"S-see that building in the distance?" Alphys' voice crackled over the phone. "That's the Core. The source of all power for the Underground. It converts geothermal energy into magical electricity-"

"Through thermonuclear fusion?" Peter asked. "Quantum disentanglement? Dr. Strange told me magic is energy from alternate dimensions, does the Core crack open these dimensions, deposit the geothermal energy, and extract magical electricity?"

"O-oh, um... I'm actually not sure. I didn't actually build it. N-nobody actually, um, knows who build it. But, uh, anyway, that's where we're going to go. In the Core is an elevator directly to Asgore's castle. And from there... you can go home."

"Assuming Asgore lets me pass."

"Erm... we can cross that bridge later." Alphys stuttered. "I'm sure I can distract him or... something."

"The closer we get to Asgore, the more sure I get that there's more going on than I'm being told." Peter sighed as Alphys hung up. "At least you've been helpful and honest."

Chara shifted her weight. "You're welcome. We should keep going, though."

They came upon an elevator, and Peter took it to the next floor. Once there, he came upon a small creature made from flame.

"Heh, I'm Heats Flamesman! remember my name!"

Peter shrugged. "Mkay, sure."

"What was his name again?" Chara asked mischievously. Peter pretended to elbow her.

Next room over, they came upon Sans in another sentry station. Oddly, it looked identical to the other sentry stations, complete with a layer of snow on top. Despite the extreme heat.

"He's probably just too lazy to clean it off." Chara giggled.

Peter laughed. "That or he thinks it's SNOW problem."

As Chara laughed, Peter walked up to Sans. "Hi there man, whatcha selling?"

"hot dogs. want one?" Sans asked.

"I'm a New Yorker, you'll have to do well to impress me." Peter grinned. "How much?"

"30G."

"Sure!" Peter bought one.

"mkay kid, here's your 'dog." Sans replied, handing it to him. "Want some more?"

Peter took a big bite. "Pretty good, actually. I'll have one more."

"You do realize that's actually a water sausage, right?" Chara told him.

Peter shrugged. "It's the most normal tasting thing I've had this whole time."

As he continued walking, he idly opened up his phone and scrolled through the notifications Alphys had posted. Nothing out of the ordinary. He was slightly worried about the fact that she seemed constantly nervous and unsure of herself. He had just passed a picture she had posted of her eating instant noodles with an action figure when something caught his eye.

"What's this? Hey Chara! Look at this!"

Username CoolSkeleton95 had posted, **ARE WE POSTING HOT "PICS?" HERE IS ME AND MY COOL FRIEND** Besides a picture of Papyrus flexing in front of a mirror. He was wearing sunglasses taped to his head, and had pasted giant muscular biceps to his arms. The biceps had sunglasses too.

Chara burst out laughing. "You've gotta friend him! This is great!"

Peter did so. Suddenly, a friend request popped up from user NAPSTABLOOK22.

"Oh, I gotta accept this!" Peter exclaimed. However, he the moment he tapped it, the request denied itself.

"Huh." Chara noted. "You should probably say hi to Napstablook at some point."

Peter nodded.

A few more puzzles later, completed with some advice from Alphys, and Peter found himself on another dark soundstage.

"Oh what now!?" Chara exclaimed. "This is getting ridiculous."

Alphys called. "A-another dark room, huh? Don't worry! M-my hacking skills have got things covered!"

The lights came on to reveal Mettaton in a suit and tie, right in front of what appeared to be a news broadcast.

"Are you serious?" Alphys asked.

"OHHHHHHH YESSSS!" Mettaton exclaimed as peppy music blared over nearby stereo speakers. "GOOD EVENING, BEAUTIES AND GENTLEBEAUTIES! THIS IS METTATON, REPORTING LIVE FROM MTT NEWS!"

"You are kidding, right?" Peter asked. "I thought you were a game show host?"

"I thought he was a cooking show host." Chara noted.

"I AM ACTUALLY THE ONLY CHANNEL IN THE UNDERGROUND! NOW FOCUS." Mettaton replied. "AN INTERESTING SITUATION HAS ARISING IN EASTERN HOTLAND! FORTUNATELY, OUR CORRESPONDENT IS OUT THERE, REPORTING LIVE! BRAVE CORRESPONDENT! PLEASE FIND SOMETHING NEWSWORTHY TO REPORT! OUR TEN WONDERFUL VIEWERS ARE WAITING FOR NEWS!"

