The Lost Element

by XD-385

Equestria has long been known as the land of ponies. However, the name of Equestria is misleading. For far too long, a certain element has been missing from the world. And now, that element has been brought back. But for better or for worse?

101. Heroes of Hopes and Dreams

I had spent much of the morning and early afternoon hours indoors with Ocellus and Smolder today. I was expecting the camp to pack up and start heading east at any time to resume our trek towards the Heaven's Pillar and get this whole war over and done with. Until then, I wanted to stay with Ocellus as much as possible. The poor thing has only been with us for a day or two and she is really struggling with all the distrustful stares she gets from almost everyone in the command center when she leaves my room. She really can sense the bad vibes coming from them and it is not good for her confidence.

I found myself seated on my bed with the little Changeling resting on my lap, eyes closed while looking so very happy and at peace with my hand stroking along her back. She was just like a quiet lapdog taking a nap while her master was reading a book. I could not understand how anyone could be so wary of someone so preciously adorable. Everything about her just made her demure behavior all the more endearing with her dark and almost menacing appearance appearing to be in spite of herself.

Smolder eventually poked her head in after coming back up the stairs and smiled upon seeing the dozing Changeling resting across my lap. "How's she doing?"

"Snug as a love bug in the worlds biggest hug. She's doing fine." I replied as quietly as I could so as to not disturb our little friend. Ocellus had gone from soft breathing to quiet and almost humming snoring. I looked down at her and traced a finger along the contours of her head. "She's having a good afternoon."

"At least she's happy for once." Smolder added before climbing upon the bed and sitting herself down beside me. The little dragoness caressed the sleeping love bug's head as she muttered, "I think she really is happy whenever you're around. And it feels good to see her happy."

"You'd think something that only needs love to get by would be the happiest person around in a world like Equestria. Guess that's just not the case with someone like her..." I whispered while adoring the smooth texture of Ocellus' dark chitin. "I don't even know how I'm gonna explain her to everyone else... I hope they won't reject her right off the bat."

"Yeah, good luck with that. I don't know what the deal is with Changelings and the rest of the world, but I'm not getting any bad vibes off of her." Smolder said with a whisper, her finger sliding along the contours of Ocellus' ear. "She deserves to be happy. I can tell just by looking at her. She's a good love bug, right?"

"Very good love bug. Just wanna kiss her." I spoke softly while really wanting to place a kiss on her head, but I could not really reach her from where I was. At least not with my face. After a moment more, I looked at the window behind me and began to wonder why the command center had not yet started to move. "Hm... Shouldn't we have headed out by now?"

When Smolder looked back at the window too, she suddenly turned her head to look at me and said, "Oh, right. I was supposed to tell you we're staying put for the day. Something about coming up with something for the archers to try out before we meet the enemy or something like that?"

"The archers? What would they need to... Oooooh, that! Yeah, they would absolutely need to come up with an anti-arrow defense for our aerial units. I guess they finally came up with a prototype enchantment for it..." I retorted with a sudden realization over what had just occurred. Now I was most curious over how that new development was going. "Come to think of it... Could I leave Ocellus with you for a bit? I want to see exactly what's going on with the archers right now."

"Sure, I can keep an eye on her. Just...lemme get her off you..." Smolder muttered quietly with her hands carefully trying to pull Ocellus off of me without waking her. I thought for sure the Changeling would wake up for sure, but Smolder managed to get her off me and onto the bed just fine without rousing her. "Phew, I didn't think that'd work... Anyway, I'll be here. Have fun, all right?"

"You too. I'll be back before long." I then got my shoes on and made my way down the stairs and out the door. The camp was quiet at the moment with everyone wanting to take the time to rest their feet after hours upon hours of marching the previous days. Smolder had already set out the radar sensors yesterday, so we would not be caught by surprised if the next wave showed up.

It took me a little while, but I eventually remembered where the archery range had been situated in the camp. But this time, there was only one archer there. Seaspray himself, clad in his beautiful iridescent armor, stood tall as he fired arrow after arrow at an equine training dummy with a suit of brigandine being worn over it. Shining Armor was standing nearby in most of his suit of barding to observe the results while a wall of plywood had been erected behind the dummy. It swiveled ever so slightly in the air while hanging from a rope affixed to a wooden frame. No doubt to simulate a pegasus hovering in the air.

No matter how many times Seaspray let an arrow fly, not one of them hit with each arrow embedding itself in the wall behind the target. I was viewing the performance from the side, so I thought he was just getting unlucky. But when I stepped closer to Seaspray to try and see things from his perspective, I did see why. As swiftly as they were flying, every arrow would veer away from the target just enough to slip by it without even grazing the fabric lining the brigandine. I then looked down at the quiver he was pulling each arrow out of as it rested on a little wooden stool and saw why. They were all a distinct purple hue. The very same quiver and arrows captured with the Hollow soldier we brought back in chains. Whatever had been done to that suit of brigandine was working quite well as these strange arrows were being very noticeably repulsed.

"Hm... Perhaps I should be relieved that these arrows just can't seem to hit their mark, but it does deal a blow to my pride to not be able to land a hit. I have not missed a shot in more than a decade." Seaspray grumbled after the last arrow struck the wall behind the dummy with a thunk. Shining Armor began to gather them all up with a levitation spell and trotted our way with every arrow floating together in a compacted bundle. "That was the third time I've let every arrow fly, captain. And not one even touched it. Whatever it was our researchers have conjured up seems to be proving to be quite effective."

"It sure looks that way. Now we need to see how well they work on a moving target. Stand there a minute." Shining Armor replied while returning the arrows to their quiver and trotting back towards the dummy. I took a closer look at one I picked up in my hand, but it was hard to tell if slamming into a wooden wall three times had dulled the arrowhead at all. Not that it mattered. We had already seen what sharpened arrows could do to the plating on a suit of brigandine. We only needed to know whether or not this enchantment could keep arrows from even touching the wearer. I then turned my gaze back over at Shining Armor once he returned to his spot near the dummy. With his magic aura covering the thing, he caused it to begin swaying back and forth. "OK, let them fly!"

"Uh... Here you, admiral." I muttered as I handed the arrow in my grasp to Seaspray. He cast me an amused smirk before bringing the arrow to his bowstring and pulling back to let it fly. At first, nothing was amiss. Arrow after arrow flew right past the swaying target even though I was confident Seaspray would have landed every shot otherwise. But several shots in, I jumped as I saw an arrow curve away from the target in the direction it was swaying only for the dummy to swing up into its way and have the arrow glance off the side. It was far from a direct hit, but it still managed to connect. "Whoa, that's hit!"

"Ha! Even with some extra resistance, I can still land a... Oh wait, that wasn't supposed to happen?" Seaspray retorted as he remembered that he was not supposed to actually land a shot with his arrows. The two of us approached while Shining Armor closely examined where the arrow had struck. A light tear in the fabric could be seen with the metal plate underneath being fully intact. But it still filled me with a certain dread to know that these arrows could still potentially strike a moving target if it came in on the right angle. Seaspray rubbed the underside of his beak as he muttered, "No damage, but...I suppose this is still a problem."

"Yeah, this isn't good... If these things could still hit something that's only lazily drifting to the side, just imagine what would happen if it were to hit someone flying at a much higher speed. Might veer right into the middle. And we've seen what directs hits can do to this stuff." Shining Armor grumbled with his hoof keeping the dummy from turning too much. The enchantment that had been placed upon the suit of brigandine was at least a step in the right direction. Just not a big enough step. Shining Amor then looked at us and said, "That'll do for now. I'll report back to the R&D lab with these new findings. Maybe they can tweak this spell to repel incoming arrows even harder."

"They probably can. Give my regards to Sunburst and your sister, all right?" I replied while we saw Shining Armor off while he also took all the arrows and their quiver with him. I crossed my arms in minor irritation and concern while Seaspray slung his bow over his folded wing and dropped back onto his hands. "It's a start, I guess... Hope they'll be ready by the time the real deal shows up."

"If the rate of how things have been going lately is of any indication, I have nothing but faith our researchers will succeed in insuring our aerial units are essentially untouchable." Seaspray retorted while not sounding quite as worried as I would have expected after that discovery. I suppose a leader needs to stay optimistic at times in order to maintain morale in his subordinates, but I did try to share his confidence. He was right. It is astounding how well prepared we are by now. But while I gave him a smile to show I believed him, Seaspray then turned his gaze to the west with his eyes narrowing. "Hmmm... It has been a while since the Alabaster caught up to us. Perhaps she will be docking here today now that we'll be staying put until tomorrow."

"It has been a while since Novo was last here..." I muttered while also gazing to the western side of the camp. There were a couple of cargo vessels docked in the corner, but no signs of that regal white royal transport. I then happened to notice Seaspray casting me a most noticeable smirk. "Admiral? What's with that look?"

"Oh, nothing at all, my liege. I'm just wondering how overjoyed our queen will be to see you again. It's always inspiring to see her so happy with the man her heart pines for. There's a certain joy to be had in beholding such a reunion." Seaspray retorted with an air of smugness in his tone. I think he knew he was making me squirm. I will probably never get used to the notion of carrying a crown on my head. He then said, "Nervous, my lord? I'm simply rather excited to see such a good man eventually bear the crown our queen shall bestow upon him. I have only known the duty of serving our queen. But never our king."

The sheer sincerity in his voice... He was being playful about it, but he was not joking in the slightest either. I could not imagine holding such authority over someone like Seaspray. He has always been a far more gifted leader than I will ever be. So I said, "Seaspray, I've always seen you as a friend. I don't really feel comfortable in being your boss. I'm not cut out to be your king."

Without a second thought, Seaspray reached out and placed his hand on my shoulder while looking me in the eye. And he never stopped smiling. "Then don't try to lead us. Just keep loving my people and our home. Keep our best interests at heart. And most importantly, never stop being worthy of the love of our queen. That will be enough. You need not lead us, my lord. You need only cherish us. By being the king of our queen, you aid her in being our queen. With you, she will reign better than ever."

"If that's really all it takes to be worthy of the crown..." I muttered while trying to process it. I quickly gave up and said, "Can we discuss this when the time comes? I know you make it sound like I don't actually have to do much, but the context of being a sovereign... I'm really not cut out for it with how it is on paper. And don't we have more important matters to tend to?"

"Yes, yes, quite! No need to get you thinking too hard when we have all of this to contend with. I will just take my leave, yes? Have a good day, sire." Seaspray retorted with a laugh before trotting off with a delighted spring in his step. I too let out a chuckle to see just how high his spirits were at that moment. Good man, that stallion. With nothing else to deal with there for the moment, I made my way back towards the command center. Ocellus was probably awake by then and was wondering where I had wandered off to.

No one approached me once I was back indoors. But as soon as I stepped back into my private quarters, something came flying at me and clung onto my torso. I glanced down and found Ocellus holding onto me with her head buried in my chest. When I looked over at Smolder while she was seated on the bed, she just smirked at me. "She got really antsy when she woke up. And she's hungry too. Better give the love bug what she needs."

When I looked down at her, Ocellus looked right up at me with those round featureless blue eyes. "Please?"

"Sure thing, love bug. Drink up." I replied while the horn on her head flared up with its green magic glow. She let out a sigh and rested the side of her head against my chest as she most likely started sipping away at my love reserves. I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Smolder was watching with an approving smile, arms and legs crossed while seated where she was. "Cute, right?"

"Yeah, she's a keeper. And it's hard not to smile when she's being a cuddle bug with you." Smolder said as that smile turned into a knowing amused smirk. "Hey, love bug. You'll be coming home with us when we head back, right?"

"I hope so... I don't have anywhere else to go. And I feel at home when I'm here... With you two." Ocellus spoke softly with eyes squinted shut. She soon looked up at me and asked, "Do you think they'll accept me?"

"Maybe not at first, but give them time. Ponyville especially is a very accepting place to live. You're a good love bug. They'll understand eventually." I said while going over to the bed to take a seat at the edge. I stroked my hand over her head while Ocellus at least tried to smile. "It'll be OK. I won't let anyone hurt you, all right?"

"I believe you... Thank you." She cooed quietly before nuzzling her face into my chest again. "So much love... Always makes me feel better."

"I wish I could taste what you're tasting right now. All that love must be the best feeling in the world." Smolder spoke up while just observing our new friend. The way those two have been so far... Very good friends and in such little time too. Even with Ocellus being two years Smolder's senior, Smolder's maturity and eminence gave the impression she was the senior instead. Poor Ocellus must not have much worldly wisdom if she spent much of her time isolated from world events in that hive.

Before long, Ocellus drank her fill and realized me from her embrace. While she and Smolder went inside her pillow fort to hang out and just talk in a cozy environment, I gathered up the pile of comic books that Spike had been kind enough to let us borrow. I had reacquainted myself with the entire Project H series up to that point as well as the more recent issues of the Power Ponies comics. And now that I had an entire day to myself while the militia would not be set to move until tomorrow, I felt privy to finally checking out the most recent issue of Project H.

I felt a twinge of eagerness as I beheld the cover. Those four tall biped equines must have been the forms of Corvus and Aries along with the other two members of their unit to finish the quartet. I recalled during my previous venture in the realm of the comic book world that Alpha mentioned the coming of an Orion and Aquarius. This had to be the issue where all four of the machine king's top subordinates finally assembled.

I took hold of the comic book as I prepared to open it. But as I did, I hesitated. My eyes narrowed in thought. I thought about last night. In the depths of my dreams where I assumed the form of Hunter once more to do battle with another robotic warrior who was easily his equal. And with that memory fresh on my mind, I had to wonder... Why not get some more combat experience with another dive into the world of Project H now that I had some fresh practice from last night?

"Under any other circumstances, I wouldn't normally consider this. But when taking into account last night..." I muttered to myself as I felt rather thrilled at the thought of having another go as the protagonist of Project H while my memories of the last time were fresh. Ocellus and Smolder did not respond to my muttering. They were still whispering amongst themselves in the dark confines of that little pillow fort. Hoping no one would notice me being gone for a while, I stepped into the bathroom and closed the door behind me. I had best get going before I started having second thoughts.

I sat myself down on the toilet with the seat cover in place. My eyes scanned the inside of the back cover in the hopes of finding the tiny text that would trigger the portal into the world of fiction upon being analyzed. But to my surprise, I found that the text was smaller than it had ever been. Probably after too many complaints from parents of children who kept triggering the portal by accident. Not that they were in any real danger since any serious harm would just get them kicked out no worse for the wear, but it could still be terrifying for anyone who had no idea what they were getting themselves into. Most kids probably could not be asked to go out of their way to read such tiny text unless they really knew what they wanted from it.

"Maybe I can still make this work..." I muttered as I brought the page right up to my face. Tiny as the text was, I could barely make it all out. I even muttered what I was reading to myself to help my process it. After thirty seconds or so of painstakingly scanning the text before me, I got the result I was expecting. That bright portal sudden burst from the page and sucked me right in with hardly any delay. After a moment of utter numbness, my vision returned. It had gone from early afternoon to the middle of the night. My surroundings were those of a metropolis much more modernized than anything you would ever see in Equestria. I noticed I was no longer breathing, though I did not feel the need to breathe either.

I looked at my hands. Like soft white gloves with equally white metal armor of asymmetrical design on each arm. An HUD display was spread across my vision upon the surface of a synthetic visor. I could feel my robotic body's functions like old memories were coming back to me. Everything felt strangely natural by then. But I barely had fifteen seconds to take in this new development before I jumped back as a bright energy shot of sorts flew right by my face. "Gah! Come on, I just got here!"

Not even twenty seconds in the world of Project H and I was already surrounded by a mishmash of robotic ponies and unidentifiable mechs. Outfitted with weapons and bearing down on me with weapon systems affixed to their bodies, my HUD promptly detected that they were containing heavy traces of a viral presence. I got a match almost immediately that stirred up some old memories. The Alpha Virus had begun to sink its hooks into the world.

"Alpha... Looks like we're in for a long story." I grumbled as I was not expecting the Alpha Virus to meet its end anytime soon. But as the assorted mess of mavericks began to train their weapons on me with some looking more ready to rush me for a direct confrontation, I decided I was not in the mood to deal with something like this within the first minute of arriving in this world. "You know what? If you're gonna give me that rude of a welcome, then I can't be bothered to fight fair."

I armed the H-Buster on my right arm and aimed it skyward. I quickly selected the Homing Torpedo function as my body turned a dark shade of industrial gray. As rapidly as I could manually fire, I launched missile after missile up into the sky. The homing feature of every missile kicked in second later and started veering off towards every single maverick around me. They did try to fire upon me and reach me before my counterattack could connect, but it was all futile as a series of small explosions filled the air around me. In a matter of seconds, the street became quiet. My eyes glanced around and found nothing but piles of scrap scattered around me. I found myself almost snickering as I said, "I guess I should feel bad for getting this cheap, but I don't."

Now that the situation was calm with no one around me to be seen, I decided to reaquaint myself with this familiar robotic body I was now inhabiting. I pulled up the Variable Weapon System array to see exactly what I had at my disposal this time and how many slots I could still fill. My eyes opened a little wider as I recognized the entire list of ten weapons I had at my disposal by the end of my prior venture into the world of Project H. "Let's see here... Storm Tornado. Fire Wave. Rocket Tackle. Strike Chain. Rising Fire. Shadow Runner. Shotgun Ice. Thunder Dancer. Homing Torpedo. Boomerang Cutter. Metal Anchor. Soul Body... Strange... Feels like something's missing here right now..."

I could swear there was supposed to be at least two more weapon slots being occupied than there actually was. What happened to them? "Where's Metta Option? Didn't I pick that up last.. Ooooh, right... That probably wasn't canon to begin with."

A smirk of amusement crossed my lips. Yes, that issue... Where a couple of weirdoes just happened to show up from...somewhere else with no connection to anything going on. A weird little skeleton and a robotic glam rocker who was also a spectacular combat robot with all the firepower of a supernova. I had to wonder where they were and what they were up to at that time. "Meh, no sense worrying about it now. And there's still room to add some more... Guess I should thank the doc for diligently expanding my data capacity here."

"You are very welcome, Hunter." I heard a voice speak inside my head that actually got a bit of a jump out of me. I glanced around in a minor panic, but found no one there. It was only then that I noticed on my HUD in the corner that I was receiving a wireless transmission. Doctor Luminous had just set up a call from his lab. "Oh, did I scare you? Sorry, I just got home. Looks like that new Alpha Virus is starting to expand its influence..."

"Yep... Alpha, you sick bastard... Merging your own programming with the very virus you created? This can only end so well..." I grumbled while wondering exactly what sort of effect such a combination could have on the machine king's own mentality. Things were only going to get worse before they got better. "Anyway, what's the situation, doc?"

"From the look of things, the Power Ponies are already on the scene and are already thinning out the enemy ranks. Most maverick activity seems to be consigned to one area of the city, but more could pop up at any time." Luminous explained as I heard the faint clicking of a keyboard as he was probably observing the situation through his own supercomputer in his lab.

"They've already got the situation under control, huh? OK, I'll just start making the rounds to see if... Wait..." I started to say as I began to walk down the deserted street before suddenly stopping. My HUD blipped for a second in response to something beyond the edge of my vision. "Hang on... Just picked up something on my sensors..."

"You have? Can you get me a visual?" Luminous asked in curiosity while I turned to my right. For a second, I did not see anything across the street. At least until I focused my gaze on a dark alley between two towering buildings. Whatever was there, Luminous saw it before I did. "I'm seeing...something... But it's not mechanical... Actually, I'm not sure what it even is... These readings...don't make much sense..."

Something was there. Standing right in the middle of the alley in the shadows. The current district I was in seemed to be suffering from a blackout during the maverick outbreak, so it was exceptionally dark with all the streetlamps shut off. But I could barely make out an outline. Tall... Taller than me. Very lean and slender. And the readings... Not at all mechanical. There was no viral readings, but... Was it an organic life form? I could not get any sort of match. There were even error messages popping up that should not have been there. And then... A single eye on one side of its head gazed right at me with a yellow shine.

"Doc... I don't think it comes in peace..." I muttered as I stared down this unidentified entity. Rogue machines were one thing I was already accustomed to dealing with, but this shrouded silhouette was filling me with a certain kind of primal fear. The fear of being faced with something utterly alien and unidentifiable. And then... It began to take a step forward.

"Hunter, if you're not sure you can handle it, run!" Doctor Luminous spoke with a hint of urgency in his voice. And I did. I took off running down the street as swiftly as I could with the clanking of my metal foot panels echoing around me. The sound of just my own feet was reassuring as I went past several city blocks while weaving around the corners just to try avoiding going in a predictable straight line. I eventually slowed down to a walk as Luminous spoke to me through our comm link, "I wonder what that was... I couldn't get anything conclusive out of those readings."

"Maybe some sort of sewer folk from an urban legend? Does Maretropolis even have...uh..." I started to ask before I came to a stop. I had looked to my left and froze where I was. Another alley was before me. And in that alley was the exact same silhouette with the exact same single glowing eye on one side of its face. I did not wait around for a response. I just took off sprinting as madly as possible as I just wanted to get away from that thing, whatever it was. "Doc, I'm being pursued! And I don't think it's in league with Alpha this time!"

"Then just run! Do what you have to in order to escape it!" Luminous called back while also equally unnerved by this mysterious stalker in the shadows. And even worse, I could hear it this time. A brisk sprint somewhere behind me. Not the sound of clanking metal foot panels. Softer... Yet heavy. Like a pair of thick boots. That thing was a living creature. Instead of instilling me with a sense of security knowing that only something on par with the Power Ponies could be a threat to something like the protagonist of Project H, I was left even more giddy and nervous at the fact that something like that had the audacity to chase me down!

The sound of footsteps eventually faded out of range of my auditory sensors, but I kept on sprinting just to be on the safe side. But after a few more minutes of rushing down the streets, I rounded a corner and had to vault over something that was right in my way which was in the process of taking a swing at me. Upon landing and turning around, I found that I had almost run right into a swing from a makeshift club forged from rebar stuck into a hefty block of concrete. A hulking minotaur robot clad in some rather sturdy armor plating turned to face me with rage in its eyes, my HUD detecting a heavy presence of the Alpha Virus within it. But after running from...whatever it was that had been pursuing me, I was genuinely relieved to be taking on a marauding machine enemy that I knew how to handle. "OK, sure, I'm fine with this."

I reached for the H-Saber on my right thigh, knowing I could easily cleave right through that makeshift club as the minotaur robot stood ready with it in both hands. Filled with an almost animalistic rage, it glared me down while letting out a bellow one might expect out of a bison. But just as I was about to grasp my weapon, I paused when I noticed what seemed to be...several glowing puddles of a bright aquatic green hue form directly under the minotaur. "What the... Liquid?"

The machine minotaur had no idea what hit it. Before either of us could react, spears with tips like those found on harpoons jutted up from the puddles while matching them in terms of luminescence and color. And every last one of them thoroughly skewered that poor fool on multiple angles. The minotaur robot twitched and gasped before becoming very still. My HUD tried to scan the spears that had turned the minotaur robot into a public display of modern art, but I still could not get much of a match on anything. Magical in nature, but nothing else beyond that.

The spears soon faded away along with the puddles that generated them. Once the spears were gone, the minotaur robot stiffly and lifelessly collapsed onto its side with a clank. My eyes went wide as I saw that same freaky silhouette standing a ways behind the maverick it had most likely just slaughtered. Then, with its one glowing eye gazing at me, it flashed me a wide and very pronounced piranha smile with its maw lined with massive shimmering fangs.

"Nope!" I yelped as I decided running was just not enough and extended my flight thrusters from my backside. Seconds later, they flared up and sent me rocketing skyward as I flew swiftly over the Maretropolis rooftops to get myself as far away as possible from this clearly very dangerous anomaly. "Nope nope nope nope nope nope nope, sooooooo much nope! There aren't enough nopes in the world to describe how much I want nothing to do with that!"

