The entrance to the MTT Hotel looked rather fancy with a red carpet, large bushes, and clear doors. But what caught their attention was Sans standing right in front of the bush on their left.
"Well, whaddya know?" Yakko asked. "It's Sans!"
"hey guys."
"Whatcha doin' out here?" said Wakko.
"i heard you're going to the core. how about grabbing some dinner with me first?"
"Are ya kidding?" said Dot. "We'd never say no to you."
"great, thanks for treating me. over here. i know a shortcut."
"Lead the way!" said Yakko.
They followed him down the alley. Before they knew it, they were suddenly sitting in an empty restaurant. The tables and walls were a duller purple compared to the previous room.
"well, here we are."
"Ya sure picked out a nice place," said Dot.
"thanks. so. your journey's almost over, huh? you must really wanna go home."
"I'll admit," said Yakko. "I kinda miss my other friends back in Burbank. Scratchy, Pinky, Brain, Slappy, Skippy...I wonder if they even know we're gone."
"they're probably looking for you back at the surface. kids like you are hard to forget."
They smiled at him.
"anyway, i know the feeling. though...maybe sometimes it's better to take what's given to you. down here you've already got food, drink, more friends…is what you have to do...really worth it?"
"Well," said Dot, "just so ya know, we're not goin' back home without you guys. Even if it means we have to stay down here forever. But it's totally worth it."
"you'll have to convince the king not to kill you first. and let me tell you, it's gonna be hard. people say he's a pushover, but he's also really stubborn."
"Still worth a shot," said Wakko.
Sans sighed.
"look, i appreciate what you're doing. we all do. just don't get too ahead of yourselves, okay? if you run before you know how to walk, it won't end well."
They nodded.
"i'm rootin' for ya, kids."
"Thanks Sans," said Dot.
Sans went silent for a bit, then spoke up again.
"hey. let me tell you a story. so i'm a sentry in snowdin forest, right? i sit out there and watch for humans. it's kind of boring. fortunately, deep in the forest...there's this HUGE locked door."
This peaked the kids' interest. Their ears perked up as they kept listening to Sans' story.
"and it's perfect for practicing knock knock jokes. so one day, i'm knocking 'em out, like usual. i knock on the door and say 'knock knock.' and suddenly, from the other side...i hear a woman's voice. 'who is there?' so, naturally, i respond: 'dishes.' 'dishes who?' 'dishes a very bad joke.'"
The Warners chuckled at the joke. As Sans progressed, they had an idea of who the woman was, but needed a little more proof to be sure.
"then she just howls with laughter. like it's the best joke she's heard in a hundred years. so i keep 'em coming, and she keeps laughing. she's the best audience i've ever had. then, after a dozen of 'em, SHE knocks and says…'Knock knock!' i say 'whos there?' 'old lady!' 'old lady who?'"
They already knew the punchline.
"'oh! I did not know you could yodel!'"
Yakko and Dot excitedly gasped, the proper grammar giving it away.
"Goat Mom!" Wakko shouted.
"huh?"
Yakko explained.
"That lady you've been talkin' to took care of us for a week before we met ya! We call her Goat Mom 'cause she reminds us of our mom."
"Her name's Toriel," said Wakko.
"toriel...that's a nice name. anyway, we kept telling jokes for hours. eventually, i had to leave. papyrus gets cranky without his bedtime story."
Dot's smile grew a little bigger and squeaked at the mention of Papyrus.
"but she told me to come by again, so i did. then i did again. and again. it's a thing now. telling bad jokes through the door."
"That's sweet," said Dot.
He nodded.
"it rules."
"This is a nice story and all," said Yakko, "but it's obviously goin' somewhere. What are ya hiding?"
"i'm getting there, yakko. one day, i noticed she wasn't laughing very much. i asked her what was up. then she told me something strange. 'if a human or humanfolk ever comes through this door...could you please, please promise something? watch over them, and protect them, will you not?'"
The Warners exchanged curious glances, then looked back at Sans.
"You're being serious, right?" Dot asked. "No jokes or punchlines?"
"no jokes this time. now, i hate making promises. and this woman, i didn't even know her name before now. but...someone who sincerely likes bad jokes...has an integrity you can't say 'no' to."
He looked away and took a moment to sigh. Unlike her brothers, Dot never really got to see this side to Sans unless her nightmare counted. As for Yakko and Wakko, they didn't expect to see it resurface. He faced them once more.
"do you get what i'm saying? that promise i made to her...you know what would have happened if she hadn't said anything?"
They shook their heads.
"...kids."
Sans' pupils disappeared from his eyesockets as he spoke in the same low and shaky voice he used when he first approached them back in the forest.
"You'd be dead where you stand."