Peter looked about. Several objects were scattered about the area, but one that caught his attention in particular was that same dog from earlier. Walking over to it, he pet it. It tilted its head, like it was confused to see him, but still panted happily.

"WHAT A SENSATIONAL OPPORTUNITY FOR A STORY! I CAN SEE THE HEADLINE NOW: "A DOG EXISTS SOMEWHERE.""

"I don't know about you, but I don't think that's a good headline, Metta-bot." Peter replied. "How about "dog walks itself?" That sounds more fun."

"I MAKE THE NEWS. DO YOU WANT TO REPORT ON THIS THING OR NOT?"

Peter shrugged. "Sure. Why not?"

"ATTENTION, VIEWERS! OUR CORRESPONDENT HAS FOUND... A DOG!"

Canned awws came from Mettaton.

"THAT'S RIGHT FOLKS," Mettaton continued, "IT'S THE FEEL-GOOD STORY OF THE YEAR! LOOK AT ITS LITTLE EARS, TINY PAWS, FLUFFY TAIL..."

"I wish he'd get to the point." Chara complained.

"PATIENCE, DARLING, I'M GETTING THERE." Mettaton tsked. "WAIT A SECOND... THAT'S NOT A TAIL! THAT'S... A FUSE!"

The tail of the dog lit up.

"THAT'S RIGHT... THAT DOG... IS A BOMB!" Mettaton exclaimed. "BUT DON'T PANIC! YOU HAVEN'T EVEN SEEN THE REST OF THE ROOM YET!" The rest of the newsroom fell away to reveal the other objects.

"OH MY!" Mettaton exclaimed. "IT SEEMS EVERYTHING IN THIS AREA IS ACTUALLY A BOMB! THAT PRESENT'S A BOMB! THAT BASKETBALL'S A BOMB! EVEN MY WORDS-"

The subtitles popped out of his mouth and became bombs that promptly blew up.

"BRAVE CORRESPONDENT... IF YOU DON'T DEFUSE ALL THE BOMBS..." Mettaton fake gasped. "THAT BIG BOMB WILL BLOW YOU TO SMITHEREENS IN TWO MINUTES! THEN YOU WON'T BE REPORTING "LIVE" ANY LONGER!" Mettaton posed dramatically. "HOW TERRIBLE! HOW DISTURBING! OUR NINE VIEWERS ARE GOING TO LOVE WATCHING THIS! GOOD LUCK, DARLINGS!"

Alphys called. "D-don't worry! I installed a bomb-defusing program on your phone! All you have to do..."

"... really doc?" Chara folded her arms. "This gets better and better."

Peter wasn't paying attention to either of them. Instead of defusing all the little bombs, he defused the dog first and ran to the big bomb. Breaching the hull, he peeled it open and ran a quick overview.

"Ugh, wish I had a calculator, some sticky notes, and a pencil." He muttered.

Pulling out his cell phone, he launched the bomb refusal program and tweaked the programming. Pulling up Undernet, he launched the search engine and, surprisingly, found some articles on how to defuse MTT brand giant bombs. Doing this in conjecture, he successfully prevented the bomb from exploding.

"WELL DONE, DARLING!" Mettaton re-appeared, and upbeat music filled the cavern. "YOU DEACTIVATED THE GIANT BOMB!"

"All in a day's work." Peter quipped.

The little bombs all stopped ticking.

"IT WILL NOW NOT GO OFF IN TWO MINUTES!" He added, cheerfully. The music cut out. "INSTEAD IT WILL EXPLODE IN TWO SECONDS! GOODBYE, DARLING!"

Peter jumped for the bomb, but two seconds passed and nothing happened.

"... AH." Mettaton cleared his throat. "IT SEEMS THE BOMB ISN'T... ISN'T GOING OFF."

Alphys rang. "That's b-because! While you were monologuing... I... ! I f... fix... Um... I ch-change..."

Mettaton coughed. "OH NO. YOU MUST HAVE DEACTIVATED THE BOMB WITH YOUR HACKING SKILLS. THAT MUST BE WHAT YOU DID, RIGHT?" He coughed again.

"Yeah!" Alphys exclaimed. "That's... that's what I did!"

Mettaton threw his hands in the air. "CURSES. IT SEEMS I'VE BEEN FOILED AGAIN. CURSE YOU, HUMAN! CURSE YOU, DR. ALPHYS, FOR HELPING SO MUCH!" He changed his tone. "BUT I DON'T CURSE MY EIGHT WONDERFUL VIEWERS FOR TUNING IN! UNTIL NEXT TIME, DARLING!" He gave an extravagant bow, and left.

