It was another overcast day, and everyone in Neo New Home was acting sluggish, but that didn't mean that it wasn't time for some TRAINING.
That was, at least, Undyne's assessment. When things were moody and slow, that was a good time to get her blood pumping. Out in the open air, just her and a few hired dummies (or some non-possessed dummies, but where was the fun in that?) and nothing but the rush of adrenaline as she honed her abilities. Swift Punch Technique, or Spear Bullet Technique, whatever was going to cause the most flash and substance. Sometimes she could work up a real sweat chasing those dummies around the yard.
Today, it wasn't just her and the dummies. Alphys stood outside with her too, dressed in a track suit and facing off against a dummy of her own.
Although, facing off wasn't really the word that a bystander looking in would use to describe what she was doing. Alphys had magic like the rest of them, but forming it into a bullet pattern of attack had been beyond her means for years - the best that she could do used to be making vague little magical shapes, if she tried, or just putting all of her magic energy into her magics. So Alphys "facing off" had consisted of using her hands and feat in a vaguely attack-like pattern. Slapping and kicking and punching, when the punches didn't miss, building up muscle rather than aim.
Undyne didn't mind; there were plenty of people in the former Royal Guard who'd needed a little extra help getting their magic to that strong, definitive point.
Recently, even that had shown promise; Alphys could create her own offensive bullets now. Little weak beams that zigzagged through the air and popped against the target, moving like the snake arcade game. Undyne had been so proud of the day that they showed up; it's only going to get better from here! she had said with a yell.
Today, she would occasionally look over at Alphys and her progress while she went up against her target. A dummy, but hers was possessed by a ghost; after all, when she summoned and threw spears, she wanted something that was able to DUCK.
Alphys' dummy... did not need to duck.
It wasn't that she didn't land hits, no. It was just the weight behind each one. When Undyne landed a hit, either a punch or a magic bullet, she put her heart and soul into it, all of her confidence and expectation that this hit would shatter her opponent instantly - even if that wasn't always going to be the case. Alphys landed hits more like... she was more afraid that her opponent would get mad at her for trying to land a hit at all.
So, the dummy looked about as new as it was when Undyne first dragged it onto their training field.
After glancing over at Alphys' attack style for yet another time, Undyne straightened up and let loose a hail of spears towards her hapless dummy; the ghost, who by now was familiar with Undyne's "finishing move", flew right out of the vessel before her magical attacks obliterated it. And then, well, all that was left was a smoldering circle where the bullets hit.
Clapping her hands together, as if to rid herself of the powdered debris, Undyne glanced over Alphys' way. Alphys' jaw had dropped, as she stood staring at the sight, and Undyne couldn't help but grin a little.
"Th-th-that was amazing, Undyne!"
Undyne looked over her nails (wait, she forgot that she didn't have nails) trying to play it humble, but she was still grinning when she responded to Alphys, "That's what hard work and a little pride can get you! You're totally gonna be able to do attacks ten times as cool when you're done training, Alphys!"
"R-really?" She looked over the attack site in awe, the kind of personal, contextual awe from Alphys that Undyne was getting steadily better at picking out. To indulge it, she flexed a little beside the smoldering circle.
And then the awe disappeared; with it went Undyne's smile. Because Alphys' eyes cast down, and her body shriveled inward, and she was making again all of the signs that she tended to make when she was about to say something like...
"I don't really know ab-"
"Come ON!"
It startled both of them, Undyne's interruption. But it didn't matter, right? Because she'd already known what Alphys had been about to say anyway, so why waste time? That was how it felt, anyway. Jeeze. And now for a couple seconds the two of them were wasting time, staring at the big full space that had just been occupied by her words.
Undyne cleared her throat, and tried again. "You have to stop doing that, Alphie! You're gonna do great! You're gonna become strong and you're gonna get way, way, WAY better! I just know it! All you have to do is practice!"
"I-I-I know that," she mumbled, with the tiniest frown on her face. "It's just, I've been practicing for a while and I haven't really been getting that much better. Ihaven'tbeengettingbetteratanyoftheotherphysicalactivitiesI'vebeendoingwithPapyruseither," she said, almost under her breath.
Taken aback, Undyne bent down towards Alphys' level with a hand on one hip, her red hair flipping around on her head. "What are you TALKING about? You've made GREAT progress! You didn't used to be able to even use magic to attack at all, and now you're doing it!"
"Yeah... but it's still not doing very much, and also there's still the whole 'training' thing that we're... um..."
You can speak with patience and understanding - enthusiastic patience and understanding - every day, every week, every hour. You can hold out hope, insist upon it, against any little voice in your head that told you to leave it be. You can hold it against the little voice in other people's heads, telling the both of you to leave it be, every day. Like, a knight standing vigilant for their master or for the princess (what did knights actually do again?) You can do that.