Yakko and Wakko felt uncomfortable, but Dot was flat-out spooked. She wasn't letting that nightmare bother her before, but hearing Sans' words...made her tremble.
"At your hands or someone else's?" Yakko asked, half-joking.
Sans had no reply as Wakko tried to calm Dot down.
"What's wrong, sis?"
"...I…"
Sans' pupils returned and he gave her a look as if he knew about the nightmare, then continued talking. He would have shrugged off his comment as a joke, but decided against it.
"in a different timeline, there's no guarantee you'd be this friendly and upbeat. toons should know more than anyone about what they could've been."
"How'd ya get so deep?" said Yakko.
"i dunno," Sans shrugged, "i guess it kinda happened. but back to toriel's promise, haven't i done a great job protecting you? i mean, look at yourselves. you haven't died a single time."
"That's what happens when ya bend the rules of the game a little," said Dot.
"I gotta say," said Yakko, "your story explains why you've been followin' us everywhere. Not that we're complaining, though."
"i know."
He got out of his chair.
"well, that's all. take care of yourselves, kids. 'cause someone really cares about you."
As he walked away, the Warners waved, but not as enthusiastically.
"Bye Sans…"
"Was he like that at Grillby's?" Dot asked.
"Yeah," said Wakko, "when he told us about Papyrus and Flowey."
They walked out of the restaurant, not quite sure what feeling filled them. All they knew was that they felt...something. Yakko lightened the mood.
"Toriel and Sans...never would've guessed."
"At least those skeleton jokes in her diary make sense now," said Dot.
Finding themselves in the hotel's lobby, they couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of Mettaton's fountain. He made finger guns while spitting water all over the red carpet.
"We can do better," said Yakko.
They all stood under the fountain and filled their mouths with water, then Wakko and Dot perched themselves on Yakko's hands. The three of them spit out their water at an angle, putting Mettaton's fountain to shame. A few monsters passing by laughed and took pictures of them until they ran out of water. As Wakko and Dot jumped off, Yakko thought of something.
"Hey, before we keep going can we go back outside? I saw a note by the entrance."
"Sure!" said Wakko.
They walked outside and found the note Yakko talked about.
(Hey! Go up the creepy alleyway on the right for some great deals!)
"Kinda suspicious," said Dot, "but we got nothin' to lose."
They walked and found a small shop run by a crocodile girl and a cat. As they spoke in almost perfect sync, the crocodile would normally talk before the cat.
"Hey! Check it out!"
"Yeah! Check it out!"
"I'm Bratty, and this is my best friend, Catty."
"I'm Catty, and this is my best friend, Bratty."
They looked at each other for a moment, then laughed.
"Neat store ya got here," said Yakko. "Where'd ya get all this stuff?"
"The stuff inside," said Bratty, "is like…"
"TOTALLY wicked expensive." said Catty.
"But, like, this stuff we found is like…"
"TOTALLY wicked cheap."
"You should…"
"Like…"
"TOTALLY wicked buy all of it!" they finished in unison.
"You're lucky we're crazy rich," said Yakko.
They looked at the items. There was junk food with a huge chunk bitten out of it, a cowboy hat, an empty gun, and a mystery key.
"I'll take the hat and the gun," said Yakko, handing them 700G.
"Bratty, we're gonna be RICH!"
Dot looked at her brother confused as he put the items in Wakko's bag.
"Why did ya buy those if you're not gonna use 'em?"
"I will later."
He turned to look back at Bratty and Catty.
"Anyway, we got a show to catch; there's no way we're missing Mettaton's finale! So, uhhhhh, see ya around."
"Like, see you later!"
"Like, later and stuff!"
They walked back into the hotel and found a few other monsters crowding around the elevator. They would normally talk to them, but they were incredibly eager for their final showdown with Mettaton and chose not to waste anymore time. Unfortunately, the elevator was broken.
"Well," said Yakko, "looks like we'll have to do this the hard way."
They walked through the doors with "CORE" written over it in large orange letters. The pathway grew dimmer as they looked ahead, and they could have sworn they say two black shadows walking away from them. This was followed by texts from Alphys. She would send them a long chain of texts as they made their way through the Core, so they made sure not to miss a beat.
*huh? Who are they?
*nobody else is supposed to be here
Dot texted back.
*We made it this far, no way we're stopping now!
As they reached the end of the hallway, the machinery menacingly glowed red and the open doorway emitted a blue light. Moderately quick techno music played, causing high levels of energy to flow within the toons' bodies.
"This is a nice beat," said Yakko. "Really gets me in the mood."
*ready? This is it! Take the elevator up to the top of the core!
Upon examination, however, the elevator was broken.
"Welp," said Dot as she texted Alphys about the situation, "looks like we'll have to take the long way."
The path split in two by the left and the right of the elevator.
"Let's try left," said Yakko.