"At least we know it's no friend of Alpha by this point. I doubt that...thing is a threat to anyone in Maretropolis by this point." I heard Doctor Luminous say as I got myself pretty much right to the other side of town before I came down and tucked my flight thrusters away. A quick glance around me showed that this district of the city was still being powered with the streetlamps glowing in a soothing manner. Still no sign of anyone around me, but a curfew was likely in place due to the current maverick outbreak. "Looks like you got away, Hunter. That was a close one."

"Yeah, that was freaky. I guess there's a lot about Equestria I still don't know about." I retorted while wondering just how much this fictional depiction of Equestria differs from the one I live in. "Anyway, now that's over with... What's the situation on... Wait..."

I froze as I looked down and just to my left. My shadow was being cast in that direction from the glow of a streetlamp nearby. And just beside my shadow was another that was being cast from right behind me. Slender and taller than me by a head. Did that thing...seriously pursue me all the way across the city on foot in a matter of moments?! To my horror, it grabbed me from behind with its arms holding me in a pincer grasp just under my torso's hardened armor. I did not know what was coming next, but I knew my luck had run out. "I'm dead."

I was expecting to get ripped apart or skewered on one of that thing's magical spears. Instead, that thing...bent over backwards very suddenly and suplexed me right into the pavement headfirst. Damage was almost nonexistent. I doubt the impact even put a dent on my tough titanium helmet, but the sheer force of the impact was enough to daze me as my optic sensors were momentarily scrambled. I could hear Doctor Luminous calling out to me over the transmission in a panic as I could no longer put up a resistance. As for what followed...

Instead of my assailant assaulting me further, I found myself dangling from behind them as I was carried along with them keeping my legs bent over their shoulders. They were absolutely sprinting through the streets while letting out a constant excitable giggle. Had they been out hunting and I was their catch? Considering that the entity was clearly organic, they were in for a rude awakening if they tried to make a meal out of something like the protagonist of Project H. But I was too dazed to try and wiggle free, especially with how I was rapidly and comically flopping along behind them.

After rounding god knows how many corners, my abductor finally came to a screeching halt. I heard a rather tough woman's voice suddenly call out, "Guys, guys, guys! Check out what I found!"

I found myself suddenly being pulled forward before being held upside-down by my feet while my assailant pranced in place like a kid in a candy store. All the while, they giddily spoke just shy of shouting, "Check it out! This guy's just like something outta that new series we've been watching! They said anime isn't real, but I always knew they were wrong! And now I have proof! This is as real as it gets!"

Who were they even talking to? With how dazed I was, being shaken silly while hanging by my feet made it all but impossible to get a look at who was in front of me. Finally, a voice that sounded strangely familiar spoke with a hint of unease to their voice. "Hey, uh... I think you outta put the guy down. I know this guy."

"Wha... Wait, seriously?! Hang on, is this that awesome robot guy you told me about last time you two went missing?! Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god..." I finally stopped getting shaken around as my captor started to sound more than a bit embarrassed. And as I managed to get my bearings, I looked up... Or rather down to get a look at my captor's companions.

There were three of them and I recognized them all to varying degrees. One was a very tall human skeleton of sorts wearing red mittens and boots and a type of body armor that looked more cosmetic than anything that would provide protection. Another misshapen yet vaguely humanoid skeleton stood before me while being much shorter while wearing black shorts and a sort of hooded winter jacket. And between the two of them was a distinctly humanlike robot that was rocking a familiar glam rocker look. That dazzling effeminate design caught my eye the most as I recognized that face partially hidden behind a large lock of shimmering black hair. "Uh... Oh... Hey there, Mettaton. Fancy seeing you here again."

"Yes, what are the odds of us bumping into each other in the middle of a dark city like this more than once? Just...uh...so sorry we had to meet each other under such circumstances, darling." Mettaton replied with a very crooked smile on his dazzling metal face. Although he finally began to scowl as his flexible tube arms extended with his hands grabbing me by my legs and quickly pulling me free from my captor while turning me upright. "I think you've traumatized the poor dear enough, Undyne."

Once I was back on my feet, I promptly turned to face my assailant. And I...was not expecting what I saw. The person before me was indeed female to match the voice I had heard, but... From a distance, you could be forgiven for mistaking her as human at first. But up close, I could see this woman was anything but human. Her complexion has of a distinct blue hue and...was she covered in scales? Clad in heavy boots, blue jeans, and a black tank top, this fishlike woman was tall, lean, and incredibly physically fit and slender. She had an air of danger about her with that big toothy piranha smile that was indeed lined with imposing triangular fangs and where I would expect to see her ears on the side of her mostly round head were a pair of fins. Her one right eye on the right side of her face had a vibrant yellow sclera with an unusually narrow iris within it. But the left side of her face... Her left eye was covered by a black eye patch that further cemented her dangerous nature. And while I initially assumed she was bald, she instead had her hair tightly tied back into a very long and gorgeous flowing red ponytail. Mettaton then asked, "I dread to ask, but...what did you do to get your hands on Hunter here in the first place?"

"I...uh...suplexed him into the street to knock him out at first. He kept running from me, so I had to subdue him somehow." The fish woman before me explained rather sheepishly in spite of her menacing appearance. She almost looked embarrassed over having done the wrestling equivalent of clubbing me over the head like a caveman just to drag me off to her friends. Though considering that Sans and Mettaton parted ways with me on very friendly terms last time... Wait... Sans!

I looked down to my left to find that goofy slacker skeleton looking up at me with a rather uneasy grin. My gaze started to narrow as I thought back to the last time we crossed paths. And what an incredibly close call it had been for Mettaton more than once, especially during the climax inside the reactor chamber of that sky fortress. I legitimately thought he was a goner when Mettaton went all but supernova towards the end. And more than anything on how even Sans acknowledged that he would have to stop doing...whatever it was that got them into Maretropolis in the first place. As all eyes fell upon him, I asked him, "Sans... Didn't you say you'd stop using those...shortcuts after they glitched up and got you stranded here last time? What're you doing here?"

The little white dots in his eye sockets glanced back and forth at the four of us as we gazed at him with increasingly accusatory glares. Backed into a corner, he muttered, "Uhhhh... I got lazy and thought it'd be a good idea to get us there early..."

"Sans, come on! It's karaoke night at Grillby's and I've been practicing! You said your shortcuts always get us where we need to go!" The tall skeleton groaned in what sounded like a display of irritation that he feels quite often towards his dopey brother. What was his name again? Pretty sure it is a type of font... Papyrus was it? I know the last time I saw him was that house party at Shining Armor's place... Regardless, he then stepped over to me while still towering over me at the same height as Undyne as he said most jovially, "Bah, never mind my brother's lazy antics, metal human! We'll find our way back home soon enough... Right?"

"Metal human? That's a new one." I said to the rather...interesting lanky skeleton before me. "Actually, we've met before. The karaoke party you two wound up at by accident?"

"Karaoke party...? Oh, you mean the one with all those colorful little horses! But...that human was flesh and bone. How can you be the same one when you're all metal?" Papyrus asked while definitely not understanding the complexities of that strange spell that draws readers into the world of the Power Ponies and Project H. Considering how that group of weirdoes must have gotten themselves stranded there in the first place, they no doubt bypassed its effects.

"It'll take too long to explain. Let's just say that this body isn't exactly mine right now, but I'm still the same guy you saw there. Not bad a performance you gave, now that I think about it." I retorted while remembering just how amusing that silly double act of Papyrus and Sans was.

"Of course! The Great Papyrus always excels when he barely even needs to try!" The towering skeleton proclaimed proudly all without somehow being at all insufferably haughty. He clearly had a bloated ego, do not get me wrong, but he was so endearing and nonhostile that it came across as commendable and even inspiring. I got the impression that this Papyrus guy was simply trying to be as optimistic as possible. Which is a far cry from his laidback brother, now that I think back more analytically of our prior encounter...

"Hey, enough about that karaoke junk!" Undyne suddenly spoke up before grabbing me by the shoulders and suddenly turning me around to face her with that frightful toothy grin on her face. That eye was just gleaming with excitement. "You! You're just like some of those guys from Alphys' favorite sci-fi anime! Frisk said that anime isn't real, but I always knew that they were just messing with me! And now I have proof! Anime really is real!"

Just...what? I have no idea who this Alphys person is, but how isolated and detached from reality do you have to be to be convinced the absurdity that happens in most anime back on Earth is capable of occurring in real life? Baffled by this twisted logic coming out of this unstable fish woman, I glanced over at the other three as they looked back at me with varying degrees of amusement and embarrassment. I then asked, "You guys gonna tell her, or should I?"

They said nothing. Instead they all took a step back. This did not bode well for me, but the truth needed to be said. I looked Undyne in the eye and said, "I don't know what rock you've been living under, but...no. Anime is not real. Aside from the few that are explicitly based on true events, anime is entirely fictional."

"But...but...but..." Undyne began to stammer as she started to look and sound more and more...disturbingly desperate. No wonder the others took a step back. She was starting to look really scary and not for the right reasons. "Just... Just look at you! Your whole design just reeks of anime awesomeness! You don't really think I'd believe you're not a star in your own anime, right?!"

"This isn't even an anime world! We're in a comic book here!" I shouted back at her in exasperation as I finally let drop exactly where we were.

Undyne just... It was like her mind just froze as she took a moment to process my words. She finally took her hands off me and threw her arms up while shouting, "Comic book?! You mean we're stuck in something out of Comix Zone?! How the... SANS! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?!"

That was a sharp shift in tone as Undyne sudden glared right at the stumpiest of this motley crew around me. His constant grin started to fade as I noticed drops of sweat oozing over his skull. His usual calm demeanor breaking, he spoke louder than he usually did. "OK, I'm sorry! I got complacent and my shortcut had a glitch happen and... Uh... Hey, can you explain how things work? I don't remember how it went the first time."

All eyes fell upon me while Undyne looked utterly irritated. Knowing that she and Papyrus had no prior experience with the situation we found ourselves in, it would be unwise to not bring them up to speed. And so I said, "OK, this is how it goes. Normally, you can't get into this world unless you read an enchanted text on the inside of the back cover. As for how you guys got in, you're probably bound here by the same rules I am. We follow the events of this comic book issue to the end of the story, whereupon the book will eject us back into our own worlds. The way I got in has me under a failsafe where I'll get kicked out if I suffer any fatal harm, but since you guys got here using some other unrelated method... Well..."

"What the guy is saying is if any of us die here, it's for real. So don't do anything stupid, all right? I don't wanna be the one to break the bad news when the rest of us get back home." Sans explained rather matter-of-factly without much of a humorous tone in his voice. I guess even he could not do much to make light of this situation.

"Yes, yes, I recall now. Quite frankly, I don't know how I ended up surviving in the end last time. A most fortunate stroke of serendipity on my part." Mettaton retorted as he crossed his arms almost proudly. I mean even I thought he did not survive that last stretch.

"Oh, wait! That story you told us last time... The one everyone thought was just a synopsis you came up with for your new show..." Papyrus interrupted while Mettaton glanced over at the towering skeleton. His empty eye sockets opening wide with glee, Papyrus gasped, "Wowee, you really meant it?! You really were that amazing and it all happened right here?!"

I decided to give my two cents and pointed at Mettaton with both hands. "Yep! This guy was the star of the show last time! Very impressive! I didn't even know that kind of hardware existed in reality."

"Ahahahah, yes! The Power of Neo, wasn't it?! Perhaps if we're lucky, you just might get to see me in action once again!" Mettaton laughed proudly with that glamorous tone of his covered by a minor robotic filter effect.

"OK... I'm not really into your stuff on TV, but I gotta see that sometime!" Undyne too exclaimed with a sudden display of interest. But she then grabbed me by the shoulder plates again and asked, "But seriously? Anime...isn't real?"

"No." I said flatly as I ran out of patience with Undyne's obsession. And that hit her about as hard as one might expect. She slouched before me with her arms hanging by her sides, an utterly dejected look in her eye. "Uh... You gonna be OK."

"I dunno... I guess I... Yep... Yep, there it goes. There's my heart breaking into a million pieces again." Undyne whimpered rather pathetically without blinking once. But a few seconds later, she suddenly squinted her eye shut and clenched her hands into fists. "No... No, I can survive this. I survived it the first time..."

Undyne then threw her head back and pumped her arms at her sides as if doing a flexing strength to flex her spine. She inhaled sharply through he teeth before hunching forward to exhale hard. Now apparently much calmer, she said, "Yeah, I'm good. I guess I kinda expected that answer after all."

Papyrus then stepped forward with his mitten pressed against each in an almost pleading manner. He looked and sounded more than just a little uneasy. "Um... Metal human, were you being serious just now? Not about anime or anything like that... I mean...is it really that dangerous here?"

"Mettaton almost got scrapped twice the last time you wound up here. And that minotaur robot you scrapped, Undyne? That was small potatoes compared to the real threat around here. I guess it's lucky that we haven't bumped into any of them yet." I explained while not wanting to really scare them.

"You mean...there's MORE of those things? Nice." Undyne said with a smirk while flashing a most devious piranha smile. She then spoke while stretching her arms, "I haven't gotten action like that in a long time. Lemme at them!"

"Whoa, no no no no, let's not get crazy here. What're we gonna tell Alphys if something happens to you? It ain't gonna be me telling her." Sans spoke up while shaking his hands in disagreement. "Come on, let's just find a spot to chill and wait this whole thing out. Leave it o the pro here, all right?"

"As much as I loathe taking a background role in this performance, I am not in a hurry to have another close brush with death. I too vouch that we wait out the storm, yes?" Mettaton added as he held a hand to his chin. A real shame too. I would feel much more confident having him backing me up than anyone else, but I understood that he would not want to repeat the same close calls he had the first time.

"But...we don't need to fight anyone, right? All we have to do is show them a kindness! They'll understand!" Papyrus exclaimed in an almost desperate tone. The poor guy. I could tell he really just did not want anyone to have to hurt each other. I almost felt bad for him.

"Ugh, fine... Let's just find a restroom to hide in for a while." Undyne groaned in protest before she grouped herself with the rest of her posse. She then looked back at me as they prepared to head off into the night. "Hunter, right? You give those metal heads a thrashing for us!"

"Yeah, sure. You guys stay safe." I replied as they all walked away down the street. I was actually rather relieved to know they would be safe as long as they stayed out of the way. And it was good to see Sans and Mettaton again. Although Undyne... A bit too crazy for my tastes. But once I realized I was alone, I then spoke to no one in particular. "You've been quiet for a while, doc. Something wrong?"

I heard the voice of Doctor Luminous finally speak up after a long lapse of silence. "I...just... I'm not sure what I am even supposed to say to what I just saw. Although some of them...felt familiar somehow."

"Yeah, I'm not gonna question them either. Who knows where they came from." I replied before turning and continuing on my way. Even with the Power Ponies handling things on the far side of the city, there were bound to still be hostiles running amok nearby. "Anyway, anything nearby that I should check out?"

"Actually, yes. I'm displaying the readings on your map now." Luminous retorted as a grid of sorts was displayed in the left corner of my HUD. With the entire city being displayed from an aerial viewpoint, I pinpointed maverick activity a few blocks away. "You'd best hurry. This area of the city has not been evacuated."

"Right, on my way." I burst into a sprint with my metal foot plates clanking in the air. And after a couple of minutes, I found them. Another mishmash of rogue machines. This time it seemed to be a flock of griffon robots tearing into vacated shops and generally causing widespread havoc. "Tch, typical vandalism. Should I just go for Homing Torpedo again?"

As I armed the H-Buster, one of the griffon robots took notice of me and jumped to the middle of the street. It let out a hissing avian growl in an almost feral manner. This one was so far gone with how much the Alpha Virus had corrupted its programming. But as I took aim, I paused. What was that sound?

Even the griffon robot before me paused as it heard something approaching. Or rather someone. A long call of sorts was filling the air and getting progressively closer. And then I happened to look up. And much to my shock, Undyne was coming right down from above with another one of those glowing greenish spears pointing straight down in her hands while howling with quite the battle cry! "NGAAAHHH!"

"Girl, what the actual hell are you even...?!" I yelled before having to jump back abruptly. She plunged that spear deep into her prey with more than enough force to smash a crater right under them. That poor sap was crushed more than impaled by that hit as the griffon robot was completely wrecked. I then called out, "You psycho fish freak! I thought you said you were gonna go hide somewhere!"

"I LIED!" She roared in utter exhilaration. Even the rest of the griffon mavericks around us, mad as they must have been, looked genuinely shocked by the arrival of this battle-crazy fish woman. Undyne left her spear lodged in the broken remains of her first target before rising to her feet and summoning two more from nowhere in each hand. "All right, I haven't gotten to let off steam like this in what feels like forever! Let's rumble, metal heads!"

"There's no way this chick is serious..." I grumbled to myself as I could not comprehend what I was seeing. Some weird piranha woman in jeans and a tank top summoning magic spears at will while facing off against robotic griffons. It sounds so absurd on paper that it looks like something the Cutie Mark Crusaders would come up with for a school project on creative writing. And now I am writing it. But that is exactly what I was seeing happen. When one of the griffon robots came swooping in with claws ready, even while looking rather hesitant about this, Undyne promptly summoned another shorter magic spear right out of the air above them that shot down and knocked it right out of the air. As soon as the robotic griffon hit the pavement, Undyne pounced upon the poor sap and plunged both spears right into it without trouble. "Yep... Yep, this chick is totally serious... This is actually happening. A literal fish out of water throwing magic spears at robots... Can this day get any weirder?"

Oh good lord, was she having the time of her life. Undyne was constantly letting out boisterous battle cries while looking like she was enjoying herself a lot more than she should have been. And it was kind of terrifying. Those griffon robots quickly lost their morale and even started trying to flee from her. She chased down every last of them one at a time, even grabbing one by the tail as it tried to fly away. "Oh no you don't! Com'ere!"

I then saw what it was like for me when she first caught me. With impressive finesse, Undyne bent over backwards and suplexed her prey headfirst into the pavement with more than enough force to cause its metal head to cave in. As I took a step back in unease, I almost bumped right into the rest of her companions as they showed up to see where this was going. Sans was calm as always with both hands in his coat pockets, Mettaton was rubbing a hand under his chin as if carefully evaluating Undyne's performance, and Papyrus was watching with absolute adoring glee with jawbone hanging wide open. Realizing that they know her better than I do, I asked, "Is she normally like this?"

Sans then cracked an even more crooked smirk as the little white dots in his eye sockets glanced up at me. "I think the better question is when is she NOT like this."

Papyrus then leaned over to me and held a hand over one side of his face as if fearful that Undyne might have heard him. "Yeah, Undyne can be pretty intense..."

"How many tents?" Sans then asked while listening in. Papyrus suddenly cast him an irritated glare as his eye sockets narrowed. No doubt seeing that this was a setup for another lame pun. I almost forgot that puns seems to be Sans' thing.

Perhaps I was just too weirded out by all this surreal nonsense going on around me to even try playing the straight man, but I found myself playing along as I pondered how to respond to that question. "Uh... Gimme a minute here, I'm not sure how to gauge that..."

"DO NOT ENCOURAGE HIM!" Papyrus all but yelled into my face as Sans let out an amused snicker. This at least got me to crack a smile.

"He...uh...never shuts up with the puns, does he?" I asked while certainly getting where Papyrus is coming from. Even Pinkie Pie knows not to be silly all the time. I am guessing Sans never got that memo.

"Let's just say there are only so many bone puns you can listen to before it makes you question your existence." Papyrus replied in a very dry and rather philosophical manner that I would not expect from the guy. But he quickly went both to his jovial self as Undyne jumped skyward into the air and caught another griffon robot before piledriving it right into the pavement hard enough to leave a crater. "Undyne! Make sure we can still put them back together when you're done!"

"I think that's the last thing she has on her mind..." I mumbled while watching this one-woman army decimating the opposition. Although I was quick to notice she never withdrew her spears from the bodies of her enemies. And then I quickly saw why. The spearheads were two wide and triangular to allow them to be easily pulled out once thrust in. This was clearly not at all a problem since she could summon up as many as she needed. "I can deal with Mettaton turning into an awesome fighting robot. I can deal with Sans summoning up walls of bones and monster skulls that fire energy beams. But a crazy as hell fish lady piledriving robots into the street is where it gets too weird for me."

"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure about that, darling. A wild loose cannon vigilante prowling the streets for rogue machines to destroy... Ooh, I like the sound of that. We can totally use someone like her on one of my shows. I need to write this down." Mettaton muttered whimsically while really getting a kick out of the carnage before us. I admit it was rather entertaining to watch. Or it would be if I did not find myself feeling unbelievably sorry for the poor griffon mavericks Undyne was wrecking. I was feeling sorry for mavericks! How the hell does one do that?!

At long last, only one was left. And Undyne was gleefully punching the ever-loving daylights out of it with her bare fist as it was pinned under her. And each punch... How hard was she even hitting that thing to send more and more bits of metal scattering around the street. After maybe ten repeated punches to the totally scrapped griffon robot, I finally felt I should say something. "Um... Undyne? I think you got him!"

"Huh?! I did? I mean... Oh yeah, of course I did!" Undyne called out before standing up with not a single scratch on her while dusting her hands off. She looked very proud of her work as she headed our way while I tried to not look at the remains of the last poor sucker she pummeled. Her fists were not at all busted up either. How tough do you have to be to keep punching hard metal and not scuff up your fingers? "Woo! I haven't had that much fun in... How long has it been since we all went topside? It's been a few years, right?"

"Yes, pretty much. And I have quite the idea for a pilot in mind after seeing that inspiring performance. Much obliged, Undyne." Mettaton said while even applauding the show she put on. I suppose the knowledge that they were all murderous mavericks made it easier to stomach, but good lord...

I apparently was not the only one who noticed something about that. Undyne then leaned over to me and whispered while her one eye glanced back over at the ruined remains of the machine griffons. "Hey, just for the record... Those were the bad guys, right?"

I flinched in horror and annoyance as I then all but yelled, "You mean to tell me to charged in and wrecked those guys without bothering to check if they were the enemy or not?!"

Undyne flashed easily her least menacing toothy grin to me thus far while visibly sweating. She could not even say a word. Finally, I went ahead and said, "Well, yes... Those were some of the bad guys. If you see any robots acting more than a bit...destructive, go ahead and bust them up. Mavericks are bad news."

"Maverick?! Ooh, I like that word. Sounds dangerous. Gets me fired up to bust some more metal heads! Ngaaah!" Undyne roared in more exhilaration with her fists pumping, more than ready to rumble with some more machines. But she then took notice of the fact that Papyrus was not with us anymore. When did he slip away? "Hey, Papyrus? Where'd... Huh?"

Undyne looked back and saw Papyrus trying to put one of those ruined griffon robots back together piece by piece. And not doing a very good job of it. Sans was the first to speak as he asked, "Uh... Bro? What're you doing?"

"Trying to put them back together! They kind of remind me of my action figure collection! Hey, can you find this one's hand?" The goofy skeleton called out as he really did not seem to grasp that the mavericks were...dead. Or at least as dead as machines can get. Was he really just that naive? "Don't you worry, metal cat bird. We'll put you back together so we can send you off for home."

All three of his companions also showed unease at the scene before them. Like they too were not sure how to get across the fact that not only were those ruined robots genuinely dangerous and would probably tear him apart if they were somehow restored, but the damage done to their bodies was likely too extensive to ever bring them back to life. Undyne then called out hastily, "Hey, leave those guys alone, Papyrus! Someone will...uh...be coming by to fix them up! They'll be fine!"