"W-wow..." Alphys stuttered. "W-we really showed him, huh?"

"Yeah... I guess so." Something seemed fishy to him.

Alphys was silent for a moment. "H-hey, I know I was kind of weird at first... But I really think I'm getting more... Uh, more..."

"Confident?" Peter posed.

"Yup! S-so don't worry about that b-big d-dumb robot... I'll protect you from him! A-and if it really c-came down to it, we could just t-turn..." She coughed. "Um, nevermind."

As she hung up, Peter shook his head at Chara. "Something is definitely up. The fact that Alphys has a plan for literally everything Mettaton is throwing at us is very suspicious."

"No kidding." Chara replied. "That hole in the wall Mettaton first burst through? It was only a few inches deep. He was hiding there that whole time. Not to mention, I could swear he's only acting at being evil."

Peter shrugged. "I don't know, I've met bad guys more melodramatic. Still, we need to keep an eye out."

Further down the hall, his phone rang.

"Um... I've noticed you've been kinda quiet." Alphys said. "Are you w-worried about meeting Asgore?"

"Among other things."

"Well, don't worry, okay? Th-the king is a really nice guy... I'm sure you can talk to him, and... W-with your human soul, you can pass through the barrier!"

Peter squared his shoulders. "That's my goal, anyways!"

"S-so no worrying, OK? J-just forget about it and smile."

After she hung up, Papyrus called.

"HEY THERE, PETER!" Papyrus called.

"Finally, a friendly call." Chara quipped.

"Hey there bud! What's up!"

"WELL, I'M HERE AT UNDYNE'S HOUSE. WELL, I HAVE BEEN HERE. FOR SEVERAL DAYS. BUT THAT'S NO PROBLEM! JUST WAITING FOR OUR HANGOUT WITH UNDYNE!"

Peter looked about. "Where are you again?"

"WATERFALL!"

"OK, I'll see you soon!" Papyrus hung up, and Peter turned to Chara. "Well, every man must meet their fish monster sooner or later."

Going back to the first level, Peter went towards the Hotland exit til Chara offered an alternative.

"The ferryman will take you there for free, faster." Chara explained. "He's a bit of an odd duck, but harmless."

She directed Peter down, where he then boarded a small ferry.

"Tra la la. I am the Riverman." They said when he came up. "Or am I the Riverwoman...? It doesn't really matter."

"Right..." Peter replied. "I'm the Spider-man. For sure. Definitely a guy."

The Riverman chuckled. "Care for a ride?"

"Sure." Peter replied. "Can I go to Waterfall?"

The Riverman nodded. "Then we shall be off."

As they sailed along, the Riverman hummed along.

"Tra la la. You can never have too many hot-dogs." They considered. "... sadly, that's not true."

Peter wondered if they were talking about Sans and his hotdog stands. Who knew?

They soon arrived in Waterfall, and the Riverman bade him farewell. Making his way upwards, he passed by the path to Napstablooks house, and chanced the path next to it. Sure enough, there was a house shaped like a fish, and Papyrus standing in front of it.

"OHO! THE HUMAN ARRIVES!" Papyrus exclaimed cheerfully. "ARE YOU READY TO HANG OUT WITH UNDYNE?"

"No, but I'm good for a try." Peter gave a thumbs up.

"GREAT!" Papyrus returned the thumbs up. "I HAVE A PLAN TO MAKE YOU TWO GREAT FRIENDS! NOW STAND BEHIND ME!"

Peter shrugged and did so. Papyrus turned over to him.

"PSST. MAKE SURE TO GIVER HER THIS!" He handed Peter a gift wrapped bone. "SHE LOVES THESE!"

He knocked, and Undyne opened the door. Her face instantly lit up.

"Hi, Papyrus!" She exclaimed. "Ready for your extra-private, one-on-one training?"

"YOU BET I AM!" Papyrus replied. "AND I BROUGHT A FRIEND!"

He moved out of the way. Undyne was smiling so broadly her one eye was closed.

"Hi, I don't thing we've..." She opened her eye. The moment she saw Peter, her grin tightened.

Peter waved.

"Why don't..." She spoke through gritted teeth. "You two. Come in?"

Papyrus entered happily. Chara sighed, and accompanied Peter into the house.