As Peter continued into the strange place Chara and he had fallen into, his eye was caught by flickering screens. They had text on them, written in neon green. Curious, he went over to investigate.
"Look at this, Char..." He read over the text. "It seems that someone was tasked with finding a way out of the Underground... using SOUL power. Apparently, they determined that SOUL power itself could not be used, so they isolated what gave SOULs their power."
"Determination." Finished Chara. "Powerful enough to maintain a dead human long past when they should have ceased existing. I suppose it makes sense."
"Still, this place gives me the willies." Peter shivered. "There's gotta be some way out of here..."
As he continued down the corridor, he found a large room branching out to two sides, with an elevator in the center. It appeared powered off. A nearby note indicated that it would power on when... something something. It was hard to make out.
"Looks like some exploration is needed..." Peter muttered. Picking a path, he followed it down a hall. More screens were there.
"Huh." He said. "Apparently, the person who was writing this... likely Alphys, said that she injected Determination into comatose monsters."
Chara gestured around the room they had entered. "That would explain the cots."
"It seemed to work... in a way. The monsters didn't turn to dust." Peter noted.
On the other side of the cots were some sinks. Peter paid them no mind... until one turned on. A gooey white substance leaked out, and Peter's spider-sense began to hum.
"Gross." Chara stated.
Suddenly, it reformed into a collection of... eyes and mouths and teeth and tails. They stared blankly chuckling slightly.
"And creepy." She deadpanned.
Peter found himself pulled into a fight. The beings groaned and shuffled towards them.
"Chara, what are my options!?" He yelled.
"I don't know! These aren't monsters..." She bit her lip. "At least any I've seen."
Their faces expanded, and Peter leapt back as one touched him. It hurt, and felt sticky. Odd combination.
His phone buzzed, and as he opened it up, the beings seemed to speak.
"Come join the fun." They said flatly in chorus, heads expanding once more.
"OK, so I'm gonna call these MemoryHeads, cause they're heads and they're messing with your phone memory." Chara said.
"That's a leap!" Peter jumped around one.
"Give me a break, this is new territory!" Chara replied. "They said they wanted you to... join the fun?"
"Gee, no thanks guys." Peter stuck to the ceiling. "I've, uh, got a dental appointment for your teeth. Heh."
The MemoryHeads stopped, then simply melted back into the sink.
"That was... odd." Peter stated. "And a little terrifying."
"Look: There's a red key in the sink." Chara noted.
Peter shrugged and pocketed it. "Could be useful."
Sure enough, down the hall was a red lock. When Peter inserted the key, the electricity flickered a bit. Backtracking, he found that one of the knobs on the door was faintly glowing.
"OK, find the keys, activate the locks." He said. "Simple."
Continuing in the opposite direction, he came upon more equipment... and more notes.
"Looks like she just kept injecting Determination, and it worked." He noted. "Odd, there seems to be some notes missing. 7-11."
In the next rooms was a row of beds. Finding a yellow key under the blankets of one, Peter continued on his way.
The next hallway down, he found rows and rows of Golden Flowers, mirrors... and the missing notes.
"She needed to test it first." He said. "So she did... on tons and tons of Golden flowers."
Chara paused. "Hold on... does this mean..."
She didn't finish. Peter's spider-sense went off and he whipped around to face the mirror. The reflection in it suddenly... moved.
Peter gasped as his reflection melted into some sort of... bird thing? It blinked at him, then drew him into a FIGHT.
"I... have no clue what this is." Chara spoke.
The creature moaned, then made a smaller image of a creature out of magic bullets. It then attacked it with flies. The smaller creature collapse in pain.
"Ok, that's a little creepy." Peter said. "Not gonna lie."
The creature murmed. The flies that had been attacking the other creature now flew towards Peter, but they were easy enough to dodge. They seemed familiar, like the attack of...
"A froggit?" Peter asked. "How would this creature have the attack of a Froggit?"
"I... don't know?" Chara replied.
