him uncertainly. It was obvious that Asriel did nothing to warrant arrest, but it was unlikely the police would see it that way. Surely, the video was evidence of Tobias's ill intentions, and help from both monster and human authorities would certainly expedite his arrest. However, given the already hostile attitude Mr. Liu had towards him, and for all monsters, there was no way he would try to manipulate the video to attack the monsters' cause.
Nevertheless, he preferred the odds of a potential pursuit with the human law enforcement to a definite one if he didn't comply.
"Given that you're trusting me with your daughter, it's only fair that we trust you with the footage." Asriel nodded towards Jenessa, who then sent the video to Mr. Liu's cell phone.
He checked his phone to confirm receipt. "Behave yourselves. Jenessa...please stay safe. Your mother and I love you."
A small, almost forced smile from Jenessa. "I love you, too. I'll be back in time for school." The door closed.
Asriel stared at the door for a brief moment, then said, "That went..somewhat better than I expected. What did you say to him that convinced him to let you go?"
"Oh, just a 'spark' of inspiration that came to me." She smirked as they started walking down the steps.
"You threatened him?"
"What was I supposed to do? He was gonna have the cops come to arrest you! I had to show him something that proved that this wasn't all a trick."
"We can't use magic for intimidation. We're no better than Tobias at that point."
"Well, it was the only thing I could come up with at the moment!" She let out another huff. "I don't know why he doesn't just trust me. I told him that the whole city could be in danger because of Tobias. I explained all I could remember about the underground, you, and magic, but he didn't want to hear any of it. He kept telling me that he wanted to make sure I was safe, but I kept telling him how you kept me safe. He wanted to look for any reason to say that you were a troublemaker." She rolled her eyes and shook her head.
"What does your mother think of all this?"
"She wasn't there. She's a nurse, and she just got called in tonight, and won't get back until the morning." She stopped for a second as they reached the atrium. "She's not my real mom. My real mom had neglected me for a few years before my dad decided to divorce her. He got custody of me, then remarried."
"...Do you have a good relationship with your stepmother?"
"It's complicated," she dismissed. "Come on, we gotta get to the bus stop on Burlington. This way." She turned right as soon as they got to the street.
Asriel couldn't imagine what it'd be like to go through such a thing. Neglect from your own mother for so long must have taken a toll on her, unless she was an infant or young toddler when it happened. It was likely to be earlier on in her life given the casual nature she spoke of it.
He was a bit curious, but wouldn't push the subject.
. . .Meanwhile...
Driving a stickshift truck was gonna be a disaster in the open roads. New York's traffic was difficult enough when you knew how to drive your own vehicle. Sergio remembered Manny trying to teach him once, but he was just as confused then as he was after the recent events. He'd stalled out twice before leaving the general neighborhood.
The truck no doubt had too many skin cells and his fingerprints to be left out in the open like that. Though he and the truck were two blocks away, Sergio knew not to take any chances. He left the truck in an alleyway and set it aflame with his mind, careful to walk away from it before it exploded. He could hear windows shatter, and he was certain it was more than the truck's windows getting blown out from the blast.
The hood rat started walking towards Lower Manhattan. He got about halfway out of Harlem when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. The call was from Alphys. "What's happenin'?"
"Hey! Uh, you're gonna want to come back to the underground, like, right now."
"I'm on my way over there now. What, is there somethin' wrong?"
"Y-y-yeah...we found some pictures on Twitter regarding the fugitive. It looks just like His Majesty's son."
He could feel his stomach sinking upon hearing the news. He stopped in his tracks. "Wait, what? I thought oldboy died 'fore eitha of us was born."
"I thought so too, but the pictures we all saw were pretty convincing. King Asgore seemed pretty torn up about it, like he didn't want to believe it and did at the same time. He wants to talk to you in person."
Sergio cursed in his mind. Asgore no doubt wanted to see what his reaction would be when he asked if Sergio knew about this the whole time. If Sergio were to be honest, Asgore would have to involve Toriel and Sans again. Just as Sergio theorized, Asgore was beginning to lose focus on the immediate goal to meet with the mayor and seal the deal about the move to the surface.
"Yeah, tell 'im I'mma be over ASAP. Send me some pics so I can find out where he is." Click! "Damn, Asriel, whatchu gettin' ya self into now?"