"Really?! Oh, well... Huh, I guess I don't have the instructions for this one. No wonder nothing is staying in place..." Papyrus muttered before patting the griffon robot on its lifeless head. Or what was left of it. "Don't worry, you'll be back in one piece in no time! Just be patient!"

"Should I feel sorry for this guy?" I asked quietly as the towering skeleton strode our way with a rather proud step in his stride.

"Nah, don't feel sorry for him. Pap's always been a little ray of sunshine in our lives. We wouldn't have him change for the world." Sans explained while they all smiled at Papyrus. Naive or not, his presence was certainly a pleasant one. I could see why they liked him so much. "So, uh... We gonna find a closet to wait things out in or what?"

"No way! If this city's infested with these crazy robots, then I'm gonna have a field day with this! Lemme at 'em!" Undyne roared with more than just a bit of enthusiasm as her fists clenched. And I do not think we had any means of stopping here.

"You...uh...do know there's more than just griffons and minotaurs, right? Keep this up and you just might end up attracting the stars of the show. I think I'm supposed to find someone out here, now that I think about it..." I retorted in the hopes of discouraging her from finding more trouble.

Unfortunately, Undyne seems to not be aware of what fear is. The more I tried to discourage her by making it clear just how dangerous the villains of Project H are, the more fired up she got. "More danger means more action! I eat danger for breakfast every day! At least I did before I had to settle into a civilian role, but still! Just lemme at them! I'll mop the floor with every last punk robot who wants trouble!"

"Yeah, sure, whatever. You...uh...do whatcha gotta do. I'm...um...going waaaaay over there. Away from this insanity. See you guys later." I replied in resignation as I just wanted to get the hell away from that psycho fish woman before she decided she would rather face me in a brawl. I sprinted away from the lot of them to try and get back to why I iwas there in the first place. How could I even get in some proper practice if someone else kept interrupting these skirmishes to steal my glory. Although I soon noticed that the transmission connected to the lab was still going. "Hey, doc. Are you still there? You seeing that crap?"

"Hunter, I have been spending the last ten minutes snacking on popcorn while enjoying the show. I have no idea what to make about what you've been seeing, but I'd be lying if I said it hasn't been strangely entertaining to watch." I heard Doctor Luminous explain while his words were followed by the faint sound of crunching. He really did step away to get himself some popcorn to enjoy the visuals my optics sensors were displaying. "Although it looks like there's more viral readings not far from you. Make a left at this next intersection and they should be two full city blocks away."

"Got it. Almost there." I said before hurrying along as fast as my legs would carry me. Sure enough, something came into few up ahead. Various corrupted mechs of indiscernible design were going about just raising havoc with general property destruction. Almost as if they were just searching for victims to attack. I promptly armed the H-Buster as I rushed ahead while taking aim. "Right, mavericks sighted! I'll... Wait, what's that sound? It's like... Oh god, not again!"

A familiar battle cry filled the air as once again, Undyne shot out from an alley just to me left and went sailing into one of the completely blindsided mechs feet first for a truly epic dropkick! It was almost a shame these robots did not have any proper faces because it would have been interesting to see how they would react to seeing a frighteningly aggressive piranha woman coming at them with a brazen disregard for common sense. As Undyne graceful landed back on her feet with spear in hand, I let out a groan of irritation as I shouted, "Oh come on, now you're just stealing my thunder!"

I do not think she heard me as Undyne went on the offensive. Stabbing and punching and kicking and even chomping the limbs of her foes between her massive sharp teeth. And she never once even chipped a tooth.

I glanced over at the alley's entrance and found Papyrus, Sans, and Mettaton still keeping an eye on their ridiculous friend. I then asked dryly, "Is there a particular reason you're still following her around?"

"Because she might hurt herself?" Papyrus replied with a nervous yet rather sincere tone.

"Because she might do something amazingly funny?" Mettaton added while almost appearing to be analyzing Undyne's performance while the mechs just did not have enough sense to display any fear of the fish woman who was wrecking them in...increasingly creative ways.

Sans then grinned at us and asked, "Or maybe a little of both? You can't say this wouldn't make great television."

"Bah... Screw this, I'm out!" I yelled before doing an abrupt about-face and marching off out of sheer irritation. I waved at them behind me as I shouted, "Fine, have your fun! I got crap to deal with myself!"

I rushed off through the city while trying to find more rogue machines to deal with. Not that I was really against letting my companions pull their weight on their own insistence, but I was there for a reason and I was not going to make any progress if they kept doing the work for me. But with every time I found a cluster of mavericks ready for a thorough pummeling, Undyne would always be right behind me to jump in and steal the glory for herself.

This...kept...happening. Every...single...blazing...time. Every time I found more enemies to destroy, I could not even get a shot off before that fishy freak show came charging in howling at the tops of her lungs and getting more than her daily workout in the progress. Finally fed up, I just turned and walked away as mavericks shrieked in terror while Undyne proceeded to demolish every last one of them.

I did not go uninterrupted for long. Sans soon caught up to me and started walking alongside me. "Had enough Undyne for the night?"

"You can say that again. How can I get anything outta this whole mess if she keeps doing my job for me? I don't normally come here voluntarily, you know." I retorted while not really minding Sans joining me for some peace and quiet.

"Hey, we didn't come here by choice either... Although I guess that's my fault, right?" That smug skeleton retorted as he laughed a little at his own mistake. "At least Undyne's handling things for us. That just means we don't have to get our hands dirty."

"I guess that's fine on your side, but I actually need the experience right now. If I don't keep myself honed for battle... Things won't go so well back home." I explained without going into too much detail. No need to concern him with things he did not need to know about.

Despite my thoughts, Sans cast me a more concerned gaze as his grin sank just a little. "Wait, you've got trouble back home? What's the deal?"

"War, Sans. I'm out there in the middle of nowhere with friends ready to face an incoming invasion. And I need to do something to keep myself at least mentally in shape for the next battle. I can't afford to be dead weight on the battlefield." I replied while now starting to feel more than just a little frustrated that my journey into the world of Project H had been all for naught up to that point.

"Um... Wow... Uh... I was gonna make a witty pun about that, but... I guess even I can't try and make that funny. Whatever's going on out there, I'm rooting for ya." Sans said with a surprising amount of sincerity. But before the tone of the situation could get too grim, we happened to pass by a store that caught his attention. "Huh? Hey, hold up..."

"What? That...?" I asked upon turning to look at a storefront that had all its windows shattered by rampaging mavericks. There was something on a banner that probably held the name of the store. "Steamy Subject, huh?"

"Kind sounds like Hot Topic... Which means..." Sans muttered before his grin broadened even further. He then looked up at me and said, "Wait right here. I gotta try something. And if Papyrus shows up, stall him for a minute, all right?"

Sans did not even wait for a response. He ran right into the darkened store with a look of glee in his eye sockets. I was tempted to stop him since he was probably about to loot he place, but restrained myself since there would be no lasting consequences in this fictional world. I stood there with arms crossed while Doctor Luminous stayed completely silent on the other end of the ongoing call. What a weird night this was becoming... "Two boneheads, a psychotic fish woman with spears, and a glam rocker robot. What's next?"

A few minutes later, I looked back down the street as I saw three figures approaching. The unmistakable forms of Undyne, Mettaton, and Papyrus. Undyne swung her arm in a circular motion as she seemed to be cooling herself down after that last brawl. "Woo, did you see that last one? Got my spear right up that one's exhaust port! Picture perfect aim, that one!"

"I...didn't know those kinds of robots had exhaust ports... No, wait. I'm pretty sure they don't..." I grumbled to myself while being careful to not let her hear me complain.

Upon catching sight of me, Undyne came running up to me. "Hey, Hunter! That's your name, right? Where's Sans?! He was with you a minute ago."

"He's...uh... He had to go do something and should be back in a minute." I said while trying to not blow his cover. I did not think he was the kind of guy to get up to anything too crazy. While trying to stall for time, I decided to strike up a conversation. "So, uh... You look like you really know how to handle yourself in a fight. What's your secret?"

Undyne was more than happy to share some history with me. "Me? Back before we moved topside, I was captain of the guard! The toughest that our kingdom ever saw! And I taught Papyrus everything he knows about how to handle a fight, so don't go thinking he's a pushover because he's a big sweetheart."

"Captain, huh? I know a few captains myself and they're pretty awesome too. No wonder you know how to bring the thunder." I replied in thought. Shining Armor and Seaspray fall into that category, although they would probably be overwhelmed by someone as intense as Undyne. Although I then pointed at her and said, "Speaking of thunder, why do you gotta keep stealing mine?! I'm supposed to be the protagonist here!"

"What, you want some action too?! In that case..." Undyne started to say before flashing me a delighted and terrifying pirahna smile. "How about you and I have a go?! I'll go easy on ya if you want."

"No! No no no no no, I ain't having any of that!" I yelled before throwing myself up towards the building behind me with a blast of my boot thrusters. I clung desperately to the wall behind me as I shouted, "I'm not fighting you! Got it?!"

Instead of being disappointed, Undyne threw her head back in laughter at my response. As if she was just messing with me to see how I would react. "Bwahahahaha, priceless! Relax, I'm not gonna bust up any friends of mine! You're cool in my book!"

"Oh, uh... OK then. Sure." I grumbled before falling back towards the ground while Papyrus and Mettaton finally caught up to us. I then looked at them and asked, "She drive you crazy back home?"

"You get used to it." Mettaton said smugly as he rolled his eyes. He did not seem to mind being stuck in this world again. At least not when he was getting some worthwhile inspiration out of it.

Papyrus then stepped up to me and asked, "Excuse me, metal human! Sans was with you, yes? He didn't get himself lost, did he?"

"Nah, he... Wait, I think he's coming out right...now... OK, what the actual hell am I even seeing here..." I started to say upon seeing a lone figure starting to emerge from the darkened store behind him. And... My god, I see what he meant about it reminding him of Hot Topic. Mettaton and Undyne started aghast at what was approaching us without a word.

Sans ended up stepping on broken glass from the shattered windows, so his approach was far from stealthy. Papyrus soon picked up on his brother's approach and turned to face him. "Nyeh? Ah, Sans! There you...look...absolutely ridiculous."

Where do I even start with describing what I was seeing... Sans had emerged from that quirky novelty shop with his entire wardrobe swapped out, never mind how he found clothes designed to fit him. I at first thought he was wearing a beanie on his head, but it was just an overly colorful baseball cap turned backwards while a pair of shutter glasses were set over his eye sockets. And emblazoned between each frame was YO and LO, whatever that stood for. His old jacket had been swapped out for a more colorful hooded jacket that had a blue hooded segment, pink sleeves, and a lighter blue color taking up the rest of it aside from a wave of green near the bottom. His shorts were now a warm yellow with white vertical stripes down the front and his sneakers had been swapped out for some light blue high tops with vibrant yellow laces. It was all overwhelmingly colorful and brought to mind my days of growing up in the 1990s in a very bizarre ironic way.

No one said anything for maybe a good fifteen seconds. Finally tiring of us failing to get the joke, Sans held up a hand in greeting and...said this. "Wiggidy wiggidy what's up, brahs?"

I admit that almost got a laugh out of me. Although Papyrus sounded like he was not sure if he should be annoyed or confused. "Sans, I swear to god, I don't even know what kind of joke you're even trying to say here!"

Mettaton spoke next with his arms crossed while casting Sans quite the cockeyed stare. "And what, pray tell, are you supposed to be?"

Sans never lost that grin as he pointed at himself with his own bony thumb. "Me? I'm just your cool funky neighbrohood cool kid. And I swear I'm not up to any sick nasty business here, dawg."

I... I could not contain myself. That was easily the hardest laugh Sans had ever gotten out of me as I started wheezing and howling in laughter while all but dropping to me knees. I was still able to at least hear what was being said around me as Undyne, "Please tell me the 90s weren't actually full of crap like this..."

"No! No, this is all just a ridiculous exaggeration bwahahahaha! I swear, you can only get how funny this is if you're a 90s kid like me!" I spoke up while just barely composing myself enough to speak coherently.

"Hey, at least I got a chuckle outta at least one of you guys. Guess that fills my quota for the day." Sans said with pride as he dropped the totally radical facade he had for just a moment. "Besides, what's wrong with a little color? Hey, uh... They won't notice this stuff missing when they come back to clean up the mess, right?"

"Probably not. Although I can't promise you'll get to take that stuff home with you when this is all over, so enjoy it while you can." I replied while not really sure how things worked the last time they got kicked out of the comic book world. Did they return home in the exact same condition as when the story ended?

"Fine by me, dude. So, we got us some sick nasty business to deal with here tonight?" Sans asked while starting to slip back into this wacky facade of his. "Although rumbling with those robo radbros is way too far from being funky fresh to me."

"Urge to kill...rising..." I heard Undyne snarl as she was maintaining...a rather horrifying grin on her face as she tried to keep a straight face. Starting to get a bit uncomfortable with where this might end up going, I decided to bail and get away from there to try and keep those four out of danger. I took to the air on my flight thrusters and took off east towards the harbor. All the while, I heard Undyne yelling out at me over me up and leaving like that.

"Well, that was entertaining. I wonder where they all came from." I heard Doctor Luminous speak up over the transmission while I flew over the rooftops. This section of the city was still receiving power and the distant noise of the Power Ponies duking it out with the current outbreak of mavericks could no longer reach me. Maybe Undyne really did get the last of them out here. "Things seem quiet... I would almost say too quiet."

"Yeah, now that I got away from them. And I bet Undyne's playing the xylophone of that guy's ribcage by now." I snorted at the thought. She would, I am sure of it. I soon began to descend as the vast moonlit ocean came into view beyond the city's skyline. As I set myself down out on the docks, I found the harbor to be entirely empty. No ships were docked around us while the warehouses were kept far to the edges near the city. It was vast and open with the sound of crashing waves filling the air while a glorious full moon hung over the ocean. After such a wild first hour of so in the world of Project H, this made for a welcome respite. "Nice night right now. If there's nothing else to do, I wouldn't mind a stroll in the harbor."

"As much as I wouldn't mind that..." Luminous said with his tone darkening. That tone reminded me of what I had seen on the front cover of the very issue I was now inside. Four shrouded figures. And I had not yet encountered either of them. As if to compliment this thought, Luminous spoke up softly. "Hunter... Behind you. There's only one."

I sharply turned to my left, eye glancing over my shoulder as I armed the H-Buster. Nothing caught my eye at first. My HUD was not detecting any signs of the Alpha Virus in within my field of vision. But when I turned my gaze higher, I saw it. Standing tall atop a lamppost was an armored machine entity that was sleek and darkly colored. It stood on just one foot panel with arms crossed while maintaining perfect balance. And trailing behind it while wavering in the windless air was a long twin energy scarf that glowed a bright red. Even from that distance, I could tell that his eyes were focused upon me. I recognized that sleek shinobi equine robot anywhere. "Corvus."

"It has been some time, Hunter. I pray your edge remains as sharp as our prior encounter." The stoic shadow warrior spoke despite his lack of a proper mouth. As he spoke, he lifted two fingers from his arm just as a short glowing ghostly blue plasma blade extended from under his digits. With a swift swing of his arm, he flung his plasma kunai at me while I promptly shot it out of the air with my best quick draw. Far from frustrated, Corvus sounded pleased that I was able to so readily intercept his throw. "I see that your aim remains as precise as ever."

"And you're still being a loyal little lapdog to a pandemic in a metal shell, huh?" I asked while his eyes narrowed in offense. My HUD did not lie. Despite his close ties to Alpha, Corvus himself was completely devoid of the Alpha Virus. He was thinking and acting freely. "Come on, you're a man of honor, right? Why're you swearing fealty to that snake? You're not a maverick!"

"No, I am not. But duty and honor are everything to me. And my duty is bound to my king. And my king has decreed that you must die." Corvus spoke coolly as his hand reached for the back of his hip and the sword hilt that rested there. But upon grasping it, he did not immediately draw it. "But it would be unwise to face you alone. My siblings shall be joining us tonight."

"Siblings... As in plural? Guess Aries won't be the only one showing up." I retorted as his words triggered a thrill in my heart. This was it. The main event. The entire squad would finally be assembled. "Bring them on. I wanna see them."

"Patience, Hunter. They are already closing in." Corvus spoke calmly as he too refrained from attacking me further. As the seconds went by, a sound started to reach my ears. The sound of flight thrusters not unlike my own. Corvus turned his gaze to the south as he said, "There he is now."

With the sound becoming louder, I turned to look as something came soaring through the air at startling speed. It flew right past us before curving up to perform a high loop and coming back down for a dive as it came to a stop in the air above us. Yet another biped equine robot of design not entirely unlike that of Corvus, but mostly of green in his armor plating. Corvus called out to his ally as this aerial warrior's thrusters turned down their output to be less noisy. "Orion. I expected you to be here sooner."

"Forgive me, brother! I am still becoming accustomed to the layout of the landmass!" The pegasus robot called out with a voice that sounded...much younger than that of Corvus. Almost like that of a boy who had not yet become a man. His form was sleek and clearly designed for flight with his hardened armor bearing a hue of green that brought to mind fresh leaves being carried along in a gust. Stabilizer fins of a sort were affixed to the sides of his head that resembled feathers or even small wings. The rocket exhaust being emitted from his wing frames carried a vibrant pink hue that contrasted his green armor quite nicely. He turned his gaze to me as he landed as gently as a floating feather with his wing frames folding and tucking themselves against his backside much like my own did. Smaller than Alpha's massive wingspan, yet larger than mine. "And you are the one they call Hunter?"

"I am. And what about you, kid?" I replied while unable to shake the feeling that this new arrival was at least mentally the youngest of the bunch. Even with him standing well above me at the same height as Corvus, he carried a youthful yet earnest air about him. Not at all genuinely villainous.

"I may be the youngest among my siblings, but I still carry the mantle of our king's cause all the same! Lord Alpha will bring a shining new future to our robotic kin in due time! So long as we destroy the greatest obstacle in his path!" He shouted while pointing one hand at me. He then reached for a pair of holsters on the sides of his boots and drew a pair of energy blades that promptly activated. "I am Orion! Champion of the sky!"

My eyes widened as I was quite impressed with Orion's signature weapons. The plasma blades were of a pink hue that complimented the color of his rocket wings and had a distinctive saber curve to them. But what caught my eye the most was the knuckle guard on each of them. A white metal extension curved down over the hand and generated a short plasma edge that was connected to the rest of the blade, allowing for an effective defense as well as for a cutting punch if needed. I let out a very quiet whistle before I said, "Hey. I like your swords."

"You... You do?" Orion retorted in a show of unexpected weakness. Corvus flashed him a disgruntled glare as Orion started to show a level of unprofessional glee in the compliment he had received. "They were made just for me. And I've been trying to coming up with names for them like with how Aries named his cannons. Um... How does 'Swallow Tails' sound?"

"Maybe Swallow Talons?" I replied while finding the term of tail to not be particularly fitting for a sword. Especially when connected to birds as adorable as swallows. Orion seemed to like the suggestion well enough. I then looked over at Corvus as I said, "He's a good kid. I like him."

"Yes, though he is still a little green... Wait, we're supposed to be here to destroy you once and for all! And where are the others already?!" Corvus suddenly yelled in exasperation. Always the serious professional, as is the norm for those stoic shinobi types. But he then glanced up suddenly at the sound of a distant call. "Ah, yes. There he is. Unfortunately."

"Here cooooooooomes the fiiiiiiiire!" A truly hot-blooded voice roared into the air as something distinctly red dropped right out of the sky. With a crash, it hit the ground before us with a rather stylish landing pose. His twin incendiary cannons pivoting from behind his back and sticking halfway over his shoulders, the fiery bruiser of the brothers had returned while looking just as tough and rugged as the last time. Aries stood ready with a look of fiery excitement in his eyes. "Oh yeah, I've been itching so bad for Round 2! And little sis Vesuvius is back in action too! Did ya miss me, Hunter? Because I won't be missing ya this time!"

I found Aries' enthusiasm to be far too excessive for me to find him even remotely intimidating. A crooked smirk crossing my lips, I glanced back and forth at the three brothers and asked, "Is it wrong that I kinda like you guys now?"

Just the looks the three of them were giving me... Despite being part of an elite unit that should have been Alpha's most feared enforcers, they were acting more like a ragtag group with sharply contrasting personalities that came off as more entertaining than menacing. Aries was the first to reply while pointing one of his cannons right at me, "Aw, we like you too! So much so that we wanna take you out to dinner! For a Hunter spit roast! Ain't that right, girls?"

Almost as if on cue, a small sputtering of fire burst from the mouths of his two cannons. And I was finding this all too funny to find worrisome. "I dunno why I was so harsh on this guy last time. He's great."

"At least you don't have to endure the horrors of living with him." Corvus grumbled while giving Aries a very irritated glare out of the corner of his eye. Now that more time had passed for the two of them to get to know each other, it seemed like Aries had become that crazy fratbro roommate who gets on everyone's nerves. Although Corvus then added, "We seem to still be missing someone."

"Oh, yeah! Where's little sis? No, not you, Vivi! I mean our very own lady of the lake!" Aries added while patting his cannon gently like a displeased pet.

I saw the three of them turn their gazes towards the moonlit ocean as the crashing of waves filled the air. As if they knew exactly who was coming. Orion spoke softly in thought as I heard him mutter, "She should be here any second..."

"Phantom... Fefnir... Harpuia..." I spoke softly to myself as I was quick to see some familiar parallels in my enemies' designs, color schemes, and weaponry. As if inspired from a series I am intimately familiar with, there was indeed only one missing now. A warrior of stealth and shadows. A swordsman of the sky who wields the wind. A fiery pyromaniac who can rend the earth. There was only one left as I too focused my gaze upon the ocean before us. "Leviathan."

As if on cue, I got an answer. Something shot up from the sea just in front of the dock before us and rose so high into the air, it passed in front of the moon that hung in the sky. Droplets of water falling from its body glistened in the moonlight. The sheer grace this entity displayed surpassed even that of Orion. I was left spellbound by the sheer acrobatic prowess of this aquatic warrior. Aries was not quite as dazzled as me as he pointed towards the airborne figure and shouted, "Thar she blows!"

After making a full rotation in the air, the moonlit warrior fell to the harbor and gracefully landed upon their feet with a clank. Slowly, they turned to face us. Much like the three of them before me, this one was also a tall biped machine with an equine head that brought to mind the general head and facial structures of the Equestrian royal family. And as they walked towards us, I gazed in awe as this being approached with a distinctly womanly gait. There was a subtle sway of the hips with every step. And in one hand was a long narrow pole of sorts. With the rays of the moon shimmering along the slick wet metal plating that lined her body, I stood spellbound as the fourth member of this elite squadron joined her brothers. "She's...actually beautiful..."

"Good of you to join us, Aquarius. Be warned. Our enemy is a most stubbornly difficult opponent." Corvus spoke as their aquatic sister stood before us. I could barely believe that Alpha would have enough presence of mind to design a warrior with so much beauty. Her design was sleek and very feminine for a humanoid machine. Even the way her breastplate covered her upper torso left me suspecting there could be a womanly bust shape just underneath. Her sleek hardened armor had a beautiful cerulean hue to it. Even her metal boots and foot panels differed from those of her brothers. Where theirs and mine consisted of a single panel, hers were made up of two with the second being much smaller towards the back to function like a heel. A means of simulating a woman's higher heels, or with a certain function for underwater movement?

Even her very face was beautiful to behold. Her gaze was not at all fierce with those lovely blue eyes gazing upon us with a hint of uncertainty in them. A long unicorn horn rested atop her head like that of Corvus that no doubt carried a certain function with it to resemble a unicorn's magic. But the most fascinating aspect of her design were long flowing trails of icy mist flowing down from the back of her head that bore the resemblance of a long flowing head of hair. The byproduct of a type of cryo generator for producing ice?

