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"I-I-I don't understand," Alphys stuttered, weaving her claws in and out of the space between them. Every since the pair had left The Armory, Mettaton hadn't so much as opened his mouth, yet he found himself forced to listen to her ramble on about this or that, family ties, Royal Guard positions, confusing coincidences he knew too little of to be confused over.

Part of him was tuning her out, feeling his joints relax as the sound of rushing water lapped against the river bed. Another part of him, the one curious as to what all was going on and the backstories of the characters around him, still registered the information, though storing it in random bins he'd have to sort through if he wanted to piece together her words at any point in time. Something like… There was this girl named Undyne (who Alphys knew a very suspiciously large amount about) that led the Royal Guard. Captain or something. And Frisk's dad was a...skeleton? It'd probably make sense later. Maybe. Hopefully.

"Even if Undyne adopted Frisk, why would they call her their dad? Unless she wanted to be a guy, but I don't think… Maybe she does…" She certainly didn't seem very uncomfortable as a lady, though Undyne did act like there was a large surplus of testosterone to go around. "E-even if that was the case! Why would she give her a bone? It doesn't make sense."

Mettaton simply shrugged as he had been doing for most of the conversation. As far as he could tell, Alphys was simply thinking out loud. It wasn't like he could answer her. And if she did expect one, well, he was going to remind her very clearly about how that wasn't possible.

Alphys shook her head, batting one hand against her cheek. "W-what if…? No, she wouldn't quit. She wouldn't do that…"

Frisk waved as the duo passed, and though Alphys continued to stare down at her feet in thought, Mettaton smiled slightly, wiggling his fingers with his palm facing the human. They rounded a corner, and it wasn't long after that Mettaton found his boot sloshing against a deep hue of ultramarine.

"Uck!" the robot yelped, quickly withdrawing his foot and shaking the water off of it. It wasn't dirty water, thankfully. One thing he had to appreciate about being Underground was that the monsters seemed to at least know how to care for their environment. Unless there was secretly fish poop laying on the bottom of the waterfall. Dead fish and fish poop. Yuck.

At the cry, Alphys turned her attention back to her partner, tilting her head. "What's wrong, Mettaton?"

"The water," he replied, nodding his head in front of them. "I don't think water is good for robots, and it's going to ruin my fabulous boots!"

"O-oh! Um…" Her head swiveled around, eyes scanning their environment with a narrowed intention and increased focus, the thoughts from before pushing their way to the farthest reaches of her conscious. "There should be a bridge…"

She led the way for a couple of steps, brushing aside a few weeds and revealing a small wooden bridge that hid behind them, a smile pushing its way onto her face. "...here!"

Mettaton, too, mimicked this expression, striding over and even stepping onto the wood posts. It was sturdy, certainly enough to hold his own weight. It didn't jiggle in the slightest. Though the lack of handrails was a bit unsettli-

Then he looked down.

Instantly, his arms reached out for Alphys, wrapping around her torso and tightening while his eyes were peering at the area below their feet.

"Alphys?" he asked, body tensed and gaze fixated on however many feet below the floor rested. His voice was hasty, almost uneven as he spoke. "There's another bridge, right?"

"Uh…" She held out her arms for balance. "N-no...unless you want to go back through the waterfall, but if the water gets through your boots and into your feet… I-I don't think it's a good idea." But what does she know?

He frowned, biting his lip again (still unsatisfying...he'll probably be out of the habit by the time they reach Alphys's lab at this rate). There wasn't another way around. He was either going to fall to death or get short circuited. Ug, this day was just getting better and better.

"We should try going through the waterfall," Mettaton muttered, though he made no move to step off of the bridge. He seemed frozen, almost. It was enough to cause Alphys to glance over him.

In response, she let out a small, barely audible sigh. "Mettaton, if you want, I can guide you across here. Just close your eye-"

"NO," the borderline-narcissist cut in rather abruptly. "I can get across myself! I just need a little time to gather my balance."

Her eyes turned away out of emotional distress, though were caught at the glimpse of something shining in the water. It was red, bright red, and as small as a pinpoint. When she tugged at her companion's arms to pull away from his grasp, however, he only held on tighter.

"Where are you going?" he hissed, to which she sighed, pointing at the dot.

Both set of eyes drew to it, one more so than the other and a twinkle in that pair in particular. He wasn't sure when, exactly, but the time between him moving his feet and stopping in front of that red dot became a blur in his memory, all drawn away by the blinking ruby glow.

"What is it?" he breathed, face coming close to touching the water's edge but being careful not to let his circuitry too close to the liquid.

Alphys didn't respond at first, instead favoring to press one claw gently against the dot's surface. There was a faint image behind it, though the water made this faded and warped. The descending water parted around her hand, and she gasped.