Was it Asriel's job to make Sergio's job difficult? Or was he simply following the hood rat's advice? The last time he met the sullen prince, Sergio told him to go back to the underground before he messed up big time. He had no idea Asriel would actually follow his advice.
That was also assuming Asriel was trying to make it home. There was no telling where in New York he could have been. Maybe he was causing some crime scenes to occur so he could blame Tobias for his lingering murderous tendencies.
His phone vibrated again, Alphys having sent the pictures. Asriel was at Times Square with the same chick he was with in the alleyway, this time rocking a sweater and pants instead of a robe that covered everything up. He wasn't even trying to conceal his identity at this point.
There was another picture of him on the subway, as well as a video of him getting his tail kicked by some old lady on the train. It was always amusing to see Flower Boy taking L's after their battle.
A lot of the other pictures he found were similar to the two aforementioned scenarios. All were tagged #FreeTheMonsters. Some commentary included, "WTF? Random monster found at #nysubway," "I've seen some weird ish out here in New York, but..." "On God this photo isn't edited."
The subway pictures checked out; it was a long way to the underground from where they rendezvoused. And he kept seeing that one Asian girl from the alley. It was both strange and terrifying to think that Asriel convinced her to travel alongside him. Sergio wondered what was in it for her. She could use magic (unless it was some ploy put on by Asriel for whatever reason), but it wasn't enough to explain what she was doing this for. Well, I was convinced Toriel was in some sort a' cult. Maybe the apple ain't fall far from the tree.
He turned behind him to see a cop car rolling up on his side of the street. He didn't pay it any mind; the lights weren't flashing, and there was no way he could have been linked to the shootout at Manny's. Plus, if worse came to worse, it wasn't as if he needed to reach into his waistband to defend himself.
Unexpectedly, the police cruiser parked a few feet in front of him, two burly officers, one white, one black, stepping out of it. "Young man, we need to talk with you," said the one who came out of the passenger door.
"Y'all got each otha. Talk 'mongst ya selves and leave me alone," Sergio responded, still walking.
The cops were not amused. They started approaching him, one saying, "Stop right there."
As soon as Sergio's foot hit the ground, a thousand thoughts flew through his head. Was he going to stop with the hopes that this five-o situation would go smoothly? Should he run before anything would have happened? Did he need to use his magic to make sure that dead cops told no tales?
No, he couldn't do that last one. The cops nowadays had body cameras, and they likely had live feeds. Even if he were to deactivate the cameras somehow, there would have been someone at the station seeing all of this happen and keeping the recording. That, and him being a sort of high-profile human in light of recent events made it so that the monsters' cause limited his options.
Yet if he ran, he wouldn't have been able to deflect or outrun a bullet without magic, and the cops in Harlem were more likely to shoot you and fill out the paperwork than chase you down. If he wanted to physically evade the cops, use of magic seemed imminent.
The look in Sans's eyes before Sergio met Asgore flashed in his mind. "...strange, LV-like sense I get from you..." The skeleton knew more than he let on. No doubt he would have had something to say after Sergio survive the shootout at Manny's.
He took the risk. He stopped.
"What, you need directions ta the doughnut shop that's still open?" He crossed his arms.
"Uncross your arms, right now," said the cop driver, both he and his partner's hands hovering over their hips.
"What are you stoppin' me for?" Sergio complied, only to bring his fists down to his waist as they got closer.
"You're a teenager out at 11 o'clock on a school night. Where are you going?"
"I thought I was on my way away from you suckas. Guess I was wrong."
"Why would you try to avoid us?" The cops had closed him in, preventing any means for escape now.
"'Cause don't nobody like y'all! Y'all be stoppin' folks fa no good reason just so y'all could hit some quota!"
The officers ignored his statement and probed him again. "Just tell us where you were going before we stopped you."
"I 'on't have ta tell you jack. Go find some druggies ta lock up and leave me alone! Ya got plenty ta choose from!" Sergio pointed to the few people sitting around them, either stoned or cracked out of their minds to know what was going on.
The second officer sighed. "Kid, the sooner you cooperate, the sooner we can all be on our way."
"And the sooner y'all leave, the sooner you can escape this heat. Y'all ain't got no probable cause, y'all ain't got no warrants, and y'all ain't got none a' my respect!"