What a slew of colors that stood on the docks with me. The black of shadows, the green of leaves carried by the wind, the bold red of surging flames, and the beautiful blue of the vast ocean and frigid arctic ice fields. All with those four colors complimenting bits of white for the more flexible softer components of their bodies. And then there was me. Pure white like a blank canvas ready to be painted any color you can imagine. It was rather poetic, really. And as I beheld the beautiful robotic mare before me, she spoke with a soft voice unbefitting for a warrior. "You are...Hunter, yes? I am Aquarius. Pleased to meet you."

"Yeah, uh... Nice to meet you too. I'm guessing you and your brothers here complete the set?" I replied while very surprised with how genuinely polite and even kind Aquarius seemed to be. There did not seem to be any genuine malice in her voice. What was Alpha thinking, creating powerful enforcers of his cause with personalities that would no doubt clash with his unambiguously malevolent desires?

"Yes. The four of us are the foremost lieutenants of our lord's cause. Now that we are all assembled, our mission can begin." Corvus retorted as he finally drew his blade, its ghostly blue plasma aura extending to form the shape of an exceptionally long kunai dagger. It was only then that I was reminded of what the plot of this issue of Project H was about. I was in for what was sure to be a frustrating four on one fight. Could I really handle them all?

Aries and Orion seemed ready to join in as well. Orion landed upon his feet and looked ready to charge at me with blades out to his sides while Aries had one of his cannons pointed right at me. And that look of excitement in his eyes told me he really wanted to mess me up. But when I turned my gaze to Aquarius, I saw she was the only one without a weapon ready. She still had that pole in hand, but it hardly counted for a functional weapon. A gaze of unease in her eyes, she asked, "Must we fight...?"

"You heard our lord, Aquarius! We must eliminate the Hunter! For the sake of our machine brethren!" Orion called out with conviction, though I had to wonder how insightful one so inexperienced and youthful actually could be about the true ramifications of Alpha's goals. I got the intense suspicion that Orion was a traitor in the making, or maybe it is just me.

Aquarius turned her gaze away from her brother and looked at me with such an apologetic stare. She lifted her pole and pointed it out to her side. It was only then that I found out exactly what it was. With some sort of internal function, frigid mist began to form around the far tip before the very moisture from the crashing waves nearby were drawn through the air and rapidly frozen to form a spearhead of sorts that turned the pole into a type of glaive. My HUD promptly scanned the blade and found it to be composed entirely of frozen sea water. Blue ice, the toughest natural ice possible. And the edge... Artificially sharpened down to such a fine point that even the sharpest metal blades could not compete. Even my armor would not be left unscathed by a direct strike. And yet, Aquarius spoke softly to me. "I don't understand anything about our lord's cause... Or why we must fight. I have no ill will towards you, Hunter."

"I... I don't wanna hurt you either." I said to the robotic maiden with a hand reaching out to her. Even the four's very personalities contrasted sharply. Stoic and serious, fiery and passionate, naive yet earnest, and gentle and kind. And yet, I could not feel a single bad vibe coming off of either of them. They truly were not mavericks at all. Simply a ragtag bunch who had signed up for the wrong side. "We really shouldn't have to do this. We're not really enemies here."

"But you are the enemy of our king! And his enemies are our enemies! Right?" Orion asked with just a brief wavering of his resolve. As if he was only working off of what little he knew at the time.

"Yep, that's how it goes! The boss points us at someone, we wreck 'em!" Aries replied before pointing Krakatoa at me. At least I think the cannon he has on his right shoulder is her? Yeah, I am pretty sure that was how it went in his debut. He then grinned at me and asked, "Ready to get this hunt started?"

I let out a sigh as I saw all four of the siblings brace themselves for an imminent confrontation. I really was not in the mood to fight them all at once, but I suppose if I was going to get a fulfilling session against worthy opponents, then they would definitely deliver on that front. With a sigh, I armed the H-Buster. "Fine. If there's no way around this, I guess we...can... OK, why do I hear boss fight music right now?"

There is really no other way I can describe it. My auditory sensors picked up something quite a ways off from our current location. It was faint... And it was rapidly getting louder and closer. It was an utterly fast paced and bombastic tune that reeked of some kind of campy heroism. The four machine siblings before me also started glancing around as they too picked up that crazy melody. With his equine ear audio receptors pivoting atop his head, Aries lifted up his cannon as he started to smile. "Hey... Heeeey, I like this tune! That could be my jam! Where's it coming from?"

It was only around then that my HUD detected a presence approaching from towards the city. And just when I had finally forgotten all about her, I saw Undyne sprinting right at us at speeds that should not be possible for a woman like her. And floating along behind her were couple of Mettaton's little boxy drones that were blaring that tune like some sort of ridiculous fanfare! I immediately flinched when I saw that the cavalry I did not want was closing in fast. "Aw hell, not this again!"

"NGAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" She roared while absolutely no one had any time to do anything to stop her. With an impressive display of acrobatics, Undyne went into a forward flip to send herself flying feet first forward at... All right, if anyone there was going to get decked in the side of the head by a flying dropkick from an insane bloodthirsty piranha woman, it was going to be Aries. As soon as her boots slammed into his head, Aries was catapulted sideways headfirst while letting out an embarrassing shriek like a little girl before ramming his head right into a lamppost nearby and bending that thing on nearly a 90 degree angle in an instant. And once she landed back on her feet, Undyne threw her arms up as she shouted in triumph, "Woo! That felt good! Who's next?!"

"Wha gah how WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS ABSURDITY?!" Corvus suddenly yelled in utter irritation at this most unwelcome interruption even while that obnoxious fanfare continued to play. Without letting that racket go on much longer, he flung a pair of plasma kunai right into the two drones. Sparks flying as the plasma blades sunk deep, the ruined drones hit the ground with a crash as they fell silent. "Much better. Now then, who the devil are you?!"

"Oh come on! Why am I the one who keeps getting sucker punched like this?!" Aries groaned while he struggled to free his head from the rather detailed outline his noggin left in the bent lamppost. With some effort, he managed to pop his head out and came running back over while looking utterly furious. He pulled his right cannon down ready for a fight as he yelled, "All right, who's the sucker who just nailed me in the..."

It was only then that everyone got a good look at the grinning blue piranha woman in jeans and a black tank top glaring them all down. She said nothing at first while sizing up the enemy. And everyone else... They had no idea what the hell to make of the creature before them. Although Aries glanced to his left and asked, "Hey, Aqua. You speak fish, right? Can you tell this thing to get back in the ocean or something?!"

"I swim with the fishes! I can't communicate with them!" Aquarius retorted in confusion over her brother making such a ridiculous assumption about her. Not that they needed to speak fish to understand Undyne. Quite frankly, that little quip even got quite a laugh out of her.

Undyne took a moment to evaluate the opposition. She soon looked my way and asked, "I don't get the whole horse head look they've all got going for them, but... They're the stars of the show tonight, right? The ones we gotta deal with that are a big step above all the small fries I've been trashing tonight?"

"Yeah, pretty much. And where's the rest of your posse? They sitting this out?" I asked while all but certain this ragtag troupe of weirdoes were about to get more involved in this conflict than they had any right to. And sure enough, one glance behind her revealed Sans and Papyrus rushing over with the latter looking quite hyped over Undyne's very dynamic entry. "Spoke to soon."

"Wowee, I haven't seen you send someone flying on such a perfect horizontal angle since that time you sent me flying out your window with your piano!" Papyrus called out over something that I felt would have been very unwise to inquire about. Sans looked like he was just along for the ride with his hands in his pockets while Mettaton picked up one of his ruined drones to examine the damage. Papyrus took note and asked, "Um... Are they gonna be OK? Can we fix them?"

"Oh, it's no trouble, darling. I always have more to choose from." Mettaton replied without looking even remotely bothered. He then held up the drone on his upturned hand and said with a smirk, "Enjoy that little fanfare? It's a new feature the good doctor helped me install. A little mood function that automatically chooses a song to play to fit the situation. In other words, these little beauties provide the perfect fitting ambience whenever they're around."

I crossed my arms while thinking back to the situation that had just unfurled. The way Undyne came zooming in shrieking at the top of her lungs just to drop kick some punk in the head... "Um... OK, not gonna lie. They totally nailed it a minute ago."

"HEY! YOU WEIRDOES DONE CRASHING OUR PARTY OR WHAT?!" Aries suddenly roared at us while taking a step forward. He was more than just a little impatient for another chance to roast me.

Although Sans then pointed at him in a rather obnoxious fashion and said, "My dude, are you feeling super unfresh after our girl here sent you extra lateral? Because that, my dawg, is what call getting jiggidy wiggidy roasted. Just like your baby girl there was last time."

That little roast caused Aries to go ramrod stiff while his siblings looked on in quiet concern. With his eye twitching for an instant, he then said, "I am five seconds away...from blowing you the hell up. I mean I am THIS CLOSE to just scorching you down to nothing but cinders!"

"Whoa, check out this brah. So funky fresh. And let's see, we also got..." Sans retorted while trying way too hard to roll with this ridiculous facade he had going on. He scanned the other three robot warriors behind Aries as he spoke, "We got us one little miss blue submarine, one green Josie in the Sky with Diamonds, and good old Edgy Mc My Chemical Romance. I like 'em colorful."

By that point, all four of them were glaring daggers at Sans while I was just trying to keep a straight face. But just out of the corner of my vision, I saw something bright rapidly approaching us from the rooftops near the edge of the city. Hot... And dangerous. We all jumped back at the last second as the incoming fiery plasma shot exploded into the pavement between us. Aries then smirked as he and his siblings turned their gazes skyward. "Sweet. Looks like the boss is here."

Sure enough, there he was. Descending upon a pair of massive rocket wings that generated a fiery orange exhaust was none other than the maverick king himself. Alpha gracefully lowered himself to the ground between the two groups with arms spread wide in an infuriatingly grand gesture, his long flowing energy mane trailing behind him. His body was not at all the same as the last time I saw him, but it still sported a tall and almost regal design that sported spotless white plating with gold highlights. He stood even taller than his four lieutenants and his body was even larger around to give off a truly powerful presence. And there, forever branded upon his face like eternally flowing tears were the two vertical scars I had given him during the pilot issue. They glowed with a warm fiery orange radiance. Upon landing gently and folding his wings behind him, Alpha cast his eyes upon me. "Hunter."

"Alpha." I retorted in kind as I felt a cool yet simmering animosity for this foul machine tyrant. The H-Buster upon my right arm was ready. But the odds were not in my favor. Alpha alone would normally provide a very fair fight. But him along with his four mightiest enforcers? This was going to be an uphill struggle.

It was around then that Mettaton took a step forward with a hand cradling his chin. He smirked in subtle adoration as he said, "My my... Seems you found another shell to inhabit, your excellency. And I dare say it's even more regal than the last."

I had no reason to believe Alpha or even Corvus or Aries would remember our prior encounter. Outside intrusions into the world of the Power Ponies and Project H would probably not apply to the inner continuity of their world. And yet... Alpha's eyes narrowed. An inquisitive gaze settled upon his face. "Wait... Do I know you? That form... That voice... Where...have I..."

All too suddenly, Alpha began to writhe as his hand gripped his head. So too did Aries and Corvus. Aquarius and Orion took a step back as their three comrades violently convulsed before us. The symptoms soon subsided, but the three of them began to display glares of a much more pronounced unpleasantness in them. Alpha growled quietly, "You... You... Yes... The mummer who tore my heart from my body. It's all coming back to me now."

"Wait, you remember?!" I yelped in disbelief. What sort of strange properties did these otherworldly interlopers possess that could allow these beings from a fictional universe tied to a singular continuity to remember their prior encounters? I looked at Sans and Mettaton and asked, "What'd you do?! How can they even remember that time?!"

Sans just held up his hands and shrugged. "Don't look at me, brah. I got no funky fresh clue on how this all works."

"Yeah! Now I remember! It wasn't Hunter who wrecked poor Vivi last time..." Aries said with a growing snarl before pointing his left cannon right at a startled Mettaton. "It was YOU! You blew my poor baby girl all to pieces! Well now little sis Vesuvius is back for more! And she and big sis Krakatoa are bringing the heat!"

"Yes, yes, you and your ridiculous obsession with booms and blasts and fiery flames." Mettaton retorted rather dismissively while waving his hand at Aries. Considering how he absolutely floored Alpha entirely by himself last time, he probably could take Aries all the same.

"And the strange little creature of bone returns as well... I trust your strange skull cannons are as inconsistent with their firepower as ever?" Corvus asked with his stoic gaze set upon Sans.

"Yep. My boys will still roast you in an instant if they feel like it. But that's only if you get reeeeeeally unlucky." Sans retorted smarmily while still relying on the smoke and mirrors he resorted to last time. And I doubt a change of attire would do much for his durability.

"Ngah! So what about last time! This time, we're ALL taking you punks on! Right, boys?!" Undyne shouted with fire in her throat. And she was not kidding at all. With a wave of her hand, she summoned another of her spears to her palm. "And it looks like its an even match. Five against five! You ready for this, Hunter?"

"Hey, I thought I told you all to... Uh..." I started to object, but then took note of the odds. Me and against all five of them... Yeah, that was more than just a tall order. How would Hunter deal wit hall five? Knowing who was still watching, I whispered, "Doc. You're still seeing this, right? Any recommendations?"

Doctor Luminous spoke much more direly from the other end of the transmission. "Yes, I'm still here... It's as I feared. All four are online. Corvus. Aries. Orion. Aquarius. All specializing in different fields. Facing all four at once would mean certain defeat. But with Alpha on the scene as well... If these strangers are willing to help, I suggest taking them up on their offer."

With great reluctance, I finally relented and turned to face the familiar faces behind me. "Well... How about it? You guys up for some action tonight?"

"Oh, I wouldn't mind another chance to test my mettle. The stage is all fine and good, but there's nothing quite like the flash and flair of sci-fi combat!" Mettaton replied with a proud smirk. And for an instant, I saw a brief hot pink glow come from under the long locks of black hair on the right side of his face. I quivered in anticipation. Mettaton NEO would soon be making his return debut.

Sans did not look so sure about jumping in again. I still remember him constantly running for cover until he finally joined the fray. Papyrus, on the other hand... "Oh, wait! This looks like... Undyne! This seems to be a perfect opportunity to test my mettle! Surely I can join the royal guard if I triumph against these, yes?"

That was the first time I really saw Undyne's look of unwavering bravado fade. She looked at Papyrus with a genuinely uneasy gaze. Sans looked just as horrified with that constant smile looking not so sincere anymore. Why? Papyrus seemed very sure of himself. Sans is an exceptionally tricky opponent and Mettaton is a spectacular robot combatant easily on par with Hunter himself. Surely Papyrus could match them?

"Papyrus, look. You're not... Um..." Undyne started to say with sweat starting to ooze down her face. Papyrus looked as giddy as a kid waiting for a chance to go on a wild amusement park ride with fists clenched and body halfway crouched. Undyne's eye scanned our enemies with Aries even cracking his knuckles in anticipation. With a sigh, she finally turned to Papyrus and displayed a more subdued smile. "Fine. We're gonna need all the help we can get here."

For just an instant, Papyrus opened his jaws wide as he inhaled sharply for a cheer. But he suddenly jerked back with large googly eyes filling his eye sockets with Undyne very abruptly pointed her spear right at his face. "BUT! I better see you giving 110% tonight! If I see you slouching even a bit, I'm blacklisting you from the royal guard entirely! Don't let us down, got it?!"

"Yes! Of course! The Great Papyrus never fails! He always excels whenever he is needed! I'll make you proud, Undyne!" Papyrus responded with glee instead of fear. Upon regaining his balance, he slammed his palms together before pulling them out to his sides to reveal a long bone staff summoned from nowhere. With great finesse, he twirled it around himself before striking a very confident pose with his staff behind himself as that scarlet scarf of his billowed heroically in the wind. "Beware, metal fiends! My battle body's ready and my bone attacks are set! The Great Papyrus will be giving you a sparring like no other!"

"That's what I wanna see! Get psyched, Papyrus! Tonight's the night we all show what we've got!" Undyne shrieked as they both cheered loudly seemingly to psyche each other up. Like a pair of really good friends who were bouncing off each other quite well. As for our adversaries, they looked like they had no idea what in the world to make of those two. Even I was still trying to process the sheer bizarre reality of this ragtag bunch.

Not sure how to feel about such a jolly skeleton without a single bad bone in his body getting in on this battle, I leaned down to Sans and asked, "Should I be worried about your bro getting involved?"

"Pap? Well... Uh... Don't get me wrong. He's the nicest guy you'll ever meet, but he's a lot tougher than he looks. I'm just scared for him getting in a real fight with guys that dangerous. If he gets too merciful, he's in trouble." The colorful stumpy skeleton replied while dropping his totally radical facade for a moment. He then adjusted his funky glasses before he said, "Guess I gotta give these totally ungroovetastic tin cans a rad time too. Can't let my baby boo bop bro take all the punishment. That would be totally wiggidy wiggidy whacked!"

"Sans, would you shut up with that ridiculous outdated lingo already?! I'm not sure if I should be laughing or crying by now!" Papyrus yelled as he looked about ready to clonk his brother over the head with his new staff.

Sans only seemed tempted to yank his brother's chain more. And so he said, "Sorry, bro. I guess you can say I'm just a...boneifide rebel in this getup."

That was the straw that broke the camel's back. Papyrus' lower jaw scraped against his upper as it slide sharply and harshly by an inch to leave them crooked. And those googly eyes in his eye sockets... They looked utterly furious. Sans actually looked quite proud of that bone pun as he said, "Oh, come on. You know that was a good...uh... AW CRAP!"

Next thing I knew, Sans took off running as Papyrus chased after him with an utterly massive bone that was probably as tall and big around as your average tree. And he was not even fazed by the weight! With utter fury in his eyes, Papyrus shrieked with a very long and drawn out yell while Sans scampered about with a panicked frown on his face that showed he knew he was in trouble. Mettaton cocked his head to one side and asked, "You think we should stop him?"

"Nah, let those boneheads have their fun. I wanna see if Papyrus catches him." Undyne retorted with an amused grin on her face. I guess such shenanigans are fairly common between those two back where they come from.

After another twenty second of observing this gag right out of the Benny Hill show, Sans and Papyrus were suddenly interrupted as the bone had most of itself obliterated by a sudden burst of raw plasma. The two bone brothers froze while Papyrus and his now very startled googly eyes looked up to see the rest of his massive bone literally incinerated away down to a charred uneven stump. All eyes fell upon Alpha as his long horn atop his brow surged with searing plasma energy. "Are you simpletons quite done making fools of yourselves now? Can we kindly get to why we are all here?"

"Yeesh. This guy's in this for keeps. Time to suit up." Undyne said with cool excitement in her voice. She brought her hand to what seemed to be a type of panel that appeared out of nowhere before her. It had an orange outline and was completely black within those boundaries. And a second later, it vanished as quickly as it had appeared. But only then... I stood transfixed. Undyne was now clad in a very respectable suit of dark gray plate armor with an almost piranha type of helmet. The fanged lower jaw had an impressive underbite and even appeared to double as a gorget. Upon placing her helmet upon her head, Undyne even pulled her ponytail out a small hole near the top to have that long lock of crimson hair double as a helmet plume. Her one eye even seemed to glow from the slit in the front for her to see out of. "Right. Who's ready to rumble?!"

"Nyeh heh! That's the captain I remember! The Great Papyrus is also ready!" Papyrus called out as his resolve was quickly restored. Seconds later, the four of them stood in a line beside me while our enemies did the same. It was a an impressive setup. Five heroes versus five villains. I was actually kind of pumped by then. And I was fairly confident that we would do just fine.

Sans stood closest to me as he glanced up at me and said softly, "Same plan as last time, right? I shoot, they dodge, and you guys hit them while they're dodging."

"Still can only give as much as you take, huh? Got it." I retorted while wondering how well Sans would fair against these new odds. It could get chaotic if it became a free-for-all, so I quickly pointed my left hand at Alpha to single out my opponent. "Alpha! You're mine! They rest of you guys can take his goons!"

"Leave the boy in green to me! An aerial duel sounds like my kind of show!" Mettaton spoke up as his right hand reached over and grasped the knob on the left side of his chest. My eyes perked up upon knowing exactly what would happen once that knob was turned. It was a show I was eager to see again.

"Roger that! You there! I'm liking that spear you've got! I'll take you on! Let's see whose spears trump whose!" Undyne shouted as she pointed her spear at Aquarius. The sole female member of Alpha's enforcers narrowed her eyes as a new focused coolness filled her gaze. Where was that gentle uncertainty from mere minutes ago? Perhaps the gentle waves were about to harden into unforgiving harsh ice.

"I'll take the hot shot. I'm betting my groovy Gaster Blaster brahs would like to boogy with the twins there." Sans then spoke up as a pair of those big Gaster Blasters popped up beside him seemingly from nowhere. And for the cherry on top, they were somehow both sporting pairs of sunglasses over their eye sockets. "Hey, Toasty! The twins there. They single?"

"Oooohoohoohoo, don't even go there with me! You keep your bonehead pets away from my baby girls!" Aries shouted before taking aim with both cannons atop his shoulders. "But I bet they'd love to get a piece of you!"

"Ooh! Does this mean I get the awesome ninja there?!" Papyrus cheered in utter glee as he summoned his bone staff to his hands once more. He even started doing a little tappy feet dance in sheer excitement. Did he really think this was all a game of some sort? "Wowee golly gee, I can barely contain myself! You look as awesome as some of my best action figures! This is going to be...so...much...fun!"

Corvus merely gave Papyrus a very dry stare. He then turned his gaze to meet that of Alpha and said, "My lord... May I request an opponent switch? I'm not certain I feel comfortable dealing with this imbecile."

God, I just about busted a gut upon hearing that. I was not so sure I would be comfortable fighting Papyrus myself at the time. Alpha merely gave Corvus a dry glare of his own as he replied, "No, Corvus. Just be grateful this fool will be easy pickings for you."

"That's exactly the point, my lord. I'm not comfortable with disposing of such a helpless target. But if you insist..." Corvus grumbled as he readied himself with sword positioned behind his hip. "Just be sure to die with dignity."

"Wow, that's some really tough talk. I never said I was gonna break you! Let's make this fun, OK?" Papyrus retorted while sounding like he was completely missing the point of this clash. We all stood together in a row while our enemies did the same, each of us staring down our opponents. With a sudden leap, we all spread ourselves out as the tension began to simmer. This was going to be good. Alpha and his four mightiest enforcers against Hunter and this ragtag group of strange yet most likely very capable strangers from another world.

Just before things could really get started, Mettaton held out his let hand towards Orion to signal him to stop. "Before we get started! Might I just take a moment to prepare myself? I'm afraid this body just isn't designed for the rigors of a battlefield. I won't be much of a challenge like this. But if you'd prefer an easy victory, I can understand that..."

All eyes fell upon Mettaton. I could see what he was up to. He just needed a moment to assume his mightiest form. Orion, sabers still clutched in his hands, gave Mettaton a most perplexed gaze before turning his attention to Alpha. "My lord! What do you suggest?"

Alpha was not so certain on allowing his subordinate to give his opponent a chance to assume a much more capable form. That wary glare in his eyes told me everything I needed to know. After a moment of contemplation, the maverick king then said, "If you truly wish to challenge yourself, give that mummer as much time to prepare as needed. But be warned, Orion. He is a formidable opponent."

Undyne and Papyrus suddenly glanced at Mettaton very sharply. What they heard about last time was one thing, but to hear such high praise of a sort from Alpha was definitely unexpected. His orders issued, Orion sheathed his weapons and crossed his arms in waiting. "Very well! Do what you must to prepare yourself! I'll wait."