As soon as they took the left, they were approached by one of the shadowy figures.
*watch out!
An encounter was initiated as Madjick popped out of its hat.
"Uh-" Yakko started.
Madjick cut him off by chattering to itself. It seemed satisfied.
"Please and thank you."
It summoned three orbs, which worked as a homing attack.
"Oh no not one of these!" Dot shouted.
They dodged to the music, jumping to the sides of the boundary box four times before the attack ended. Madjick left behind 30 gold after being spared.
*that was close
"You can say that again, Alphys!" said Yakko.
*why are there so many monsters here
They ran toward the open red door, ignoring her text. A blue zigzag laser blocked the path, but a switch was next to it.
"This is way too easy!" said Dot.
She hit it, deactivating it but reactivating three lasers.
"Here they come," said Wakko.
They froze in position as two blue lasers passed over them, but ran through the third orange one and across the glass floor. It wasn't long before they reached another crossroads. They could either go left or straight.
"Hey," said Dot, "what's that on the left?"
They ran to the side, encountering Knight Knight in front of a dead end.
"She looks tired," said Yakko.
He approached her and sang a lullaby.
"Rock-a-bye baby in the tree top…"
She started to look sleepy, smashing her Morningstar on the ground. Shooting stars fell all around the box.
"Look out!" Wakko shouted.
The three of them retreated to their safe corner in the bottom right side of the box. Once it stopped, Yakko sang again.
"When the wind blows the cradle will drop…"
She closed her eyes and snored, falling asleep. Dot nodded at her brother.
"Not bad, Yakko!"
"Thanks, sister sib."
They headed back to the other path and found more lasers.
"Oh boy," said Dot, "that's a lotta lasers."
"How are we gonna get past this one?" Wakko asked.
*i wont mess around this time. I'll just deactivate the lasers and let you through
*wait its not turning off
*ill just turn off the whole power node
She shut down the power.
"This isn't too bad," said Yakko. "I can still kinda see."
They passed by the first half of the lasers just fine, but things got a little complicated as they walked through a seemingly never-ending row of deactivated lasers.
*WAIT STOP
"Huh?" said Wakko.
They all froze as the lasers turned back on. All of them were blue.
*the power is turning itself back on
*damnit this isnt supposed to
They would have comforted her if moving their mouths didn't mean they'd be hurt.
*gonna turn it off again
*when i do that move a little then STOP
They turned off.
"Thanks Al!" said Yakko.
They took five quick steps before freezing as the lasers turned back on, all to the beat of the music. This happened three times before they got to the other side.
"All clear!" said Dot.
They reached a third crossroads. This time they could go forward, left, or right.
"I wanna go left again," said Yakko. "It hasn't failed us yet!"
The air around them reeked of ozone, filling them with determination.
"Twinkling star," said Wakko, "give us strength."
They did so, finding a conveyor belt carrying ice to cool the Core.
"It's like Snowdin," said Dot, "but we actually see where the ice cubes go!"
They continued skipping forward, straying to the left to read a sign.
"Solve this puzzle," Wakko read, "and The End will open. Look, another box puzzle!"
They excitedly ran to the puzzle.
"We got two shots this time," said Yakko.
Left, up, left, down, down, down, up, right, right, up, right, up, right.
"There we go!"
Yakko shot the box blocking his path, then shot the target. They returned to the path they were on before and found yet another crossroads.
"Jeez," said Dot, "it's like they're obsessed or something."
Front or right?
"Right's always right," said Wakko.
They ran all the way down the hall, ignoring the other crossroads, and could choose between left or right.
"Left," they said in unison.
A trash can was in the middle of the room. Yakko's eyes popped as soon as he saw what was inside.
"HOLY COW! Who would wanna throw away 100 gold?!"
Naturally, he took the money.
"Whoa," said Dot, "you weren't joking!"
They ran back the other way, finding themselves at an identical crossroads.
"I think I'm getting dizzy," said Wakko.
"You're not alone," said Yakko.
They stumbled to their left, finding a bridge.
"Well," said Dot, "at least we know we're going the right way."
"Is Alphys ok?" Wakko asked. "She hasn't texted in a while."
"She probably went to the bathroom again," said Yakko.
They were almost across the bridge when Astigmatism drew near.
"...Don't pick on me."
"We won't," said Wakko.
Small balls ricocheted off the wall and at the Warners.
"Yipe!"
They stumbled back, then lunged to the side. Astigmatism didn't care about fighting anymore and gave the Warners 50 gold as they spared it.
"Look sibs," said Yakko, pointing to the wall where an elevator and ominous door greeted them, "we made it!"
"Mettaton's gotta be in there waiting for us," said Wakko.
"Yep," said Yakko.
They stepped through the door.
"Let's do this."