Undyne pinched her face, screwing her good eye shut. "-This is - why I asked Papyrus to do this stuff with you."
It didn't come out the way she wanted it to; that was evident by the moment Undyne opened her eye again. Alphys' face changed color. She quickly shook her head, taking in a breath. "I-"
That was as far as she got.
The sky suddenly cracked with lightning and opened up to a torrential downpour, and the two women were soaked instantly. Alphys screamed, while Undyne just frowned and looked up at the clouds - which had a moment ago been a totally peaceful grey color, but now were dark and angry. What the hell? She sure as hell didn't hear any news about a sudden storm from the human weather-girl this morning.
Alphys raced to get under shelter, which happened to be just inside Undyne's new house; Undyne, who tended to take long long showers anyway, just stood still and squinted at the sky. A sharp tooth jutted threateningly from her mouth, as if she was daring the weather to keep up its bullshit.
And just like that, only a few seconds in, the rain went away. In fact, all of the clouds did.
Undyne stomped her wet boots while Alphys ran back to her, eyes wide underneath her glasses. "Did-did-did-did-did you just see that? Did you do that? I-I-I-I mean, did you just make it stop raining?"
...Their conversation wasn't over, just interrupted; Undyne looked back down at her, a squint still on her face, but all the same she couldn't resist giving a huge grin. "Aw man TOTALLY. I knew that whoever was in charge up there would crumble if I just gave them an evil enough eye! Guess the god of weather is a big pansy, huh? I'm gonna have to let Papyrus know, Fuhuhuhu!"
And then as Alphys' eyes shined, Undyne gave a dismissive. "Nah I'm pretty sure it was just a weird fluke. Cloudy one minute and then The weather's done that before, right?"
"W...well, not really," she got in response, Alphys wiping some of the rainwater off her glasses. "W-weather clears up fast sometimes, but n-n-not... changing on a dime. I m-mean it isn't s-supposed to do that. Yeah."
Undyne hooked her thumbs in her jeans pockets. "Uh, it did though."
"W-w-w-well I'm not a m-meteorologist."
"Yeah..." Although she didn't want to accidentally intimidate the sky into raining again, or something, Undyne raised her suspicious squint back to the blue sky that suddenly faced them. It was beautiful, for sure, but it wasn't the weather that human girl had said they would get. She scratched her head. "Either way, weird."
"Y-yeah, weird," Alphys repeated.
They lapsed into silence at that. Their training interrupted (and Undyne was done with her dummy anyway) and their conversation too, they stood in the sudden sunshine. They were soaked, but the warm rays would clear that up soon enough.
It was a good day to go for a jog up a mountain, is what Undyne thought suddenly. Or find out what kind of things needed doing around the city, that was a good idea too. She glanced over at Alphys, who was chewing on her lip and typing on her phone. "Hey Alph?"
"Huh?" She looked back up, blinking rapidly.
"You wanna go do something else?"
And Alphys smiled a wobbly little smile, the kind that was so cute, as she pushed her glasses back up. "Oh, ssure! We could watch some of the DVDs I bought with Sans while we were shopping in the human city?! I um, so far I've watched the Reappearance of Haruyo Mizayu and the Mysterious Adam Keikaku, but, um, there's a lot of others we can watch, t-too. If you want?"
Undyne flashed her a big smile. "Hell yeah! Let's watch some more anime. I'll call Paps over to join us... and he can help clean up my mess too," Undyne mused, scuffing her toe on the smoldering circle.
"Oh - er - you want Papyrus to join us this time?"
A quick nod, a text already sent. "Yeah, he'll be here in a flash."
At that, Alphys tugged at her so-called training clothes and nodded, flushing as she backed away towards the house. "L-let me change, then..."
"See ya inside, Alph," Undyne called after her, with the door into Alphys' house and lab already sliding shut.
Alone, Undyne dragged a hand down her face, frowned, and shook her head. She swallowed. Uncomfortable?
No. Jeeze. Stop it.
She wouldn't think about anything - even the weather - right now. She was setting up for a relaxing rest of the day with two of her favorite people in the world, possibly three if Papyrus ended up inviting the kid. Undyne did a stretch and pushed the dark clouds to the back of her mind.
Although elsewhere in Neo New Home, it seemed that there was someone thinking about that sudden change in weather. Frisk declined Papyrus' inevitable invitation, after the latter had zipped over to Alphys' house.
And then they said that they needed to use his phone.
Author's Note: Aw heck, I don't even remember the last time I posted a chapter for this; I've got some really good excuses, but all I can really say is I hope to be more active for this and other fanfictions. Sorry if I'm a bit rusty with it right now, though.
I've been going back to this series a bit recently. I kind of want to edit it from the first story on. But maybe I should wait until I've finished this thing to attempt that. Hmm.
Next Chapter: Higher Prioritized