*Huh!? Th-there's a camera behind the waterfall!

Better yet, one of her cameras.

Mettaton frowned, reaching out to touch it, though quickly retracting his finger as he felt a small zap travel up his arm after touching the liquid.

Alphys's face scrunched. She leaned forward. The water still interacted with her body as if it physically existed in that plane of existence, which was an interesting thing to note. What's more interesting, however, was that her camera was on.

It was natural to assume someone had taken her spot as the Royal Scientist, but her security system...unless Asgore had told the replacement about it...but then who was her replacement?

"Um…" Alphy shook her head. She glanced over at Mettaton, who was bent down to cling to her with one arm still, nose face-to-face with the machine and fixated with fascination. "It's not very important. Let's just…let's just keep going."

She took a step forward, though not before being tugged back by the robot who still had a firm hold on her.

"But Alphys! Why is there a camera in a waterfall? What's it recording?"

"Um." She then glanced around, to the right once, to the left, then up, never once meeting Mettaton's eyes. "Probably just a documentary. Let's keep going."

Clinging to the waterfall wasn't the problem. Mettaton still seemed somewhat antsy after being torn away from the mystical device, though nowhere near as bad as he was when they were back to being held up a mere wooden plank with air on either side that he really began to fidget. Silently, of course, though the tension was still rather obvious to the one he clinged to. She chose not to talk about it.

It wasn't until they stepped onto solid, dry rock once more that the robot would release his hold, assuming his natural position as leader and carry forward a few steps before turning back to face her.

The light cast onto him from the glowing rocks lining the walls didn't seem like much at first (certainly not enough to stop and catch his breath by jotting down his adventures in his journal), however, when his head swiveled down to his companion's form, it was then that she realized how long the shadow behind him was cast. Mettaton, on the other hand, was at least aware of how much brighter the road behind him seemed as opposed to the one with what looked like large clumps of seaweed sprouting up in his way. They were shorter than him, naturally, so it wasn't like walking through the things would hinder him anymore than simply slowly him down, though that didn't mean it wouldn't be a nuisance.

In fact, upon noting that Alphys was keeping up, he continued forward, pressing one foot into the sea of weeds before him, though entangling it within the leaves and with another step, falling, hands swinging up to block the floor from colliding with him.

"A-are you okay!?" Alphys exclaimed, rushing over to his side and offering him a hand. This was quickly withdrawn, however, when a voice cracked through the sound of rushing water.

Her eyes widened, and she glanced up at the source. It was then that the ghost dino would attempt to press Mettaton down with what little strength she had. "St-stay down!"

Mettaton opened his mouth to question her, though quickly shut it upon hearing the words, "Um...hoi! I'm here wit mah daily repor!"

They couldn't see much, though with what little was visible to Alphys over the tall ledge, she was at least able to catch sight of the average-height white furball, dark grey hair popping over her cheeks and framing both pairs of ears. The fur around her eyes seemed somewhat matted and said blue eyes held a slight tint of red to them, drooping only the smallest bit, albeit a smile still present on her face.

Whoever she was talking to (who was just too far or too short to be seen) must have given a visual reply, as she continued after only a brief moment of silence.

"Yee! We foun...HOOMAN!"

Alphys was able to hear something, a mutter almost, though she couldn't quite make out what.

"Did we fight? um...YUS! WE FOUGHT TO DA DEATH!1!"

The voice picked up again. Something in the scientist's mind rang familiarity, though she couldn't quite figure out why.

"SOUL? um... Well! Acktually! I dunno."

She swore she recognised that voice from somewhere- the second one, the one that was just too quiet to comprehend. The first was Temmie's with no doubt, but the second…?

Temmie sighed. "Okee.. I'll go get Frisk."

The pair watched as she trotted off, presumably back to the sentry post where they had last seen the human she mentioned. Her footsteps were light, though not as eager as before, and her smile seemed to fade a little as she walked.

Mettaton, unaware of the faint voice that had spoken to the tem, waited a moment before beginning to straighten his legs and press himself out of the entanglement of seaweed.

"Alphys-?"

Both froze, however, once the echo of metal on metal rung through their ears and he popped right back down, palms scraping against the stone floor. His breath was heavy, shoulders crushing him under his own weight, but he stood still, waiting for the sound to pass.

Alphys, who had again pressed her hand onto him to signal for him to stay low, held her grip this time. She watched as the tip of a helmet poked into sight from the ledge above them. It hovered closer, revealing more metal to conceal the face of the stranger. Their eyes were visible, at least, or what were supposed to be eyes. There was too little light to see anything clearly, save for, of course, the bright cyan glow emitting from where the stranger's left socket would be. It didn't light up much. The area around its metal was a dull silver color and the rest of the face seemed almost white, though with a tint of blue due to its illuminator. It didn't seem all that important.