"Listen, we're just trying to do our jobs. The more you keep dodging our questions, the more we suspect that you're doing something illegal!" the first cop retorted.
Sergio took a deep breath, then stated, "Look, I'm jest tryna get outta this crappy neighborhood. I'm on my way ta Lowa Manhattan. Is that so bad?"
"Not yet it's not. You happen to match the description of one of many involved with gang activity in the south side of Harlem a couple weeks back. There was a shooting between th-"
"Ah, for the love a' God, 'cause I'm some black kid in a hoodie? Open ya freakin' eyes. There's tons of us 'round the block. Don't try that 'description' bull wit me."
"Turn around, and put your hands on the wall."
"Or what?"
"TURN AROUND!" The black cop clenched his teeth, glowering with fury.
If Sergio hadn't seen some of the good that could have come from the world, he would have immediately and physically fought back against their arrest attempt. It was a typical stop and frisk routine: Pick any young black man around the corner, flex your badge and your gun, and find something to arrest them for.
What would he have looked like if he had just finished talking to Manny about how gangsters never had happy endings, then pulled off some gangster stuff against some cops?
He bit his lip and complied, lifting his arms above his head, his palms against the brick wall now in front of him. The cops then patted him down, taking out his phone, empty wallet, and Carmex. That was all he kept with him. He was able to breathe a bit more easily knowing that he disassembled his gun and left it deep in the underground. "Enjoyin' ya self there, coppa? You shoulda been a priest if ya wanted ta feel up boys."
"Shut up."
One of the cops looked through his wallet, either to snatch what chump change he might have had or to check for identification. He didn't have a license or a school ID, which made things particularly easier for a situation that came up right then:
"You got a name, son?"
"My name Ted." It wasn't the first time he used that alias.
"Well, Ted," one of the cops pulled Sergio's arms back and cuffed his wrists, ignoring Sergio's vocal protests as he continued, "we're putting you under arrest for drug possesion."
"What? You crazy! I ain't got no drugs on me!"
The cop that held him against the wall reached into his hoodie pocket and pulled out a small bag filled with white powder. "Yeah? What's all this?"
Sergio's eyes widened. "Y'all really plantin' drugs on me?!"
He felt his head go back before his forehead hit the brick wall twice, briefly stunning him. He then heard the grisly sound of someone being stabbed in the throat, one of the cops no doubt coughing up blood. The same fate quickly befell the other cop, the officers grasping their throats and collapsing to the ground.
When he recovered from getting his head banged, Sergio turned to the two already-dead cops and the aggressor, who was about his height and wearing a ski mask and a hoodie. He could see bright, bloodstained icicles coming from the palm of the aggressor's hands, which explained the brisk, chill feeling that blew in all of a sudden.
It was just like the video Asriel provided for him some time ago!
"Wait...Tobias?" Sergio's brows furrowed.
The aggressor calmly responded, "Make haste. You have a big day tomorrow." He then casually walked away from the crime scene as if nothing had happened.
The sound of his voice was also familiar. Perhaps Asriel's video wasn't fabricated, but this only brought up more confusion in Sergio's mind. Asriel wanted to stop Tobias from causing trouble. The fact that he just "iced" two cops was more than wild, but he seemed to do it to keep Sergio from getting in trouble. It wasn't far from what Manny was willing to do, but while Manny would have done so for completely selfish purposes, Tobias at least pretended to care for the monsters' cause. He knew who Sergio was, and he knew what was happening the next day. Other teenagers wouldn't have cared so much about monster/human politics.
Whoever he was and whatever his purposes were, the aggressor was right. It was a bad idea to stick around the crime scene.
Sergio ran into the nearest alley and burned through his handcuffs. He grabbed a metal pipe next to him, testing its stability, before climbing up it. He'd need to take to the rooftops to avoid the eventual swarm of cops sent to investigate the mysterious deaths of two of their colleagues. There weren't too many people outside who were lucid enough to give a clear summary of what happened.
Jest like old times.
. . .
Sergio and Asriel are both headed for the underground. Which one will make it there first? And what exactly is Tobias planning that he'd want to keep Sergio out of trouble? How will Tobias's and Sergio's actions affect the monsters' progression to the surface?
Stay tuned for the next episode of New York State of Mind!