"How can I help you?" Peter asked. "Froggit... wait, the eye of a Loox! I recognize some of it! Let me help you!"
The creature perked up and blinked, as though recalling a distant memory. Oddly, it seemed.. at peace.
"You... have... helped..." It spoke. It then folded up on itself and vanished.
Still shivering, Peter continued down the hall, waiting for his spider-sense to go off next. "Geez, I cannot wait to leave this place."
The switch required a different key than he had, so he backtracked.
"Did Alphys... create Flowey?" Chara asked.
"I'm not sure... But we're dealing with magic here, and that's never been my strong suit." Peter replied. "But there's a good chance that she may have."
A few rooms over was a broken heating unit. It was cold, and specks of snow floated about.
"The note in the other room mentioned cold..." Peter postulated. "Maybe, if I turn up the heat..."
As soon as he did, the snow spots congealed together, and formed a giant dog-like creature. It ran at him, howling.
"Good boy!" Peter yelled as the FIGHT began.
The creature paused. It suddenly yelped and ran at him, some sort of strange goo pouring from it's mouth.
Chara thought for a moment "I... I think it's a bunch of dogs?"
Peter dodged the dog's advance. "Makes as much sense as anything else!"
"Pet it and say it's a good boy!" Chara yelled.
"AAAAAAA!" Peter yelled as the dog nearly crushed him. It's fur felt sticky. "Good... boy..."
It yelped, and fell asleep for a moment. When it woke up, it began bounding the walls. Peter was leaping from the walls to avoid it.
"Play with it!" Chara yelled.
"Uh... fetch!" Peter grabbed a stick and threw it. The dog bounded after it, and returned it promptly. Peter pet the dog again, and it began vibrating faster and faster until...
The happy faces of multiple dogs appeared and yelped, licked him, then melted away.
Peter looked around. No key.
"On the plus side, you played with a giant dog?" Chara suggested, chuckling.
Peter groaned, wiping sticky goo off himself. "Some plus, I suppose. We still gotta find that key."
More screens told more of the story: The monster had been chatting happily, so much so that Alphys had told their families they were alive...
But something happened. And Peter wasn't sure he wanted to know what.
Continuing to search around the lab, Peter came across a room with a tub in the center. Behind the curtain that hung over it... something was moving.
"Proceed... carefully." Chara whispered.
Peter tiptoed forward, his lack of spider-sense more concerning than the increasingly freakish noises the tentacle was making, til he pulled back the curtain and-
Nothing. Just a green key.
"That was anticlimactic." Spoke Chara, peeking out from behind him.
"Look who's talking." He chuckled nervously, taking the key. He exited with his face towards the tub.
The next room had a large machine, that looked close to a skull of some kind. Peter decided to go into the room to the side. He didn't like the look of the thing.
The next room had a space for a yellow key, as well as a VHS player and piles of tapes. Peter inserted the key into the lock and walked out. Back to the room with the skull.
"Why did the Doc have to lean into the whole "Evil supervillain lair" aesthetic when she made this place?" Peter asked. "It's hardly practical."
Chara shrugged.
Peter's spider sense went off, and he leapt back just as one of the gooey monsters popped up in front of him. It grinned with teeth too big for it, and Peter was sucked into an immediate fight.
"Smells like lemons." Chara noted.
"Unhelpful." Peter replied. "Ok, so every other one of these has been some sort of fusion of monsters we've faced before. What's your take on this one?"
Chara considered. "Two body sections, bulging muscles, extra slime... I'd say something like Shyren mixed with Aaron and a Moldsmol. Gosh, that sounds weird."
Peter considered. "Hey there, tall and... slippery. What's your name?"
"WeLcOmE tO mY sPeCiAl HeLl!" The being(s?) moaned, mouth extending. Peter slung a web to get away, and thwipped a few more at the being. The webs simply melted straight into them.
"Odd..." Peter snapped his fingers. "The webs are alloyed with determination... just like the monster! Maybe the chemical properties are similar-"
"Interesting theory for another time." Chara interrupted. "Try... I don't know! Um... what is something that would take their mind off you!?"