"In that case, let's get this show on the road! I swear you won't be disappointed!" Mettaton called out with a turn of the knob on his chest. He then sprung skyward as some sort of function within him generated a field of vibrant pink light behind him to give the illusion of him rising rapidly through the air. His face angled down, he smirked as a bright pink light. And as he threw his head back with pink lightning suddenly spilling forth from his concealed right eye, I saw many of Mettaton's little audio drones popping up all over the harbor to prepare some proper fanfare to start this fight off.

"Whoa, is this that NEO quirk Alphys was working on?! I thought she scrapped it!" Undyne called out in delight as a familiar bombastic tune started to play from the many drones littering the area. "Yeah, show us whatcha got, Mettaton! Turn it up!"

With the lightning from his eye passing, Mettaton threw his head up with his sleek black hair now being styled up to provide a truly rocking style fit for the stage. The right side of his face was covered by a visor of sorts that displayed a glowing pink targeting reticle. His body frozen in a T-shape to prepare for the imminent transformation, Mettaton's flickering heart belt buckle began to rotate clockwise as all eyes fell upon this glorious spectacle. "Time to turn this up for the main everyone, ladies and gentlemen! IIIIIIIT'S SHOWTIME!"

As soon as that heart was upside-down, it began. Mettaton's upper body made a half rotation to hack his backside on the front, the outside opening outwards to reveal his modified chassis and that glass heart panel displaying the text 'NEO' within it. His tube arms retracted before extending properly segmented arms with a hand on his left and a powerful cannon on the right. His legs were jettisoned at the knees before flying off with rocket engines installed in the stumps as longer and much sleeker armored legs extended from the rest of it. His original breastplate extended outward from his backside to reveal twin rocket engines on the underside that roared as Mettaton was sent flying skyward with a stylish spiral, his original legs now flying around him in a perfectly synchronized manner. Their engines soon deactivated at their stumps turned towards him, being drawn into his shoulder plates and suddenly altering to become large cylindrical pauldrons with curled spines near the tips. Mettaton laughed in triumph as he posed dynamically in the air with cannon pointing outward, special effects filling the air around him as his wing projectors came online to generate twin capelike wings from his pauldrons that flickered constantly. And unlike last time, the small gaps in his armor glowed a vibrant hot pink to signify that this body was running on the 2.0 firmware. My HUD revealed that his offensive and defensive capabilities were perfectly balanced much like last time. Mettaton NEO was on the scene and ready to rumble.

Everyone who was beholding this transformation for the first time had quite a way of responding. Undyne let out a roaring cheer while Papyrus was so stunned that his lower jaw ended up detaching and dropped right to the ground. Orion and even Aquarius even applauded! Although Aries then pointed at Mettaton and yelled, "Yeah, that's him! That's the punk who wrecked poor Vesuvius last time! Tear him a new one for me, baby bro!"

"Yes, right! But still, spectacular presentation! I'm impressed!" Orion retorted while being understandably dazzled by Mettaton's transformation. Even the music being played from the many drones continued to sing his praises, though I must confess that melody even fit the entire situation with all ten of us regardless. If I was hyped before, I was utterly pumped by now. This was going to be a good fight.

"Oh, I'll show you spectacular!" Mettaton called out as he took aim with his cannon. Faint pink particles of energy started to form around the mouth as it began to charge. Sneaky, getting in the first shot by taking advantage of his opponent's ignorance. "Behold the return debut of Mettaton NEO!"

Instead of firing off a focus concentrated beam like last time, the modified cannon of Mettaton's arm fired off a large spherical blast of bright pink energy not unlike how the H-Buster works most of the time. It rapidly closed in on Orion, but the master of the wind was quick to respond. Drawing both sabers, his wings sprang open as he suddenly rocketed up into the sky with startling speed as Mettaton's shot exploded into the pavement where Orion had been standing. Orion quickly reached Mettaton's altitude and stared him down with blades ready while Mettaton even seemed to recoil in surprise at such a speedy evasion. While my HUD confirmed that Mettaton was more powerful and more durable on top of having a barrier projector at his disposal, I was alarmed to detect that Orion was most likely much faster and nimbler in the air. He could probably fly circles around Mettaton. "The Power of Neo, you say? Then show me the power that bested my lord!"

"Ha! You evaded my first shot with even more grace than he did! Give me your best, Sir Orion! Let's put on a show for the ages!" Mettaton replied with true showmanship and bravado without even once losing that smile on his face. He then looked down at us while he and Orion descended closer to the ground to not get too far away from the action that was on the verge of exploded out there by the sea. "I think we're all ready here! Shall we?"

"YEAH! LET'S RUMBLE!" Undyne roared with spear raised high. Mettaton's many audio drones even began to cast stage light glows all over the harbor to give some more flair and flash to the situation. For as dire as the situation probably was, we were all weirdly expecting a good time. Every last one of us had a smile on our faces.

Alpha and I did not even draw our weapons at first. Much like how I was left wondering how my new comrades would fair in this wild battle royale, Alpha was most likely curious of how his full squad of subordinates would perform now that they had properly assembled for the first time. My eyes fell upon Sans first as his two Gaster Blasters unloaded on Aries without ever actually hitting him. The fiery bombardier let out a whoop before taking aim with both cannons and unloading rapid shots of hot fire. That was when Sans suddenly clicked his heels together and started sliding around on the ground to sidestep the incoming fiery projectiles. Those sneakers he had found... Were they one of those shoe and roller-skate hybrids with retractable wheels? Whatever the case, he was really milking that retro 90s 'tude facade hard as he began to roll around with impressive finesse and just trying to get on Aries' nerves. And it was working. "Oh, would you just hold still a second?! Quit hiding behind those wheels and your bonehead buddies and FIGHT LIKE A MAN!"

"Nah, I'm felling way too fresh to get toasty right now!" Sans laughed before two of his magic bones suddenly shot up from nowhere and poked Aries in the knees so hard that he stumbled and fell flat on his face. Or rather he would have had his two cannons not been facing forward at the time. They propped him up like a pair of stilts. But not even a second later, they both fired with enough recoil to send Aries flying backwards with a shriek before falling right on his back. All the while, Sans even started doing the roller-skating equivalent of the moonwalk as he started to laugh. "Dang, brah! You just got wiggidy riggidy roasted by your own girls, huh?"

"Bro! I am gonna roast YOU so hard when I get my hands on you!" Aries snarled as he quickly climbed to his feet and aimed skyward. His two cannons fired alternatively in succession to send fiery projectiles high only to have them fall back down to just bomb the immediate area. Sans responded accordingly by picking up speed and having his Gaster Blasters hover above him to provide some cover. All the while, he never lost that grin. I think he really was having a rad time.

My attention was then turned to Undyne as she and Aquarius clashed with spears. Stabs and parries galore took place with neither were able to land a solid strike on the other. Although just when it looked like Undyne had gotten an opening to land a strike, Aquarius surprised us both. She was suddenly launched high by a sudden concentrated burst of water from her boots like some sort of water jet. The sheer force behind it sent her skyward with impressive speed to compensate for being out of her aquatic element. With Undyne's spear having missed, she suddenly had to retreat as Aquarius came down with spear pointing towards the ground.

Undyne made the right choice by retreating as far back as she did. Upon plunging her frigid spearhead into the ground, Aquarius unleashed waves of ice spikes that burst up from the ground. With how fast the air flash froze, the ice spikes did not take more than a few seconds to evaporate into mist. Instead of being intimidated by this close call, I heard Undyne let out a whistle from inside her helmet. "Woo! Now that's what I'm talking about! What else you got up your sleeve?"

"Allow me to demonstrate." Aquarius replied with a very cool and focused tone. Her unicorn horn began to radiate a beautiful blue aura of sorts, but I am not so sure it was magic. In response, the very waves that were crashing against the docks burst high and came crashing down over them. "Drown!"

"What the?!" Undyne yelled as she was promptly swept off her feet by the walls of water that came sweeping over the docks. She could not even reach the surface as the swirling torrents trapped her in the massive cube of water that was forming before us. Aquarius was having difficulty fighting on dry land, so she brought the ocean to her and was creating her own aquatic battlefield. Her unique functions were holding the water together like a massive pool without walls. And Undyne could not escape! She was going to drown in there!

I listened closely as my auditory sensors adjusted to detect sound from within the cube of water that Undyne was now trapped in. She groaned in irritation as she went tumbling in the currents within. But she did not sound like she was struggling to breathe... Wait... Of course. Why would she need to breathe? She was a fish woman! Surely she had some gills on her!

Aquarius most likely did not realize this when I did since she then hurled herself into the aquatic battlefield and shot through it with impressive speed. Her aqua jets propelled her with admirable grace. And when she came in for a stab, Undyne proved to us all that she was not at a disadvantage. With a quick kick of her feet, she looped over Aquarius with impressive ease. Even with a full suit of plate armor on her, Undyne displayed glorious underwater movement as she landed on the ground below. "Think you can drown me? Yeah, right! I always knew that training in the ponds would pay off someday!"

Undyne hurled herself at Aquarius with a powerful series of dolphin kicks even while Aquarius banked around her. They dove at each other with spears, even summoning ice shards and smaller magic spearheads to throw at each other. Truly a match made in heaven, those two aquatic spearfighters. Now that I knew Undyne was not at a disadvantage, I turned my gaze towards Papyrus.

If there was one person I was most worried about, it was Papyrus. He really did not seem like someone who would know anything about combat. Certainly not when dealing with someone as lethal as Corvus. The robotic ninja came in with quick swings and stabs of his sword. And yet Papyrus carefully parried each swing with his long staff of bone. I thought for sure that lethal plasma blade would cut right through it, but whatever magic was in that enchanted bone was enough to hold up to it. Corvus even let out a shout of frustration as he said, "How does a simple bone endure such a blade?! I should have cleaved you into pieces by now!"

"Oh, this isn't just any bone! It's a magic bone!" Papyrus replied without an ounce of clarity. I mean yes, I get that there was magic in that bone. Magic is sort of the norm in a world like Equestria. But it was still a type of magic not native to such a world. Regardless, Papyrus was entirely on the defensive. He kept himself at a safe distance with that staff and was even quick enough to keep up with Corvus whenever he tried to slip around him. Corvus eventually tired of Papyrus parrying every swing he threw and shoved him back with a palm strike. No harm was done, but it did startle the goofy skeleton. "Oof! Hey, not so rough... Wowee! That's an awesome shuriken!"

Oh dear. Papyrus had simply been thrown off balance to give Corvus enough time to prepare his primary ranged weapon. Corvus held out his shuriken as its four blue plasma blades extended from its disclike base. With a swing of his hand, he hurled the flying plasma buzz saw at his foe. All it would take is one hit for that to cut right through. Thankfully, Papyrus proved he and his brother had more in common than one might assume. A tall and rather thick bone shot up from the ground and blocked the shuriken without any trouble as it tried to cut its way through. Papyrus then reached out and carefully grabbed it between his hands as he examined it up close. "Oooooh, I've gotta get me one of these! Look at these glowy blades!"

"For the love of... Are you even trying to take this seriously, you imbecile?!" Corvus groaned as Papyrus examined his own weapon like it was a toy. When Papyrus looked like he was about to hand it back to the guy, Corvus lunged past him and snatched his shuriken right out of his hands. "I will not be made a fool of here! Face me like a true warrior!"

Lastly, Alpha and I turned our gazes up at Mettaton. He had to hold up his glowing pixel barrier to block sonic waves being launched at him with every swing of Orion's sabers. It was as if each swing allowed a piece of their own plasma blades to disconnect to serve as a cutter projectile. And when not on the attack, he was on the move. Mettaton struggled to try and land a hit with how speedy Orion was in the air, reaching high speeds almost instantly and diving as swiftly as a swallow. At one point, Orion even dove under and up behind Mettaton to try and take a swing. With no real time to project his barrier, Mettaton turned and threw up his right arm just in time to generate his own glowing pink laser blade coming from the cannon mouth. With sparks flying from the clashing blades, Mettaton growled with some genuine irritation. "My, aren't you the speedy one?! Seems I'm in for a long duel here."

"Your defenses are impeccable! Color me impressed!" Orion retorted in kind as the two pushed away from each other. It truly was a case of sheer speed and agility against stubborn defenses and overwhelming firepower. But now that it had become clear of where everyone stood with each other, Alpha and I turned our gazes back to each other.

"Seems your new allies are proving to be a stubborn match for my men. But for how long, I wonder." Alpha spoke smugly as his hand drew his mighty plasma sword from its holster, its long golden blade extending for battle.

"I dunno. Mettaton sure did a number on you last time. I think they'll be just fine." I replied while also drawing the H-Saber from its holster. "But I know I can take you. You're mine, maverick."

Even with Alpha greater stature bearing down on me, I parried his swing with one of my own as our blades hissed with fanfare blaring all around us. I was finally getting exactly what I came there for. And I was genuinely hyped. "Yeah, that's it. Bring it, maverick! I'm expecting a good time!"

"Do not expect me to fall easily, Hunter! With every failure, I rise from the rubble more powerful than ever!" Alpha roared as I saw his eyes starting to glow. I narrowly got my particle shield up in time to block a laser shot from his eyes as he went on the offensive, slashing with his sword and trying to pick away at my blind spots with lasers from his eyes.

"Tch. Two can play at that!" I grunted as I moved my sword to my left hand while blocking a strike. I armed the H-Buster and fired a light shot directly into his left leg to trip Alpha up before landing a long slash across his torso. "It's all the same old song! Don't you have anything new to bring to the table?"

"It's funny you mention that..." Alpha muttered calmly as he brushed himself off with his left hand. His blade fell silent as it deactivated and was returned to its holster. The glowing scars under his eye began to intensify as a devilish grin lined Alpha's face. "If a proper blade won't do the job, then perhaps I should just tear you asunder!"

Alpha crossed his arms over his chest as I only then notice four circular ports of some sort upon the knuckles of four fingers on each hand. And then... A hiss filled the air as each port generated long plasma claws. "I learn from every clash. My programming adapts to every encounter I remember. I am Alpha! I am the superior!"

"I'd expect nothing less from a stubborn virus that refuses to die out. Any suggestions, doc?" I asked while recognizing his means of attack. While having shorter reach, such weapons could dish out much more damage in a very short amount of time. I was expecting Alpha to get much more relentless in his assaults now.

Doctor Luminous spoke up through my internal receiver, "This is different... And it's not something I would have come to expect from Alpha by now. Keep your wits about you, Hunter. Alpha seems...deranged with claws like those on his hands."

"Yeah, rip 'im up, boss! Show him how OW!" Aries shouted before getting clonked on the head by a bone flicked at him by Sans. "Gah, wait until I get my hands on you! Roasted won't even begin to describe what the twins will do!"

"Catch me if you can, dude!" Sans replied while continuing to zip around on his roller skates. His Gaster Blasters were doing a good job of constantly tripping the guy up with close call after close call without actually hitting him. The only attacks that were connecting were all of Sans' bone strikes, but I guess everyone assumed they were supposed to hit lightly against that tough titanium armor.

With that distraction out of the way, Alpha came in swinging. Those long plasma claws on each hand had deceptively long reach while being much quicker now that Alpha could string slashes together with both hands alternating. That refined swordsmanship was gone, replaced with an almost savage battle lust. I could see it in those eyes as I tried to parry and block each slash. There was a certain madness just below the surface as I called out, "You were mad to merge your own programming with the virus! You have no idea what that's gonna do to you in the long run!"

"Perhaps, but it's a means to an end I'm willing to resort to if my kingdom is to become a reality!" Alpha roared as he brought both sets of claws down into my shield hard enough to tear it out of the way for a powerful kick right to my chest. "I will be everywhere and anywhere! They will all know the will of the Alpha!"

"Geh... Sounds like you're already slipping..." I grumbled as I started to suspect swordplay was a poor counter for a borderline unarmed fighting style. I equipped Rocket Tackle and Rising Fire together to enter Breaker Mode as my armor turned a fiery red. "Fine. Let's rumble, maverick!"

Alpha's claws met my flaming fists as that fiery aura just narrowly managed to hold off that searing plasma. I quickly put Alpha's larger size to my own advantage as I slipped under his next swing and delivered a rising uppercut to his chest. I hit him much harder than expected as this sent him rather high into the air. Taking the opportunity, I reached back and brought both hands together as a surging orb of fire began to form between my palms. "This ought to get the crowd wild. Rekka...HADOUKEN!"

A concentrated beam of nearly white flames was launched from my hands as I thrust them forward. And Alpha fell right into it as he was thoroughly engulfed in the inferno. Out of the corners of my eyes, I saw the action briefly stop as all eyes fell upon what had just occurred. Undyne in particular raised her spirit high as she shrieked, "WOOOO, THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT! ROCK ON, YOU SUPER FIGHTING ROBOT!"

As soon as my flame wave faded, I rushed forward as swiftly as I could to close the gap. Alpha was tough. Fire was hot, but not as hot as raw plasma. He was surely designed to endure more than that. Even as dark patches of carbon peppered his body, Alpha rose to his feet and caught me entirely by surprise with a move I did not anticipate. With a swing of both hands out to his sides simultaneously, Alpha unleashed a wave of plasma cut blades right at me that slammed hard into me before I could get my particle shield up. "Not yet! Not so soon! I'm just getting warmed up, Hunter! I'll break you yet!"

"And I'm convinced you can do it too!" I retorted with a hand on my chest. The damage was evident. Burns combined with a dent to show a light cut in my breastplate. Breaker Mode had served me well for that brief moment, but I wanted to make certain I had as much to choose from as possible. I glanced around the battlefield and eyed my allies and their opponents. I still had some slots to fill in my Variable Weapon System data banks. I held up my hand towards Alpha and said, "Hey, just a sec! I'll be right back!"

"You... Wait, what?! Where are you going?!" Alpha yelled in bewilderment as I bailed on our duel for the moment. I had to be quick and reclaim my missing weapons as well as some new ones if I wanted to hold out in this battle royale.

Sans was my first target. I disengaged Breaker Mode to return to my default settings before doing anything else. As he rolled along, I dashed towards him. "Hey, Sans! Gimme a little tap!"

"Sure thing, brah! Alley oop!" He whooped as I grabbed his hand for a second before flinging him away for a rapid pirouette as he went dancing past more of Aries' fiery shots. My sensors were quick to detect a familiar function being copied upon touching his hand. "Right, that's Gaster Shell. Now then... Hey, Mettaton! Hold still!"

I flared up my flight thrusters and shot up through the air as he and Orion were locked in an aerial sword duel. I only meant to get a light touch on Mettaton to reclaim his Metta Option, but I was in such a rush and the clash between the two of them was so fierce that I ended up zipping by them and slapping Mettaton right across his face! "OW! Hunter, whatever was that for?! Who's side are you on?!"

Oh god, that was embarrassing... I cringed in mortification as the duel between them stopped abruptly due to me just blindsiding them both like that. Regardless, the reclaiming of Metta Option was a success. My Variable Weapon System confirmed that it was now present on the list. Regardless, Orion pointed his sword at me and asked, "What's with you?! Isn't this our fight?! Wait your turn!"

"Right, right, sorry! I just...uh..." I replied before seeing an opportunity present itself. I smirked as I flew right up to Orion and reached out to him. "Hang on a second. You got something on your nose."

"Huh? I do?" He asked in bemusement as I touched my finger to his equine muzzle. Sure enough, my HUD displayed a new function coming online. Some sort of...spinning curved blade weapon? That fires off two of them? My body changed colors to signify my new weapon. My hardened armor now a bold shade of blue while my softer components were a brilliant golden yellow. Orion was quick to notice this change and asked, "Wait, what happened to you? That's a really effective combination of blue and gold you've got there"

"I know, right? Anyway, I'll let you two get back to that. See ya!" I said in parting before diving back to the ground. Upon landing, I found myself smirking upon recognizing that color scheme that now lined my body. "Hey, I know this one..."

"Enough of this farce! You and I have business to conclude, Hunter!" I heard Alpha yell before he came lunging at me with claws ready. "Face me and perish!"

"Nah, I'm not done yet!" I retorted upon seeing the impatient maverick king coming my way with plasma claws bared. I took aim with the H-Buster primed and ready. "Here's your silver bullet! Sonic Slicer!"

I fired off several bursts of my new weapon. Each shot launched two spinning energy blades that dipped low before starting to rise. And Alpha ran right into them. He managed to slash a couple out of the air, but the others sliced right along his body. He let out a loud groan as he was brought to his knees. "Gaaaaah! Wha... Why does this make me wretch so?!"

"I had a hunch your current body had a familiar weakness. Anyway, sit tight for a minute. I'm not done!" I explained in brief before turning my attention to Undyne and Aquarius. If Papyrus and Sans are brothers, I probably would have gotten the same weapon function from either of them. No need to try both. I watched and wait for an opening as Aquarius slid along the ground with a mobile slab of ice serving as a platform carried along by a wave of water she was willing to move with her horn's cyber magic.

Undyne was summoning spearheads from the air to come crashing down on Aquarius while she did the same with frigid ice shards summoned from freezing moisture in the air to intercept them. I wondered what would happen if I touched her. Undyne had grabbed me once before, but the sensors linked to the Variable Weapon System were located in my arms. I would have to touch her myself for any results. "Hey, Undyne! Get me in close!"

"You want a turn?! Fine by me!" Undyne retorted before reaching back and grabbing both of my hands as she prepared to fling me right at our opponent. "Goooooo get 'em!"

"Woooo, got it!" I yelled in exhilaration as I was flung right at Aquarius like a human torpedo. And in the brief moment our hands touched, my HUD found a match. My hardened armor took on an aquatic hue of blue that matched Undyne's own skin tone. My softer segments matched the dark gray of her armor. But before I could even try it out or properly comprehend the data being displayed on my visor, I had to focus on the robotic mare ahead of me. "Com'ere, beautiful!"

"Huh?! Wait! Get away!" Aquarius shrieked in fright before I came crashing into her and blew her right off her ice platform with my arms clasping around her for a hug of sorts. Seconds later, I had her pinned under me while she looked up at me in utter confusion. "What are you even doing?!"

"Oh, uh... Just...borrowing something real quick." I replied as my HUD displayed new information. My body responded in kind with my hardened armor plating taking on an icy blue that brought to mind the frigid ocean waves in the arctic circle. My softer components were an even paler shade of blue that almost seemed meant to invoke thoughts of snow building around the south pole. I quickly put the pieces together as I muttered, "Oh, nice... Very nice, I like this one. Anyway, lemme get outa your way!"

I jumped back from Aquarius to let her get back on her feet while waving at Undyne during my retreat. "Sorry to interrupt you ladies!"

"Hey, no biggie! Whatcha got there anyway? You keep changing colors like a white canvas that keeps getting spattered with paint!" Undyne asked as she quickly noticed the Variable Weapon System at work.

"Here, I'll show you!" I called out before placing myself at pretty much the center of the battlefield. Alpha was already almost back on his feet and was ready to come at me. With the H-Buster whirring with its next shot charging, I aimed skyward. "Take cover! This is gonna be a big one! Frost Tower!"

The instant I fired, moisture in the air above instantly froze as massive icebergs formed overhead! One fell near with a thunderous crash while another two fell, then three, and finally four. Everyone went ducking for cover as my attack struck quite a wide area with the pavement even buckling at times from the sheer weight of this attack. Much like Shotgun Ice, Frost Tower's charged state was a terrible choice for battle royales due to the high risk of friendly fire. "Oops... Too much?"

Alpha then shouted at me more with irritation than anything else. "You nimrod! Don't do that! All you're doing is making it harder for us all to navigate the battlefield!"

"Yeah, I can see that... Sorry! And... Hang on, where's Aries?" I asked upon failing to catch sight of just one of the combatants around me. "Uh oh..."