The figure whipped its hand across its chest, the same blue glow as its eye forming in the hand's path. Its shape was elongated to the length of a spear, though structure too wide at the ends to be one. Instead, it seemed to manifest into some sort of staff or...bone.

Alphys, however, didn't seem to notice.

All she managed to see was the blue glow coming from the stranger's hands. The rest was hidden behind the cliff.

The stranger glanced around, its glowing eye flashing with bits of yellow as it did so, before it sheathed its bone into the thin air, taking several steps back and vanishing into the darkness behind it. The last piece of evidence that it was still there- its eye- slowly faded out until there was nothing.

Two orangish-brown eyes darted about, her hand raising off of her companion's shoulder. They finally met his own and both gazes locked for a few seconds before tearing away, Mettaton standing straight and once more reclaiming his position as leader.

Upon exiting the seaweed brush, however, a rustling could be heard from behind them.

The duo had turned to witness the same small yellow monster child from earlier, the one sitting on the ledge, rush out with a proud smile preset on their face. The little stubs that served as arms waved about enthusiastically while their legs bobbed up and down to a nightcore rhythm.

"Yo!" the kid cried, and Alphys found herself frozen. Small trickles of water began to creep up into her eyes, though she hardly noticed. Too many thoughts in her head.

Mettaton only glanced between the two once before raising an eyebrow. "Hm?"

"Did you see the way he was staring at you…?"

To this, the robot fell silent, though only for a moment. He? Surely this child didn't mean Temmie. "Who?"

"That…" the child continued, completely blowing off Mettaton's question in their own anxiousness. "...was AWESOME! I'm sooo jealous! What'd you do to get his attention...? Ha ha."

The spiked monster bolted a few steps forward before falling on their face, though pushing themself up like a worm and happily replying to the non-asked question of if they were okay with a smile.

"Who?" the robot repeated before the monster kid could run off again. He was a bit more confident this time, no longer letting the confusion seep into his words as he once had. A hand was over his hip.

"Sans!" the kid replied and let out a short burst of energetic laughter. "He's Captain of the Royal Guard! Duh!"

"S-SANS IS CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL GUARD!?"

The monster kid, unaware of the shout that came as a response to their statement, turned around and sprinted happily further down the path. "C'mon! Let's go watch him beat up some bad guys!"

FriskedAway and AmamillaLaTortilla have both drawn EquationTale fanart on DeviantArt!

I'm going to start uploading (with permission, of course)/reblogging EquationTale fanart on the official Tumblr once I get my ass in gear :')

Don't really have much to say so let's just get right to reviews!

BunnytheBonnie: I'M SO SORRY OH MY GOSH I COMPLETELY MISSED THIS

THIS REVIEW WAS SO SIMPLE AND SWEET

IT REMINDS ME OF SOMETHING ASRIEL WOULD SAY FOR SOME REASON

XD thank you.

AmamillaLaTortilla: okay you were right Sans is Undyne.

NoItsBecky: I think I said this in a PM, but I'll say it here too XD

I wouldn't exactly classify Mettaton as cisgender. See, my headcannon for the Purple SOUL (UnderTale Classic, not EquationTale) is that she's trans MTF. I sort of see Mettaton as, well... I won't get into that. Like I said, I don't want to make bias.

But I will say this.

Originally I had planned for him to be MTF as well. Though after some consideration, I decided that was a sort of stupid idea (mostly because there was no need for it, and I don't like adding unnecessary elements to stories just for the sake of adding them). So he's simply questioning his gender. Call him a girl, guy, trans, agender, genderflux, whatever else you want, I don't care. I don't think Mettaton would care much either.

So, because of how I originally was going to make him, I wouldn't call him cisgender, though if you want to, by all means, feel free. The only "cannon" here is that he's questioning :3 which I think I said three times now, so you get the idea.

Ck: Frisk, for all their flirting, evidently is not very good with dates.

Tsk tsk.

FriskedAway: Really? I don't even think I'm portraying him very well XD too sassy. Too snobby. Not enough fabulous.

But whatever floats your boat! :3

And OF COURSE YOU ARE ALLOWED TO MAKE EQUATIONTALE FANART! THE ONLY RULE I HAVE IS TO LET ME KNOW SOMEHOW, PREFERABLY SHOWING ME A LINK ON DA (KuraiTsukiMajutsu) OR TUMBLR (EquationTale). Even if I said no, people would probably still do it anyway...assuming this gets popular enough.

nazicreeper69: Preeeeetty sure I'm white.

Pretty sure.

Teh Esprite: WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?

Guest (#1): mmmmm we're gonna have to wait and see ;3

Guest (#2): Who said it was accidental?

Aria: Point, point.

And...I don't actually have anyone for Gerson...heh. But that's a great guess!