Peter thought for a moment. "Hold on!"
He began to hum Shyren's tune. The creature paused for a moment, seeming to blink in recollection. It then launched at him once more.
"That didn't work!" He yelled.
"Distractions, distractions..." Chara's head snapped up. "Flex and strike a pose!"
Peter didn't have any better plans. Executing a complicated flipping maneuver, he hit a three point landing and struck a flex.
The being paused again. Flexing it's own goey appendages in response, it then simply... oozed away.
Peter shivered. At the same time, he felt a slight tremble in his eye. "What... happened to these people? Clearly, they're some sort of imperfect fusion... But how?"
Chara pointed. "I think I know."
Peter looked at the screen. It was another note by Alphys.
"The monsters she treated... they fused together." He swallowed hard. "Their bodies couldn't handle the determination. So this is what Alphys feels so terrible about. No wonder. All these creatures... because of her, they've morphed into something truly terrible. I'm not even sure how much of them would be left. The science... magic... it's beyond me."
Chara laid her hand on his shoulder. "Peter. We need to find Alphys. She's the only one who knows anything about this."
Peter nodded, and pressed on.
In the next room was a row of refrigerators. In the hall at the end was another lock. Peter inserted the green key, then looked around for the blue one. As he began his search, he noticed that one of the refrigerators was moving. Stepping cautiously, he opened the door to see-
Nothing.
But he didn't sigh in relief just yet. The fridge to his left melted into another creature. One blazing with cold, and looking downright... wilted.
"It... seems like it's losing itself." Chara spoke in a hushed tone.
"Sn... o... w..." It whimpered.
Peter wondered why his spider-sense hadn't gone off, until the bullets it sent out... fell harmlessly to the ground. Like flecks of snow.
Peter sadly looked at the monster. "I'm... not even sure how to deal with this. It doesn't want to FIGHT, but I can't spare it."
Chara looked at the monster closely. "It looks like a Snowdrake. And if there's anything I know about Snowdrakes, they love puns about snow."
Peter smiled with a wet glint in his eye. "Then how about I give some of my best material, eh? I've got a hundred of these, you SNOW it!"
The monster perked up.
"Thank goodness for Sans." Peter mumbled. "I wanted a snow cone once, but they were out of syrup. At least the service was pretty... ICE!"
The monster lifted it's head. "Ha... ha... that was... terrible... I loved it..."
Peter shrugged. "I figured sooner or later I'd have to SNOW you my ICE'est puns! And I'm giving them out for FREEZE!"
The monster chuckled. "Th... ank... Thank you..."
It melted away, with a peaceful expression on its face.
It left behind the last key.
Peter picked it up, and walked slowly across the lab to where the lock was. He met no more of the goo monsters.
The door at the entryway was powered up now, but Peter hesitated before entering.
"I... I'm not sure what to do now." Peter looked around at the lab. "These poor monsters... as a scientist, who's experimented with cutting edge tech before... What would I have done in her place?"
Chara looked around. "Alphys made some pretty major mistakes. But her mistakes, made in the name of progress, do not mean that you've made them. I suppose you just have to learn and grow. Don't make the mistakes she did. Besides... I don't think she meant for this to happen. Maybe she could have handled it better. But now that you know, I think you should help. Knowledge is power, after all. And with great power comes great responsibility. You taught me that."
Peter chuckled. "In those exact words?"
Chara giggled. "Kinda."
Peter took a deep breath, and walked in.
Inside was another elevator. Powered down. Of course. Peter followed the conduit to another power switch.
"Turn this on, the whole place should power up." Chara spoke cheerfully.
Looking around, Peter pushed the switch. The moment he did, the hum of electricity was suddenly spiked by the alert of his spider-sense. Whipping around, he spotted several of the melted monsters advancing towards him, laughing and humming menacingly. Peter looked for an escape, but they were coming from all directions. As his spider-sense began going off at an alarming rate, he steadied himself for a fight he wasn't sure he could win.