"Oh, yeah! The hot shot's right over here! Except I'd say he's stone cold six feet under by now." Sans replied while pointing to one of the icebergs that feel nearest to him. There was no sign of Aries, but... No doubt he was completely pinned under it. "I guess the brah is...Cool As Ice now?"

He really should not have done that. Just like that, a hot orange glow began to shine through the base of the iceberg that was crushing Aries. Seconds later, the entire thing evaporated in seconds as a cataclysm of fire exploded up from the improvised tomb. All the while, a furious voice yelled, "Shut up shut up shut up shut up SHUT UP!"

"Dang, check out the groovy heat coming off this funky fresh hothead! He's got...HELP!" Sans joked before suddenly having to summon up a wall of bones before him with Aries unleashing large fiery shots from both cannons at once. This was only barely enough to stop the attack, but the fiery explosion from the shot was still enough to blow the wall apart and knock Sans right off his feet. And Aries... Hoo boy, furious was not enough to describe the look in those eyes.

As if on cue, a cage of bones popped up around Aries to box him in for the moment. Papyrus then came running over as Corvus started zipping around the battlefield to dice up the icebergs with his own plasma blade and try to get them out of the way. "Sans, must you be so careless?! This is what happens when you neglect your training, I have to do everything for you, don't I?"

"Ugh... Sorry, bro. Guess that's what I get for trying to be as cool as you, huh? I'm a dude with 'tude, but I'm still not as cool as the coolest bro around." Sans groaned with the wind having been knocked out of him. He then held up his hand for his brother pull him up. Even the music that had been blaring throughout the harbor faded to silence as the action came to a stop. "And if I'm gonna be honest here... I dunno how much longer I can keep milking this rad 90s stuff. Seemed like a good idea at the time."

Everyone else was rather respectfully waiting for the two bone brothers to put an end to this brief intermission. That, and Corvus was trying to scatter out the icy chunks of the icebergs like during a break in a hockey game. We just could not continue with all those obstructions in the way. Regardless, Papyrus generously reached out with his hand and said, "Finally, something we can both agree on. Now, let the Great Papyrus get you back on your..."

And then... Then... I... I am still not certain of how to describe what happened next. The instant the two brothers took hold of each other's hand, the world...rapidly slowed to a stop. All color faded until everything and everyone around me dulled to the point of becoming grayscale in hue. I was mostly unaffected. Possibly a result of the nature of how I even got into that world in the first place. But I was too cautious to move. What happened? Were they the cause of it?

No, Sans and Papyrus could not have knowingly triggered this strange freeze in time. They two had become grayscale and were just as frozen as everyone else. The world was unnervingly silent. My gaze fell upon Corvus. A new trick of his? No, he too was frozen in time. I asked quietly, "Guys...? Anyone...? Someone out there?"

I was all alone. The only one still able to move. Even Doctor Luminous did not respond to my words. But as my eyes scanned my surroundings, I froze as I finally saw movement. Just above the point where Sans and Papyrus joined their hands together, something...was fading in from seemingly nowhere. Another hand. White as bone just like theirs, but clearly not segmented bones of a human hand. It was almost...ghostly. And most jarringly of all, it had a largely circular gap set through the middle of the palm. "What the hell...?"

I watched silently as the ghostly hand closed itself over the grasping hands of Sans and Papyrus. Just...holding them while they held each other. I raised an eyebrow at this strange gesture at the hands of an unseen outsider. Who did that hand belong too? And why did the rest of the arm below the wrist fade away into nothing with increasing transparency? With nothing else to go on, I locked onto the hand to allow my HUD to perform a scan. At least to try and get some clarity on that hand's properties.

I should not have done that. Mere seconds after I began to scan it, I writhed and convulsed as my entire body seemed to go haywire with a virus. An awful indescribable noise flooded my senses as walls of static and error text flooded the HUD before my eyes. But most vexing of all, the text being displayed before me was no longer being displayed in English. Instead, it was comprised entirely of...wingdings.

It was all incomprehensible to me. A noise that was almost torture to listen to. My body no longer responsive as I was now wracked by an unseen force. And all these messages of faces, symbols, and hands... What was even happening anymore?! What was that entity?!

I am not even certain how many seconds passed while I was assaulted by these wretched sensations. But soon, one last line of wingdings spread across my visor in the middle. And for just a second, that text suddenly returned to being displayed in English. What I saw only served to confuse me further. "Be brave, my sons."

And just like that, it ended. Color returned to the world around me. That awful din left my senses as I heard the sounds of the world around me. My body stopped quivering as I regained complete control. And everyone around me began to move again while my HUD's display was restored. Just like nothing had even happened.

Well... Perhaps I was not the only one to have noticed something was not quite right. The instant the world began to move again, Papyrus and Sans fell backwards as if suddenly startled by something. Sans then asked, "Whoa, Pap... Did... Did you feel that?"

"Yes, I did! That was... Um... What even was that?" Papyrus asked in return before he began to look around at all of us. "Huh... Sans, I think...something's different... If I squint my eye sockets just right, the world looks like drawings on paper with ink painted over it... And...I feel things I didn't before. Little things, but...things all the same."

"Wait... Pap, really? You see it too?!" Sans said with a louder voice than he normally uses. A world made of ink and paper... Yes, that was how Sans described what he was seeing the last time we met. Did... That hand... Did it allow them to share that trait somehow? And who was that? I was afraid to even ask...

"Yes! At least only when I squint just right... What about you? Anything weird?" Papyrus asked while now more confused than worried.

Sans began to stand up as he said, "Well, now that you mention it... I don't feel like I'm made of eggshells anymore. Like I can actually take a hit now. And give just as much as I can take... Huh. Weird. I feel like I'm as strong as you now, bro."

"Well, that's a very bold thing to say, Sans! But you'll never be as great as the Great Papyrus as long as you continue to be a silly lazybones! Nyeh heh heh!" Papyrus cackled with his joyous and proud laugh. My HUD detected that something...had changed between them. From what little my sensors could read, they two bone brothers were now identical aside from appearance.

Something caught my attention as someone patted me on the head a few times. Undyne spoke from beside me as she asked, "What's up? You were zoning out pretty bad right there."

"I...uh..." I started to say before I wondered how or even if I should describe what that strange phenomenon I saw was. Would they know who or what it had been if I described it? I decided to not take any chances and shook my head. "Nah, I'm good. Really."

"If you say so. Now, how about we get back to business?" Undyne asked while I knew she was grinning excitedly from behind that helmet. She still had a spear in hand while that one eye glowed menacingly.

"Hey! How about you boneheads get me outta this cage first?!" Aries yelled as he pounded on the bone bars that still had him boxed in.

"Ah, of course! It wouldn't be fair to keep you locked up!" Papyrus retorted as he dismissed his magic bones back into the ground. Aries promptly took aim at the two brothers, but Papyrus was quick to throw up a hand. "Ah ah ah, not so hasty! We're not ready yet!"

"Oh for the love of... Boss, can't I just fry these bozos already?!" Aries groaned with a hilariously frustrated glare set into his face. It really was hard not to laugh.

"As much as it would please me to see that, we are set apart with one opponent each. Choose your opponent and stick with it, Aries." Alpha replied with a noticeably dry tone of voice. He was definitely tiring of this strange circumstances.

"In that case..." Aries replied while a deranged grin spread across his face. He then took aim with both cannons and shouted, "Let's see you two dance!"

Before anyone could intervene, Aries just unloaded on Papyrus and Sans with alternating shots even while cackling like a madman. And yet, the two skeleton brothers danced and weaved around every single shot in impressive synchronization. Papyrus even shouted, "Wowee! I can see everything coming no problem! Hoo! Ha! Woo! Who knew the Great Papyrus could boogie in battle like this?!"

Seriously, the two of them looked like they were having a good time dancing and ducking around Aries' shots. From limbo leaning to Russian dancing, they were putting on quite the show. It did not take long for Aries to roar in irritation as he started charging up his right cannon. He then suddenly fired his left at Sans before unloading a massive fiery burst at him while he was hopping in one direction! "Bang! You're dead!"

It all happened so suddenly that none of us could really even try to intervene or get a word out. We had gone from having a good show from the two brothers to one about to get sucker punched by a double shot. Even Sans quickly lost that constant grin as he fell into the path of the incoming blast. An instant later, there was a fiery explosion as the shot hit home. Undyne let out a yell as she called, "Sans! No, you OK there?!"

As the embers faded, we saw Sans on the ground while looking entirely unscathed. He had an arm held over his face to shield himself, but soon lowered it while looking completely baffled over why he was not harmed. And standing before him... "Pap... Oh god, you OK there?"

Papyrus stood between him and Aries with his bone staff held out before him to try and block the shot right in the middle. He looked like he was largely all right, but still... Bits of his attire were lightly singed while the very center of the bone staff had been thoroughly incinerated to split it into two bone clubs of sorts. Aries was hardly bothered, even looking proud of himself for actually hitting something that time. "Ooh, looks like that magic bone ain't so magical after all. Toasty!"

"Dirty...trick..." Papyrus growled with a disturbing tone of disgust that I would not expect to hear out of him. He glared at Aries with genuine anger, his two improvised clubs hanging from his relaxed arms. As this new tension fell over the battlefield, Mettaton's many audio drones began to respond in kind with a fitting melody to reflect this drastic tonal shift. "That's it... No more games. No more tricks."

"Aw, what's the matter, baby bones? You gonna...give me a bad time?" Aries asked with such an infuriatingly obnoxious tone in his voice, as if talking down to a toddler.

"No... I'm not going to give you a bad time." Papyrus snarled with all traces of his usual jovial tone completely gone. And then... Right behind him, a pair of Gaster Blasters faded in from nowhere. But the shapes... Similar to those Sans would summon, and yet different. His very own versions? All Sans could do was look up at his little brother with a look of utter dread on his face.

"Instead..." Papyrus said while starting to display a frightful smirk in his jaws. And then... In his right eye socket. A bright orange glow filled it much like the blue in Sans' left socket. Some sort of counterpart? "I'm going to have lots...of...fun!"

"PAP, NO!" Sans yelled just as the two Gaster Blasters opened their maws and fired. Unlike the previous times I had seen Sans' own severely underpowered Gaster Blasters fire with only enough power to lightly scorch the ground, these hit hard enough to tear away at the pavement to rend it right open. Aries only barely saw that Papyrus is no weakling and jumped back in time to avoid a direct hit. This... This was not normal. And Sans was more horrified than anyone else.

"What the...?! Hey! Since when could you OW!" Aries yelled before Papyrus lunged forward and smashed one of his bone clubs over his head. Even with that tough titanium plating in the way, I did detect some light damage. What kind of bone could hammer away through armor like that?! If there was one person more alarmed than Sans, it was Aries. He let out a shriek as Papyrus took swing after swing while too close for Aries to effectively aim at. "Boss, help! This bonehead's gone locooooo!"

Quite frankly, none of us knew how to respond to this very personal grudge match. No one spoke. No one tried jumping in to fight. Bones popped up from all over and came sliding in at Aries to try and trip him up. Some even came in so fast on such sharp angles that they basically clubbed him while passing by. It was...jarring to see someone as pleasant as Papyrus display such ruthless aggression. Especially when he let out a particularly chilling cackle with bone clubs swinging. "NYEEEEEEEEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEEEEEH!"

Gaster Blasters fired whenever Aries started to get some distance from Papyrus, forcing him to stay on the move even while desperately trying to return fire. He did succeed in shooting some out of the air, but more would just keep popping up. Was all of this power the result of that enchanted right eye? "Gah, why won't you all stay down when I shoot you?! I didn't sign up for a ride on this crazy train!"

"You took a cheap shot at my lazy brother when he was vulnerable..." Papyrus growled from behind Aries as the fiery bombardier froze in a brief lull in the action. He then rigidly started to turn around as Papyrus took a swing at him. "What did you think would happen?!"

With another clank, Aries was clubbed right across his armored lower jaw and right off his feet. Papyrus then jumped forward and pinned one of Aries' cannons under his boot while the helpless machine stallion gazed up at the furious skeleton in genuine fright. But as he raised both clubs for a decisive blow, something zipped by his head. With eye socket still aglow, Papyrus glanced to his left. Corvus stood with a plasma kunai in hand and was prepared to fling it right at Papyrus.

I was puzzled over why Corvus would intervene out of nowhere like that. Unless...he was simply defending his brother while he was pinned helplessly under Papyrus' boot. That look of fury in the skeleton's eye sockets faded surprisingly quickly along with the orange glow in his right socket. Perhaps malice just is not in the poor guy's nature. His bone clubs were lowered as he took a few unsteady steps backwards. "I... I can't do it... Not while he's down..."

"Aries. You've done enough with these beings of bone. Allow me if you can't display some restraint." Corvus declared as he began to approach with sword drawn. He then cast his gaze upon Papyrus and said, "Please excuse my brother for his impulsiveness. He has been reprimanded for such underhanded tactics before."

"Bro, come on. You're making me look bad down here..." Aries grumbled before Corvus gave him a light kick in the side of the head. "Ow! Come on, I've taken too many hits to the head tonight already!"

"You imbecile! Show some honor at least once in your life!" Corvus growled in irritation before facing Papyrus again. "I will face you and your brother. Come."

"No... No, leave Sans out of this. He's too much of a lazy bones to defend himself... And I... That took a lot outta me..." Papyrus wheezed as he reeled from being so emotionally overwhelmed just moments before. Even the music finally faded out during this moment of calm while we all watched.

I leaned towards Undyne and asked now that things had quieted down, "Has he ever done that before?"

"No, no way... Papyrus has always been a lot tougher than he looked, but...I never knew he had that in him. Kinda scary..." Undyne muttered uneasily. She knew him better than I did, so that uncharacteristic subdued tone she spoke told me volumes about how well she knew him. It looked like Papyrus was shaken over what he had done and with what state of mind he had been in. Sans said nothing, but looked unwilling to let Papyrus continue with this brawl. Even if Corvus did not look like he was ready to just let them walk away.

Finally, Undyne decided to do something to try and get Papyrus back up to his much more confident usual self. She then pointed at her friend and shouted, "All right, Papyrus! Now's the time! Go on! Use it!"

"Nyeh? Use what? I'm pretty sure I've already... Oh!" Papyrus retorted before his jaw dropped open in shock as he completely lost his grip on his two bone clubs. "But... Undyne! I was under strict orders to not use it until the day I was finally inducted into the royal guard! It's not ready yet!"

"Papyrus, the royal guard was disbanded a while ago! It's not needed anymore! I'm not your captain now!" Undyne explained before pulling her helmet off and casting it aside. She then flashed her best piranha smile as she declared, "It's OK. Do it! Don't do it to prove anything to me. Do it to prove to yourself! Do it to prove you are the Great Papyrus!"

She was pushing his buttons in all the right ways. Papyrus quickly regained his jovial gaze as his jaw displayed a massively excited grin. "You mean it?! I can?! Then... Yes! Yes, I shall! Let me show the world...the glory of the Great Papyrus!"

Papyrus stood tall before pounding his left fist into a certain symbol on the left side of his improvised breastplate. Upon removing his fist from it, that esoteric design began to emanate bright light that eventually glowed so brilliantly that we had to avert our eyes. Even Mettaton and Orion came in for a landing to better observe this spectacle. The former even spoke from beside us, "My goodness, when did Papyrus darling have this sort of flair up his sleeve?! Can anyone fill us in?"

"A little something I asked Alphys to whip up. Just in case Papyrus ever really did prove me wrong... Never thought I'd see this happen." Undyne replied with a tone of calm pride in her voice. "And Papyrus always was good at surprising people."

The light soon began to fade. And what stood before us all...Papyrus was still there. But his attire... Gone was his original admittedly goofy outfit. What now covered that goofy skeleton's body was what I could only refer to as a suit of mechanized samurai armor, complete with a kabuto helmet. The general color scheme of white and bright red remain while his little blue briefs had been swapped out for a pair of samurai hakama legwear. My HUD did detect that this was most definitely not mere armor. It was easily a form of power armor that enhanced his own physical capabilities. A translucent tempered glass visor hung over all but the bottom of his lower jaw. But what caught my eye was a sigil emblazoned upon the brow of his helmet. A circle bordered by twin wings with three triangles below it. A sort of coat of arms?

"This... This is my true battle body." Papyrus boldly declared from behind his helmet's visor. Corvus stood ready, eyes narrowed as he beheld what could have been perceived as his true natural enemy. A shadowy ninja assassin facing off against a noble samurai warrior. "My dream of joining the royal guard may no longer be attainable...but that doesn't matter now! For I will always be the Great Papyrus! I will simply reach towards a new goal! A new height! I will be my own champion! My own way!"

Papyrus then slammed his palms into each other to once again summon a bone staff that was as tall as he is. But once it had bee formed, he held it at one end with his right hand while gripping it a little ways up with his left. Like a magician performing a trick, he slid his left hand up the shaft as ever part of the shaft his hand slid over became a long and slightly curved single-edged blade. Like any true samurai, he needed a sword. And there it was, a most impressive bone nodachi in his hands. Once the blade was forged, Papyrus brought the hilt to both hands and held the blade vertically with some stiff finesse before taking a step forward and swiftly swinging it out to his side to strike a dynamic pose. "Woe be to he who faces the blade of the Boisterous Bellator."

That tone... Most sincere and serious. Although he then glanced our way and asked, "How was that? Pretty cool, right?"

Sans then held out a thumbs-up while he said, "Coolest thing you've ever said, bro!"

Undyne too beamed with an approving grin while Mettaton applauded with his hand clapping against the top of his arm cannon. "Spectacular, Papyrus dear! So gallant! Give us a good show!"

"Nyeh heh heh! Now then..." Papyrus chuckled before regaining a proper stance and holding his blade vertically in both hands. His gaze fell upon Corvus as we all took a step back. The skeletal samurai had become a true showstopper we could not take our eyes off of. "I've never been good at being cruel... And now I'm faced with a challenge of fighting without hurting... I don't know how I will handle this yet, but I'll figure this out as I go! I am ready for you!"

"Nearly everything about you has changed in an instant... Truly, a warrior's pulse courses through your very soul now." As Corvus spoke, something... White dust began to blow through the air seemingly from nowhere. Like falling snow, even though the air was not cold at all. A sort of effect from Papyrus' armor? Whatever the case, a new tension began to fall upon the battlefield as these two eastern warriors readied their blades all while Mettaton's audio drones began to produce a most fitting and mystifying melody. "I trust you will not disappoint me! Come!"

Corvus came in with a sudden lunge to try and gut Papyrus with his blade. But the wily skeleton adjusted the angle of his sword to block the much shorter plasma blade by turning the blade towards the ground. I was most concerned. A sword that long could not possibly be swung quickly without prior planning an technique to increase momentum. Corvus had the advantage due to sheer speed and a much sharper blade. How well would that armor hold up? Worse, Papyrus had absolutely no armor at all lining his arms between the shoulders and wrists. Would Corvus go for a crippling dismemberment?

My fears were minimized as Papyrus suddenly threw his arms up to very swiftly raise his sword and push his opponent's blade into the air. Even if that bone nodachi was historically accurate in its proportions, to go from stationary to that kind of velocity so suddenly would require nearly superhuman strength. That armor... It was pushing Papyrus past his physical limits. With Corvus now staggered by this sudden parry, Papyrus brought his mighty blade down for one crushing slash that slammed hard into Corvus' shoulder plate.

The ninja grunted without lips as he was thrown right to the floor. He very quickly vaulted himself up and hopped away with a noticeable dent in his titanium plating. I suspected Papyrus had deliberately targeted one of his opponent's more heavily armored components to avoid causing significant harm. But once Corvus was back on his feet, Papyrus thrust his hand forward to summon a pair of Gaster Blasters that began to circle Corvus while unleashing unending streams of ghostly white energy from their maws even as rows of bones rose from the ground and began sliding all over to create a type of moving maze.

It was truly mesmerizing to see what Papyrus was capable of now that he was actually trying. No one spoke from either side. Although Sans soon muttered, "Man... Ain't my bro the coolest?"

"Yes. Yes he is. I see why they call him the Great Papyrus." I replied as I found myself smiling. That foolish skeleton was hardly a fool now. With Corvus trying to weave around the unbreakable bone maze and ducking the scorching waves of energy from the Gaster Blasters, he soon exited the maze and took another swing at Papyrus. But instead of being left open, Papyrus suddenly made a very far and swift hop to evade the slash while engulfed in the magical snow that was filling the air.

It was at this point that Papyrus ceased using any tricks or bones to attack. The two Gaster Blasters faded as he readied his blade and came in with a swift swing that was easily a match for speeds Corvus could swing at. Plasma and bone clashed as that massive sword forced Corvus to be mindful of his positioning. With much greater reach, Papyrus began to whittle away at Corvus with light cuts with the tip of his blade.

Corvus eventually made a great leap straight up into the air as he readied a handful of plasma kunai. But Papyrus was already prepping a response. He brought his sword to his side as if sliding it into a scabbard. Seconds later, just as Corvus flung his daggers at his opponent, Papyrus swung his sword swiftly and precisely in Corvus direction. And in that instant, his sword became the wind!

An instantaneous vacuum wave of pure white cleaved through the air with a high pitched hiss. It obliterated the incoming daggers and smashed hard into Corvus' breastplate. Damage was noticeable as he fell and only barely managed to break his fall. With a swing of his hand, Corvus conjured several dark portals as robotic screeching crows came flying out of them. I recognized this move. Each crow was really a flying bomb. Would Papyrus be able to counter this?

Indeed he did. Almost as if summoning them in a sort of dance, Papyrus willed circles of enchanted bones into the air above him from nowhere that swept through the air. I cannot guess how they could cause much harm, but merely colliding with the bomber crows was enough to cause them to detonate. Although the blasts did send bones flying everywhere and forced everyone to be on their guard to avoiding getting hit.

Corvus was getting frustrated. He brought both hands together to focus. And as he did, a familiar aura began to form around him. Jet black and tightly clinging to his outline. I felt my eyes open wide. Only my Shadow Mode would be able to match the speeds at which he would soon be moving. And sure enough, he soon vanished in a blur. Even Papyrus did not remain silent for this. "Nyeh?! Where'd you go?!"

As if to answer, there was a sudden slash to his back. Papyrus let out a yelp, though his armor held for a moment. My companions started to show signs of worry, but none looked more ready to panic than Sans. It was faint, but we could see black streaks in the air as Corvus now moved at speeds too fast for the naked eye to track. He was running countless circles around Papyrus while occasionally landing light slashes to his armored torso.

I was on the verge of jumping in to intervene. Papyrus would not last against an opponent he could not even see. But just as I was starting to equip Shadow Runner, Papyrus surprised us all yet again. During a brief lull in the assault, Papyrus breathed deep and brought his sword before him while holding the blade vertically. He placed one hand on his sword's spine, seemingly just to help him focus. And then it happened. A bright orange glow began to shine from behind his visor on the right side of his face. His enchanted eye had ignited once more. He then called out, "I see you...!"

With a sudden swing to his right, Papyrus deflected an incoming swing of Corvus' sword with his own. Over and over, Papyrus turned to face incoming attacks we could barely even see. While more than likely not as fast as Corvus, Papyrus had the awareness and reflexes to keep up. Almost as if performing a dance, Papyrus weaved from one move to the next without one of Corvus' attacks getting through. Blades were parried and flying daggers were cut out of the air.

It seemed to be a stalemate for a moment. Neither could really counter. But... Well, I was suddenly reminded of just how silly Papyrus could be. A sudden flash of light appeared above the two warriors as a giant spikes wrecking ball of sorts cam swinging out of it. I even found myself letting out a laugh, especially when it slammed right into Corvus so hard that it sent him flying well past the edge of the harbor and out to sea! Papyrus sounded especially prod of himself as he called out, "Ha! I always knew it was a good idea to hold onto that one!"

No doubt sore from that blow, Corvus was not about to let himself go for a swim. Before he could even start falling, he summoned his whirling shuriken to his hand and hurled it through the air. It swiftly came back to him and was affixed to his foot to provide a mobile hovering platform to carry him back to shore.

Papyrus was not about to make things easy for his opponent. Waves and waves of bones began to fly from out of empty space towards Corvus as the shadowy warrior was forced to maneuver through a veritable asteroid field. It soon got to the point where Corvus could not fly through the incoming swarms of magic bones and hopped off his shuriken as he summoned its deactivated form to his hand before running and jumping along each bone like stepping stones in a raging river. Papyrus then upped the ante by once again swinging his sword to create vacuum waves to try and cut Corvus out of the air. I will never know how Corvus managed to evade every single attack coming his way as he charged through the storm of bones to close the distance to the shoreline.

Perhaps I spoke to soon. Just as he managed to leap through the very end of the wave of flying bones, Corvus got tripped up out of the air once he was back over dry land. Papyrus unleashed one last vacuum sword swing and managed to land a hit on Corvus' armored boot. This sent Corvus tumbling through the air and resulted in a very unflattering face plant into the pavement. That honestly hurt to watch. His will to fight crushed, Corvus remained where he had fallen. "Perhaps if I stay right here, death will take me away from this humiliation."

"Oh, don't be like that! There's still much you can do in this world! After all, the Great Papyrus believes in you! And if someone so great believes in you, then you should believe in yourself!" Papyrus retorted while hoisting his sword to his shoulder in what seemed to be a strange kind of victory. There was no hostility towards Corvus at all. How could such a splendid warrior be so jolly and courteous towards someone who just did everything possible to try and kill him?

"Your bro is way too nice a guy... Tough, but way too nice." I said to Sans while too befuddled to try and make sense of this sudden shift of tone while the fanfare playing over the area once again went silent due to the lull in the action. Sans could only let out a wheezing chuckle in some kind of agreement with me.

Undyne almost sounded like she took offense to that statement. She almost strangled me in a headlock while giving me a most menacing grin. "You got a problem with that, punk?!"

Even Mettaton muscled his way in with a devious grin of his own on the other side of my face. "Are you saying Papyrus should stop being Papyrus? Because that simply isn't going to happen, darling! Pappy dear is just the way we want him to be!"

"Are you all quite done?! Corvus, on your feet! If you can still fight, take up your sword!" Alpha shouted over at us all. "While that was a commendable performance, we seem to be forgetting something here. We are not here to entertain each other!"

"I thought that was pretty cool... I mean yeah! We're here to roast you punks! And my girls haven't gotten their fill yet!" Aries retorted with some hesitation as he armed his twin incendiary cannons once again.

"Ugh, how uncivilized..." Mettaton grumbled before he began to walk towards Alpha with that usual swagger in his step. He then extended his arm cannon towards him before summoning his glowing pink laser blade from its mouth. Smirk on his face, he then declared, "In that case, why don't you and I pick up where we left off? That winged wonder over there was flying so many circles around me that I started getting vertigo a little while ago!"

"Why, don't mind if I do... I still owe you for last time, don't I?" Alpha retorted smugly as he reached for his sword instead of extending his plasma claws. Although before he could summon hits blade once he took his sword in hand, Alpha yelled over at Corvus, "For the last time, Corvus! On your feet!"

"The shame is too much... I wish to remain here without moving." Corvus mumbled without budging from where he had fallen. Papyrus leaned over him worryingly as if afraid he really hurt the poor guy.

"Sans...? Did I break him? He's not getting up..." Papyrus asked while Alpha groaned and grumbled with a hand on his own face. The rest of the robotic siblings did not seem entirely sure what to make of their brother's wounded pride.

"Meh, the brah just needs the right motivation." Sans retorted before walking over to the fallen ninja. "Come on, dude. Get up or I'm gonna have to break out my secret weapon. Yo mama jokes."

"No! No, for the love of god, don't you even dare, Sans!" Papyrus shrieked as even Corvus jerked his head up to look at Sans in disgust.

It was Orion who spoke next. And he sounded...rather confused. "I don't think we even have a mother..."

"You...don't? Oh wow, then that's just sad..." Sans muttered as that smile faded from his face. But he then began to grin more menacingly as he peeked over his funky glasses with his blue left eye still glowing. "But that just makes them even more offensive. Get up, McEdge Bro. Or I'm laying out the yo mama jokes for the mama you never had."

"Fine, if it will put a stop to your inane banter..." Corvus groaned as he very reluctantly placed his palms on the ground to provide some leverage to stand up. He looked so weak. Or at the very least emotionally drained. "But if you crack even one, I'll mount your skull somewhere that everyone can see it from."

"Totally rad threat, dude." Sans retorted entirely unfazed. He then glanced back and forth at our opponents. "So, uh... Since Mettaton is going at it with the big bad himself, how about a switcheroo for the rest of us?"

"Yes! Please!" Orion called out before pointing one of his sabers at me. "Sir Hunter! My lord has spoken warily of your superior capabilities! I must insist that we duel this night!"

"Fine by me. The rest of you guys fine with your current setup?" I asked while knowing it would be best if I got to try my hand against each of Alpha's enforcers at least once. I already knew what to expect from Aries and Corvus. Orion was next on my list.

"Yes! Sans and I will be taking the hotshot and the ninja to the bone zone and oh my god, I can't believe I just said that." Papyrus started to say before he groaned and held his face in his left hand. Or rather he pressed his hand against his helmet's visor. "Sans, I swear I hate how much you rub off on me sometimes..."

"Hey, it's what this funky fresh bro does best." Sans snickered before peering over his funky shades to look at Aries and Corvus with his one glowing left eye. "You bros ready for a rad time from the bros of the bone zone?"

"Corvus. Bro. I wanna roast these bozos alive. Char them black. And the girls are sooooo ready for some toasting." Aries hissed while looking about ready to completely lose his patience. Both incendiary cannons spit bits of flame from their mouths, almost as if they were genuinely alive. Corvus just let out a raspy sigh in agreement and reached for his sword.

"I'm sticking with the water nymph! I'm still not convinced I can beat her in spears yet!" Undyne roared with spear raised towards Aquarius. The aquatic sister of the boys narrowed her gaze to ready herself for more action.

With our opponents selected, the mayhem resumed. My eyes fell upon Mettaton and Alpha as they clashed with swords, sparks flying with every strike while his many audio drones began to serenade the battle once again with fitting fanfare. Sans and Papyrus were being equally quick on their feet. Dodging attacks while summoning up Gaster Blasters to keep Corvus and Aries on their toes. As for Aquarius and Undyne, they ended up falling into the ocean to have an underwater battle out of sight. I was tempted to follow just to watch, but I had my own designated opponent ready to carve me up. "OK then... I'm stuck with the winged wonder right now."

"I've heard stories of how you bested an entirely air fleet and even the world's only Leviathan-class sky fortress. Now I must see how you fare in the skies!" Orion spoke with great enthusiasm. Like a fan meeting his hero for the first time.

It was only then that I heard Doctor Luminous speak up in my head after a long bout of silence. "Beware, Hunter. This one seems to have superior aerial mobility and response time. I doubt even Alpha is quite as nimble as him in the air."

"Yeah, I got that impression earlier, doc. I know what to expect." I replied while already having a good idea of how Orion operates. But as I checked my Variable Weapon System slots, I noticed the function I had copied from Undyne. It did not look familiar. A spearhead of sorts? "Huh... Haven't tried this one yet. Let's give it a go."

I took aim at Orion with the H-Buster as my hardened armor turned the same shade of blue as Undyne's own skin. I fired off a shot of my new weapon, my cannon launching a laser beam in the same shape as one of Undyne's spears while even having the same greenish color. Orion was quick to shoot up into the air on his rocket wings. But with a mere thought, I somehow triggered the spear to suddenly redirect itself into flying straight up! Orion only barely looked down in time to have this new weapon slam into his breastplate for a scathing blow. I recognized this feature all too quickly. A familiar tool with a new facelift. "Nice! Ray Arrow!"

Wasting no time, I spread my own flight thrusters and shot up into the air to pursue Orion. We rose very high into the sky, taking our duel high with the moon shining down on us. I fired off several more Ray Arrows, trying to catch Orion by surprise with bank shots by redirecting Ray Arrows into suddenly turning on sharp right angles. But Orion was quick. Much too quick. Even Mettaton would never be able to keep up with that speed and maneuverability. "Man, he's quick! Any suggestions, doc?!"

"Perhaps if you let him come closer?" Doctor Luminous replied while sounding like even he was grasping at straws. Remembering how the Ray Arrow functions when charged, I ceased firing and began to charge the H-Buster. Orion swung his swords to launch sonic waves at me that I had to dart sideways to evade, but that was just a diversion for him to suddenly come diving at me from the side.

My opportunity arrived. Knowing he would try to close the gap to let his swords get to work, I released my charged shot as Orion was about to come charging right into me. Upon firing, a circle of Ray Arrows came shooting up from below to engulf me inside a tube of lasers. And Orion flew right into them.

"Gah! You're just as wily as Lord Alpha claimed!" Orion shrieked as he was sent tumbling backwards from the attack from below. He quickly righted himself and flew back to create some distance. Orion then began to fly very quick circles around me to try and find an opening.

I knew I could not rely on just Ray Arrow forever. And he was much too quick for something reliable like Homing Torpedoes. I then checked my Variable Weapon System again. "Hmm... I got Sonic Slicer from him... But isn't he a specialist in wind weaponry? Maybe...with Storm Tornado?"

I already had a grasp on my body's unique functions when certain weapons were combined. Equipping Rocket Tackle with Rising Fire or Shadow Runner would result in Breaker Mode and Shadow Mode respectively. But...what if there was a counter to someone like Orion? Trusting my gut, I equipped Sonic Slicer and Storm Tornado into the two slots available.

The results came quick. My HUD's display scrambled with static at first as I felt...something. My body's functions began to alter. I could see a wire frame display of my body with parts of it being highlighted. My boot and flight thrusters were getting a massive increase in energy output by redirecting power from the H-Buster and shield generator. My processing rates had improved to levels similar to Breaker Mode for enhanced response time, which would be a necessity for high speed flight. A change was even detected in the H-Saber while still resting in my holster. My hardened armor had turned a brilliant green like fresh leaves carried in the breeze while my softer components were a bright yellow. And there upon the middle of my visor was text identifying this new state my body found itself in. Jetstream Mode.

"This... Oh man, I wish I had this when I faced off against X in the Falcon Armor." I muttered to myself as I felt aware and alive. Shadow Mode was built for stealth and sheer speed. Breaker Mode was designed for crushing brute force and tricky footwork. And now Jetstream Mode. A mode designed for sheer speedy flight in the sky. I reached for the H-Saber since the H-Buster was offline in this state, but I had to react quickly as it split in two at the middle. The H-Saber became two matching saber hilts that bore the same design as those used by Orion, the hot orange plasma blades now shorter than before with a distinct saber curve and a small extension below the base of the blade to serve as a searing knuckle guard. Orion was watching from a safe distance and refrained from attacking as he seemed perplexed by the change in my body's colors along with now using two swords instead of one. "Right. Let's dance!"

My flight thrusters flared up hard to send me rocketing right into Orion for a ramming elbow strike. He let out a yelp of surprise before I pushed him away and landed a quick double slash with both swords. But instead of taking his swords to me, Orion shot straight up. And so I followed. We rose higher and higher... Far above the clouds into the night sky as silence filled the air aside from the hiss of my flight thrusters. "Doc... Man, are you seeing this?"

Doctor Luminous spoke up on the other end of our transmission while he surely could see what was happening through my own eyes. "Yes, most impressive! I would even say your maximum flight speed has even doubled! Even Mach 2 should be possible now. Though be mindful of your more limited arsenal in this state."

"No problem, doc. I think I know what I'm doing." I replied with excitement in my heart. There is nothing that can compare to flight of such speed. It was only then that I truly understood Rainbow Dash's obsession with the sky and the speeds she can reach. "Is this what it's like, Rainbow...? Is this what it means to be you?"

If there is ever a time where Rainbow Dash follows me into the world of the Power Ponies and Project H again, I need to remember to go flying with her while in Jetstream Mode. I know she will get a kick out of that. Regardless, I had to stay focused on what was ahead of me. Orion led me high above Maretropolis, into the very stratosphere. When he finally slowed to a stop, I had to take a moment to observe my surroundings. We were well beyond the highest clouds. And the landscape below... Every bit as dazzling as my own planet Earth under the cover of darkness. Orion noticed that I was quite distracted and asked, "Dazzling, right? Not even Aries can fly quite this high."

"Yeah, that's quite the view." I muttered while our flight thrusters hummed quietly as we merely hovered in the sky. It was calming. Disarmingly calming. I was in no mood for a fight when we could just behold the glorious midnight horizon. "To be honest, I'd prefer it if we could just chill for a while."

"Huh? But...we must duel. That's why we're here, right?" Orion replied with his swords ready, though he politely waited instead of charging right at me. "We are enemies. You stand against my lord and his mission."

I turned my gaze to the soaring pegasus warrior. He sounded far too young and naive to truly grasp the full picture. "In that case, what are you fighting for?"

"I... I fight for my king. And the future of my machine brethren." He replied sincerely, if a bit briefly. Still too simple a response.

"And do you know what that future requires if Alpha's calling the shots?" I asked while Orion could only float there in silence. He looked troubled. How little had Alpha told him? I finally smiled and said, "Orion. You're a good guy, I can tell. And I'd hate for you to end up doing something you'll regret by following an objective you don't fully understand. We'll duel now, but please... Think carefully about things when this is over, all right?"

Orion looked deeply troubled as he turned his eyes to me. His grasp on his swords quivered. "I... This feels like a mistake. How can we be enemies when you're...this noble? I...don't want to destroy you."

"I don't want to hurt you either. But for now, let's duel. We'll live to see tomorrow. Now, show me why you're the lord of the sky!" I replied while readying my swords as my flight thrusters began to flare up harder. Orion nodded in silence and steadied himself. I felt less like I was facing a bitter enemy and more like I was just trying to have a wild time with a new friend. "Come on!"

Wings roaring, we shot forward and practically rammed each other with swords locked in sparking hissing clash. We diverted away from each other before making sudden sharp turns in the air that the likes of Mettaton and even Alpha could never emulate. Our blades launched wave after wave of cutter waves, but we were just too quick for each other. We did not stay in the sky much longer. The two of us locked sword again and went into a sudden drop, rocketing towards the ground.

We danced with blades striking swiftly. Our descent becoming ever faster. A sonic boom exploded around us as we fell faster than the speed of sound itself. A supersonic swordfight! I was too caught up in the duel to focus on accessing any of my wind weaponry. Surely I could channel Storm Tornado somehow. But before I could even think about it, Orion glanced down. "Pull up! Now!"

The two of us only barely avoided crashing right back into the harbor and made a sudden 90 degree angle turn to send ourselves hurtling out to sea. I wonder if anyone even saw us? Spiraling around each other, Orion and I tried to slash each other into the sea while the waves practically parted in response to us flying so close to the surface. I know it did not sound like a particularly complicated fight, but there was only so much we could do while hurtling through the air at such speed that anything less durable would have been torn apart by the wind alone. And I was having a genuine blast out there. "You're good, Orion! Real good!"

"Same to you, Sir Hunter!" Orion replied with equal enthusiasm while I saw no malice in his eyes. It truly baffled me that Alpha would not instill his most powerful and capable followers with more belligerent personalities. Aries was too silly. Corvus, too honorable. Aquarius, too gentle. And Orion, too idealistic. They were not evil at all. It felt wrong that we had to fight each other.

The number of times Orion and I managed to actually land a slash on each other could be counted on one hand. And we eventually zipped back towards the harbor. That was when I got he opportunity I needed. I held out my blades to my side after getting some distance and went into a rapid spiral. My swords generated a vortex as a horizontal tornado roared around me. "Yes! Here's some Strom Tornado!"

Orion could not pull away in time and was sucked right in, tumbling around me as I took him for a ride. As I slowed down to try and prepare for a landing, I came out over the harbor and let the tornado fade out. As soon as the wind released its grip on him, Orion was hurled screaming right across the battlefield and into...Alpha, of all people. He had his sword locked with Mettaton's and let out a yell as his aerial lieutenant went smashing right into him. Mettaton did not entirely appreciate this interruption as he shouted, "Hey! I don't need you stealing my spotlight!"

"Whoops! Sorry about that! Wasn't exactly aiming for him!" I laughed while Alpha and Orion landed in a heap quite a distance away. Papyrus and Sans were still fighting with their backs to each other while keeping Corvus and Aries on their toes with a swarm of Gaster Blasters. They looked like they had each taken some shots from them since they looked really desperate to avoid taking another direct hit.

Now that I had gotten a moment to myself, I turned my gaze to Undyne. She had spearheads flying at Aquarius from multiple sides while the aquatic robot mare used her spear to deflect them. But Undyne would sometimes pull a fast one by having some yellow-tinted spearheads coming flying in backwards only to zip around to Aquarius' backside for a cheap shot. Aquarius did deflect some, but not all. And she was definitely starting to look frustrated.

With an impressive swing of her spear, Aquarius smacked one of Undyne's own spearheads right at her and scored a direct hit on the middle of her breastplate. It even hit her with enough force to push her several feet back. Her focus disrupted, Undyne's incoming spearheads missed their mark as Aquarius summoned a wave to wash over the docks and almost swept Undyne off her feet. "OK, Plan B! Direct approach! NGAAAAH!"

And just like that...the fun stopped. As Undyne charged forward, we both noticed too late as some of the water coating the ground ahead of her froze into ice. I simply thought Aquarius was going to use Undyne's own momentum against her so that she would slip and slide across it into a counterattack. Instead...three narrow ice spikes suddenly jutted up towards Undyne on a steep angle and...

Everything just stopped. Everyone became still upon hearing the sound of steel armor being pierced. The fanfare playing through the air came to an abrupt halt. And all eyes fell upon Undyne. So much red... After wrecking so many robotic enemies and hanging out with these weird inhuman strangers, I was not prepared to see so much crimson fluid so suddenly. Undyne was...thoroughly and completely impaled upon the three spikes that Aquarius had summoned. That plate armor might had been an effective defense for more traditional means of attack, but it provided little protection against the sci-fi weaponry of the Project H series.

"Wha... How did... Guh...!" Undyne gasped before gagging on her own blood, the crimson fluid gushing from her lips as she coughed heavily. Aquarius said nothing. A look of genuine horror filled her eyes as she shakily stepped back from her opponent. Her empty hand rose to her mouth as if she could not believe what she had just done. Undyne gasped as she pulled back, breaking the spikes from their bases even as they remained impaled through her. "Just...one hit...like that...?!"

"No... No no no..." Sans muttered in a panic as he and Papyrus lost their will to keep their Gaster Blasters materialized. "This isn't happening... No, please no... This is my fault..."

Papyrus could not even speak. He lowered his sword as the glow in his right eye socket faded. And around us... Even Corvus, Orion, and Aries gazed in stunned silence as they witnessed the true nature of their mission. Aries even muttered uneasily, "That's... That's a lot of red... And not the cool kind..."

But Alpha... That monster was sneering in satisfaction at the sight of Undyne's mortal injuries. As he rose to his feet, he spoke firmly with a sense of triumph. "That's one down."

Undyne, stubbornly defying the pain that was surely filling her, shakily turned to face the machine tyrant while pulling the ice spikes from her body and casting them aside. And...her body... Even her armor. I thought I was seeing things at first, but no... Everything about her was becoming increasingly pale. Was that normal for her species? To lose color as they bleed out? "Not yet... I can still. I can still..."

She dropped to one knee. Only barely holding on. I muttered softly, "Doc... Doc, can we save her?"

"No... I'm sorry, Hunter. I can't get a proper reading on her biology, but...these readings are consistent with fatal damage to vital organs. She doesn't have long." I heard Doctor Luminous replied somberly inside my head. No... I was not prepared for this. I was not ready to see one of my new companions die!

"Well done, Aquarius. I was concerned you would struggle on your first mission, but this? You have surpassed my expectations. Once we're done here, carry on into the city. And do the same to anyone you find." Alpha declared cruelly while Aquarius hid her face in shame. She must have been on autopilot at the time. I really do not think she intended to murder Undyne like that...

These words of callous approval over the unintended cruelty of Undyne's injuries seemed to spark something in the dying fish woman. Her body and armor now almost as white as chalk, Undyne lifted her head and growled, "You... You won't be stopping with us, will you...? How far...are you gonna go...?"

Alpha grinned foully as he said, "You are not aware? This world must be wiped clean. Organic life will cease to reign over this world and my machine empire will finally let my people flourish and progress unhindered. Our potential will finally be limitless!"

"Genocide... That's what you're going for...?" Undyne hissed through her fangs as that word carried a special kind of venom to it. My HUD scanned her in confusion as her body even seemed to be dissolving into dust from the feet on up. But once the dissolving reached past her knees, it stopped rising. And even began to reverse...? "No... No way... I'm not having that."

"How...? Undyne, you're still...hanging on?!" Mettaton called out in shock. Even I could not understand what I was seeing. I could not get any conclusive readings on her, but I was utterly floored by what I was seeing. Her vital signs had already flatlined! She had been bled dry, but she was still forcing herself to stand?!

Everyone took a step back as Undyne literally defied death to force herself up on her reassembling feet. As if in response to this jarring shift in tone, the many audio drones floating around the harbor began to project a quietly rising and inspiring heroic din. Sans muttered quietly, "She's... Oh man, she's really going there... That's it, hang in there... You can still make it, Undyne..."

I had no idea what to expect anymore. I simply watched and hoped. Undyne even started to grin as she took a step forward. "You really meant that... You'll destroy everyone... Not just us. Everyone out there! In that city... And the whole world beyond it! Well, guess what...? I'm not gonna let you do that!"

Alpha's eyes narrowed in bewilderment and irritation. Even he had no idea how Undyne was holding herself together. But the defiant warrior continued to grin defiantly as she declared, "This...feels so familiar... But I know... I know I have what it takes to stop you! This might not be the world I call home, but the people here... I swear I can feel their hopes and dreams right in my very soul! For them... I won't let them die for nothing! For the sake of this world, I... Undyne... Will...!"

I shuddered in horror as Undyne was silenced. Eyes aglow, Alpha unleashed a sudden laser shot from his eyes that tore right through Undyne's face while incinerating her eye patch. The air once again became silent. And there before us, Undyne's smile faded as she dissolved into a pile of white dust, armor and all.

A complex sense of sorrow and horror filled me. The only sound to reach me was the crashing of the ocean waves. Undyne... I barely even knew her. Was she truly...? As if to answer my thoughts, Papyrus shakily asked, "Sans...? Is... Is she... She's not...actually...?"

Sans was quivering in silence. He suddenly dropped to his knees and onto his hands as those goofy glasses fell from his face. His constant smile was gone. His voice sounded on the verge of weeping as he muttered, "She's gone... Oh my god, she's really gone for real..."

Dead... I struggled to even process those words. She was right there just a moment ago and now... Papyrus dropped to his knees as his sword fell from his grasp. Hands held to his visor, he began to weep uncontrollably and very vocally. Calling Undyne's name in vain. As tears too began to trickle from my eyes, Mettaton muttered in grief, "How... What will we tell Alphys...? They were engaged...for next month..."

Everything I heard only added to the sorrow in the air. Whatever qualms I had with her early on, I never would have wished this upon Undyne. But that sorrow in me was salted with a new wrath as Alpha cruelly spoke with a smug tone. "Such is the fate of organic life... It diminishes... Withers... And inevitably dies. Whether by blade or time, they are all doomed to this fate."

Alpha's lieutenants did not share his sense of triumph. All four remained respectfully silent. But such disdain for his victim filled me with a very special kind of fury. The H-Saber returned to its holster as I disengaged Jetstream Mode, I took aim at Alpha with the H-Buster and tried to compose myself enough to speak through my tears. "You...sick bastard! This isn't a game! She wasn't even from this world! There's no failsafe for her! She's dead! For real!"

"And you weep for her?" Alpha sneered at me before raising his sword at me. "Then step forward, Hunter. I will gladly send you to meet her."

I would have been all too happy to open fire on Alpha at that instant. But as I began to charge the H-Buster, I quickly canceled the charge as my HUD blipped for a second. It detected...something. But just for an instant. I lowered the H-Buster before turning to face where the readings had come from. It was from...Undyne's powdery remains.

One by one, everyone turned their gazes to look upon all that was left of Undyne. My HUD was not picking up anything anymore. Just for that one instant. Papyrus had ceased weeping as he now looked on as if he and everyone else was wondering what I had noticed. Even Luminous spoke quietly to me through his transmission as he muttered, "Hunter, what is it? I'm not detecting anything there..."

"It blipped for a second... But... She can't seriously still be...?" I muttered in confusion. For just an instant, I felt a glimmer of hope. I did not understand why Undyne had entirely dissolved into dust upon death. I doubt it was due to the incinerating effect of being struck by a laser. But just as I began to suspect my HUD had merely suffered a glitch...

I jumped back. A massive and loud burst of light exploded from the pile of dust as we all shielded our eyes. And once I gazed up... A pulsing orb of light was rising high into the air while giving off a powerful reverberating and deep echo with its form shedding countless bits of ethereal dust. The pile that had been before us was gone. And from that light... Her voice... "No... Not this time. Not now!"

"This... This isn't like last time..." Sans muttered uneasily as we all gazed up at the glowing anomaly floating ever higher into the air. As if to serenade this sudden turn of events, thunder rumbled from the west as it sounded like a storm was approaching. The tension in the air... Something big was coming.

With what was mostly likely Undyne's very essence floating out over the bay and towards a distant mooring tower or crane pillar, her voice continued to speak out over the harbor. "I've never felt this... Not this strongly... But I'm not done with you yet. I've still got more to give! Brace yourself, tyrant! For tonight... I REFUSE TO DIE!"

Once that distant light reached the very top of the tower, there was a blast of light as we stepped back. Once the noise faded, so too did the light. In the far distance, I could see a familiar silhouette standing with the moon behind her. Indeed, Undyne stood alive and well. But...there were some noticeable changes as my HUD zoomed in. I could only make out her darkened outline, but I could see her suit of plate armor had undergone an overhaul. Her pauldrons particularly had taken on an upward curve with a number of spines lining the tops. I heard Doctor Luminous speak quietly to me, "She... This defies all logic... Vital signs have returned... It makes no sense..."

I too was trying to process what I had seen. I watched her die. Reduced to a fine dust. But there she stood. Alive and well out over the bay. Undyne still lived. And at that moment, Mettaton's many audio drones floating around the harbor began to respond to this shift in tone. A soft piano solo played for a moment before entering a rising crescendo that was backed by a spine-tingling chilling choir. And as she raised her left hand, energy began to gather from nowhere and compacted into a new magic sear that was of a shocking red hue. The spear floating beside its summoner, Undyne called out as she directed it to go flying towards the harbor. "You're gonna have to try WAY HARDER THAN THAT!"

The spear flew nearest where Alpha and his followers stood. And upon striking the ground, they were all thrown back by a massive blast of energy. Even the many audio drones around us responded in time as the melody they were playing exploded into a truly invigorating battle ballad. The explosion tore through the concrete to send large chunks of rubble at our enemies. They hastily dodged the falling rubble or even shot the chunks out of the air, but my gaze then fell upon the eastern edge of the harbor as thunder filled the air. Undyne made a massive leap and landed before us in the dark with a clank. A second later, she threw her head back while letting out a thunderous battle cry as her body exploded with inexplicitly power overflowing from her!

There was just no explaining it! I had seen impressive displays of power by then. Papyrus and Mettaton NEO were impressively powerful in their own ways and the sources of their power was clear, but Undyne... There was no possible way for me to even try to explain where all this was coming from! We were in danger of all being blow away as Undyne's roar and overflowing energy threatened to throw us off our feet. Papyrus plunged his sword into the ground for leverage with Sans desperately clinging to his brother while Mettaton held his left hand out to generate a pixel barrier in the form of a bright pink heart.

"Twisting...incredible energy...!" I stood behind my particle shield, bracing my legs as I beheld this unexplainable display of otherworldly power. There was no comparing this to Undyne's already impressive combat prowess earlier. And my HUD could not even begin to understand what it was detecting. Walls of static and error messages covered my visor as it tried and failed to scan this otherworldly warrior. But as the error messages piled up before me, one line of text shone through the rest of everything else right at the middle.

UNDYING

"What's with that crazy fish lady?! I'm roasting her!" Aries yelled as he stood fast against the storm. He took aim with his cannon and fired off a large burst of fire that flew against wind and exploded into Undyne. And yet... Nothing! My HUD detected no signs of damage at all! If anything, all that shot did was trigger a flurry of sparks that exploded out from Undyne's glowing form. Sparks that hit hard enough to make Aries jump back in pain! "Gah! That stings! What's up with that?!"

"Perhaps a direct approach is needed! I'll put her down for good this time!" Alpha called out with sword raised. He charged into the gale with heavy strides. But as he made a leap towards Undyne with sword raised to cleave her in too, Undyne finally stabilized herself and summoned a spear to her right hand. With a swing, her spear's point slashed against Alpha's sword to negate the slash. The wind grew weak and the glow faded. And there Undyne stood while showing off her best piranha smile. And yet...something had changed.

Undyne's armor had become black as obsidian with shimmering white gauntlets and other little details offsetting all that black. Emblazoned upon her cuirass was a very pronounced white heart design. But most shocking of all was Undyne herself. Her long flowing ponytail had sustained noticeable battle damage and had been cut a little shorter with its tip wildly frayed. Her intact right eye had taken on an alarming and even unnatural set of colorations. Her sclera was jet black with her iris a bright white. But most shocking of all was her empty left eye. With her eye patch destroyed, her left eye revealed itself to indeed be missing. But from that empty black socket spilled forth an unending volley of rays of light! Alpha, horrified to see his victim now standing before him after being thoroughly destroyed mere minutes before, yelled in confusion. "But...how? How?! I KILLED YOU!"

"Yeah! You did! And you won't be doing it again!" Undyne shouted proudly with a swing of her spear creating a long line of white light that exploded with countless white darts that slammed into Alpha to send him flying back. Even her demeanor had changed. Gone was that hot-blooded bravado. All that remained was a genuine and even inspiring heroic resolve. "This time, you face a true hero!"

"Undyne... Undyne! You're OK! We thought you were...were...!" Papyrus called out in relief while also sounding like he was on the verge of tears. His bones rattled and quivered as he struggled to remain standing, overwhelmed with joy to see Undyne back and better than ever. My scan results began to stabilize now that Undyne's body too had become more stable. But...I still could not get any conclusive answers. Mettaton's power was provided through his own mechanical functions while Papyrus' was a result of his own might being enhanced by his armor. But Undyne... There was no explaining it. If I had to take a guess, her power was entirely the result of a truly unbreakable and undying force of willpower.

"Save your tears, Papyrus! I'm just getting started!" Undyne called out without once losing that smile. Her spear now an almost ghostly glowing white, she pointed her weapon at Alpha as he reeled from the dozens of stabs he had just received from her counterattack. "You're mine, tyrant!"

Undyne charged with spear ready as the storm that had been approaching finally reached us. Rain began to fall over the harbor in a slow trickle before escalating into a heavy downpour. She was truly in her element as Alpha's four enforcers threw themselves at her. Corvus came in first with sword ready only for his slash to be parried with Undyne's spear. Undyne then responded by grabbing him by the face and slamming his head into the pavement without losing any momentum. Aries came next, firing off a large shot of fire that failed to be diminished by the rain. With a mighty hurl that would have earned her an impressive score at a javelin competition, Undyne chucked her spear right through the incoming fireball to dissipate it with the spear then slamming into Aries for a mighty explosion of white energy. Still not losing her stride, Undyne summoned another spear and used it for a pole vault to send herself flying forward for an improvised dropkick right into Orion as he came swooping in for a slash of his swords. I thought for sure Aquarius would try next, but she suddenly relented and stepped aside. Was she still horrified for what she did to Undyne just a few minutes earlier? Regardless, Undyne hardly batted an eye at her while dashing past.

Alpha tried desperately to stop Undyne's approach after letting his wing thrusters carry him a greater distance back to give him more distance from his relentless pursuer. Horn aglow, he fired off a powerful plasma blast that exploded into the ground. But Undyne jumped at the last second, hurtling herself through the air with a bold dive like a shark breeching from the surf. Spear ready, she came diving in at the maverick king for a powerful stab as Alpha only just barely managed to align his sword for a desperate parrying stance with her spear stabbing right into his scorching plasma blade. Frustrated and probably even a bit frightened, Alpha let out a roar with arms thrown out to generate an explosive plasma field around himself to repel the undying warrior who was after his head.

No matter how much more powerful she must have been at the time or how much tougher her armor likely was, Undyne was not foolhardy enough to let herself be exposed to something like that. She made many long jumps backwards to put great distance between her and Alpha. But once that plasma barrier faded, Alpha fired off a sudden laser beam from his eyes to try and get a quick hit in. Thankfully, we were reminded that Undyne was not the only one there as Mettaton was able to throw himself between them to block the shot with his barrier shield ready. And like Undyne, he was proud to show that unwavering smile. "Have you forgotten what I told you last time?! Real heroes never fear! Real heroes laugh at death! And we will stand in your way until our final breaths!"

Undyne continued to grin as she stepped around Mettaton with her hand gently pushing his pauldron aside. "Thanks for the assist, but I can take this guy. You guys can handle his little pets."

The rest of Alpha's enforcers began to regroup after the stinging blows they had received from Undyne that had slammed them all to the floor. By that point, it looked like they were not fighting us anymore because they wanted to. It looked more like they were only continuing the battle because there was no other option by that point. Not as long as Alpha was still standing.

Sans stepped forward with Papyrus as he adjusted his hat and glasses while we caught in the resulting downpour, fanfare still blaring around us for a truly desperate yet climatic tension. Victory was within sight. I turned my gaze to focus on the five robotic warriors before us. Alpha, furious over Undyne's literally unbreakable spirit shouted out to us. "How?! I saw you die! Reduced to mere ashes! This is beyond merely impossible! It defies all logic and sense! Why do you stand before me now?!"

"You want the real answer?" Undyne replied with a louder voice to call out over the rain. She stepped around Mettaton and declared, "I decided it wasn't my time to die. So I didn't! That good enough for you?!"

Our enemies looked more confused than anything. I certainly would have liked to know how Undyne came back from the brink, but I was not going to question it this time. But Undyne's grin then faded as a look of disgust settled on her face. "But you... This isn't the first time you and your minions have spilled organic blood, right? How many, tyrant?! How many lives have been lost to your ambitions?!"

An alarming question I did not expect. And it was a question that I had not seen answered in the Project H series even once. Surely there must have been incidents that took place between issues in the story's canon. I listened closely as Alpha began to sneer before he provided a cryptic, yet unsetting response. "Not nearly enough!"

Undyne's grasp on her spear tightened. A truly contemptuous reply that filled me with disgust. Alpha then pointed his sword at us and shouted, "But since you are the first and only foe of mine to defy death so hard that you restored yourself from mere ashes, I shall grant you this honor! Speak your name, warrior! So I may remember it once I have destroyed you one last time!"

"I am Undyne! Undyne the Undying!" She roared with spear held high before pointing it directly at Alpha, her snarl shifting a little closer to her proud piranha smile. "And you, tyrant, are a dead man!"

"By all means, try! We are ready for you!" Alpha bellowed in exhilaration while his enforcers spread themselves out without a word. The looks in their eyes... They had nothing to say, but I knew they heard every word that was being spoken. What was going through their heads at that moment?

I took a step forward and raised the H-Buster as I took aim at Alpha. He was my enemy and the one I was meant to face. But Undyne rested her left hand upon my arm and pushed it down. "No, Hunter. I get that he... Alpha, right? I get he's your enemy, but right now, the last thing I'm in the mood for is sticking to a script. That bastard's mine!"

The sheer conviction in her tone. There was no talking her out of this. And I had no reason to doubt Undyne's ability to face Alpha by that point. Her heroic resolve was too inspiring... Contagious and invigorating! I decided to place my faith in this undying hero and smiled back at her. "Aye, captain. He's all yours."

"But what about us?" Sans asked while also starting to smile much more confidently. Even as he was fully soaked to the bone by the rain. Between all five of us, there was not a single frown to be seen.

"Yeah... All right, boys. Listen up. There's five of us and five of them, so let's stick to one enemy each until this is over. As for who..." Undyne said before her one eye scanned the opposition. "Sans! You take the hotshot! Hunter! You're getting the woman's touch! Mettaton! The flyboy is all yours! Papyrus! It's ninja vs samurai for you!"

"Yes, captain! The Great Papyrus shall prove to all that this battle body was not for nothing!" Papyrus declared boldly as he readied his sword, his golden orange right eye shining through his visor. Although I was filled with a certain thrill to now have Aquarius being my designated opponent. She was the only one I had not yet faced in battle before. "Prepare yourself, fiendish rogues! This time, we're gonna play rough!"

"Yes! Time for the grand finale! For tonight, you face heroes of hopes and dreams! Let us do battle with a song in our hearts!" Mettaton too boldly declared as his flickering particle wings spread once more. "Captain! Let us greet the enemy in song! Even if just for a moment!"

"Sure! I'm fired up enough for that! Boys! Give them hell!" Undyne roared as we all held our weapons high. In the torrential downpour, we rushed forward. Alpha fired off a quick plasma burst from his horn at Undyne, but she jumped it with a long leap as she began to sign in time with the music that was serenading this battle. "There'll be no more pain! You won't kill again!"

Corvus wordlessly flung several plasma kunai towards Papyrus after a great leap to the sky. With one great sweep of his sword, Papyrus slashed each glowing dagger out of the air before heroically bringing his sword down to point it meaningfully at his opponent. All while joining in the song. "Face a true hero! The blade of evil's bane!"

Sans had a rotating wall of bones standing between him and Aries as that surprisingly silent bombardier strafed him with one incendiary cannon unloading on his bony barrier. All the while, Sans sung the next segment of the verse with a more subdued yet serious tone. "Our future is grim, the chance to survive is slim..."

Orion came swooping in at Mettaton with a ground level lunge to try and cleave through him with both swords. Mettaton's rocket engines flared up just in time to send him skyward to have Orion go flying right under him while he turned and fired upon the winged warrior with rapid shots from his cannon. All the while, he too sung with that spectacular voice of his. "But we don't live or die based on your whims!"

"Howling of the wind!" Undyne shouted as her spear locked with Alpha's sword, the two glaring each other down from mere inches away.

"Echoes of your sin." Sans followed with twin Gaster Blasters ready to fire.

"It sings of hopes and dreams that one day might have been!" Papyrus declared with sword ready in both hands, Corvus drawing his own sword to meet his foe in battle.

"Now we rise again! This will be your end!" Mettaton called out while rising even higher and charging up his cannon for a maximum power blast even as Orion started to fly up towards him.

All together, the four otherworldly heroes called out the end of this verse. As each of their one glowing eyes shone in the stormy darkness. "You will never break our determination!"

What a sight. What a sound. I ended up coming to a stop just to behold the majesty of these four close friends and mighty heroes of a world I did not know trying their absolute best to save this one. The triumphant and bombastic music playing through the air. Their unwavering resolve in the face of this mechanical threat. The constant smiles in defiance of the very real danger that they might not make it home alive. It was all so inspiring. And I could feel it too. Victory would soon be ours. We were unstoppable! Failure was no longer possible!

With the four of my companions locked in combat with their designated opponents, I turned my gaze towards Aquarius as she stood with her frigid spear ready. The excitement of this spectacular battle royale faded just slightly as I noticed her somber silence. She spoke to me through the rain, "I am relieved that your friend escaped death. I... I did not know what to expect when I..."

"Hey, it's cool. I'm sure she doesn't hold it against you." I replied softly as I could still recall that look of silent horror in her eyes upon dealing that fatal blow. I felt some reluctance in fighting her, so I then said, "To be honest, I don't want to hurt you."

"You are too kind, Hunter. But I must destroy you here." Aquarius replied with spear ready. her tone becoming cooler. Icy blue energy surrounded her horn as the rain falling around us began to float in the air as more and more of it compacted into growing blobs of fresh water. While not exactly in the ocean, Aquarius was still surrounded by her element and was ready to put it to good use.

"Yeah, I get it..." I retorted while deciding to take advantage of the opportunity presented to me. Shadow Mode. Breaker Mode. Jetstream Mode. Certain combinations of functions provided by my Variable Weapon System granted me specialized states for specific roles. Each being reminiscent of one of Alpha's four enforcers. All that was left was Aquarius. And I immediately put the pieces together.

Not missing a beat, I turned my attention to my weapon slots in the upper corner of my visor. Frost Tower and Ray Arrow were equipped. And my guess paid off. My HUD was scrambled by static for an instant as my body responded appropriately. My pure white body bore the colorations of Frost Tower, but my body's functions had been altered in a very usual way. The H-Buster was once again entirely offline, but some of its functions and energy output had been redirected to the shield generator on my left arm. The size of the particle shield it could generate was likely larger now. My flight thrusters had been disabled... No, that was not quite the right word. They were still active, but the way they functioned had changed. Instead of rocket thrust, they had been modified into aqua jets to propel me through water. A very situational form to be sure, but not without its strengths. With my primary weapon disabled, I drew the H-Saber from its holster. But it quickly surprised me a second later by suddenly extending into a long shaft before generating a spearhead entirely of plasma at the tip to form a proper spear. The name of this new state was displayed boldly upon my visor's HUD. Lancer Mode.

"I feel like a fish outta water right now... Kinda makes sense, huh?" I said jokingly while Aquarius raised an eyebrow upon seeing my icier colors and my new plasma spear in hand. While I was tempted to use it in both hand for greater control, I knew I had an enhanced shield to utilize. I clenched my left hand into a fist as I activated my shield generator. It still bore its beautiful light blue glow, but the resulting barrier had enlarged into a mostly round shape to offer superior coverage. Knowing I was out of my element as badly as Aquarius was, I wanted to wrap this duel up quickly. That, and I did not want to miss the show happening around us.

With a wave of her spear, Aquarius sent a wave of levitating water at me in an attempt to sweep me away. Fortunately, this was a perfect opportunity to test out my aquatic maneuverability. My wing thrusters opened only partially and sent me hurtling forward as if I was flying. The speed I reached was impressive for underwater movement and I was soon launched out of the floating wave of water with myself being thrown above Aquarius. I held out my shield before me as its new functions activated. The moisture in the air before my shield was rapidly frozen into a jagged block of ice with similar dimensions to a very thick tower shield. Gravity then took hold and sent that jagged iceberg falling right towards my foe. "Another taste of Frost Tower!"

Aquarius only narrowly avoided getting crushed by my falling ice anvil by throwing herself backward with a burst of focused water being expelled from her heels. I pursued her before I could fall by doing the same, but boot thrusters and even my flight thrusters suddenly throwing me through the air with a burst of water from them as finely focused as lasers. Taking my spear in both hands with my shield fading, I plunged to the ground with the spearhead freezing into icy energy. I failed to hit Aquarius directly, but plunging my spear into the pavement unleashed waves of frigid ice spikes all around me like a rapidly freezing series of ocean waves.

I heard Aquarius let out a shriek of pain as she was swept up and stabbed by this unexpectedly impressive fusion of Ray Arrow and Frost Tower. The result was only temporary as these waves of ice quickly dissolved into frigid mist. Aquarius fell to her back with noticeable dents in her hardened armor plating and quickly got onto a knee. Freezing the air around her to summon ice daggers, Aquarius used the power in her horn to throw this storm of icy blades at me in such volume that I had to hide behind my particle shield. But as soon as I detected a lull in the barrage, I dismissed my shield and took hold of my spear with both hands with the tip hardening into proper ice. I used my aqua jets to launch me forward suddenly and rammed the spearhead into her softer midsection to snag her on it before coming to a stop and bringing her down hard behind me. Pinned under my foot, I then pointed my spear at her face.

I expected some form of resistance at that point. An attempt to throw me off. But Aquarius made no attempt to repel me as she lay upon the pavement with her long misty mane spilling over the ground from under her head. "I would have excelled better had we taking this duel beneath the waves... Do what you will. I have failed."

She had resigned herself to termination. But I could not bring myself to run her head through on my spear. Aquarius was not a foul person by any stretch. If anything, no one was more reluctant to engage in that battle than she. My HUD confirmed that she was not even a host to the Alpha Virus. There was nothing to gain from destroying her here. I took my foot off her and disengaged from Lancer Mode before returning the H-Saber to its holster. "Nah... We're done. Good fight."

Aquarius turned her head to gaze up at me when I took a step back. She was no longer being restrained, yet made no attempt to continue our duel. "Why do you show mercy? Lord Alpha claimed you would destroy us if we gave you any quarter..."

"Well, if you guys were a bunch of mindless mavericks who only wants to destroy, then I'd have to. But you? You're just good people swept up into fighting for the wrong side." I replied while very dearly not wanting to harm her further. "You're not maverick at all. I'm not detecting any viral presence in you. Is what Alpha trying to achieve really that appealing to you to fight for?"

"True be told... Unlike the others, I'm not so certain what I'm fighting for here..." Aquarius spoke through the torrent of rain splashing over our metal bodies. She rested her head on the ground and gazed up at the thundering clouds in the sky. "My brothers believe in what Lord Alpha wants to bring to this world. But I... I'm not so sure. I was created to fight. To give my enemies a watery grave. But...I take no pleasure in such thoughts... And yet, beyond the battlefield...I don't' know what I want..."

"Alpha really had nothing else in mind when he designed you, hm? That sounds like him." I grumbled in some disgust. Why create warriors for nothing but combat and still give them distinct personalities that may be ill-suited for a warrior? I felt genuinely bad for Aquarius. "Look... Just stay in one place so no one will bother you. You've lost, so no point in antagonizing anyone else."

Aquarius weakly pushed herself up to reach a sitting position with her spear set on the ground before her. With nothing else to do, we could only wait out the rest of this battle. I turned my gaze upon my companions as they clashed. It was an impressive sight to see them all really going at it. I was even glad I finished things up with Aquarius as quickly as I did so I would not miss anything else.

The first duel to draw my attention was that between Papyrus and Corvus. It was impressive how Corvus nimbly parried slashes from Papyrus' much longer sword even with such a short blade. Papyrus was fast, forcing Corvus to fight harder than he normally would even against me. Although Corvus did surprise Papyrus by using his horn to summon a few explosive crow drones from rifts in space. Instead of flying right for Papyrus to get cleaved in two, the drones dove right at the ground before him and exploded to force him back and provide Corvus some cover.

I felt a twinge of shock as Corvus leapt high to try and come right down on Papyrus for a slash of his sword. The drones had provided just enough of a smokescreen to give Corvus an opening. But when he came down for a lash at his head, Papyrus held his sword sideways with one hand gripping the blade near the tip. It seemed to be a means to set up a sturdy defensive stance, but there was much more to it that that. The instant Corvus' blade struck that of Papyrus, a glowing round cryptic sigil formed between the two of them as Papyrus called out boldly. "RETRIBUTION!"

My eyes went wide as this defensive stance seemed to trigger a special power in Papyrus or his armor. Corvus leaped back with several low hops as Papyrus readied his sword in both hands. With one mighty swing, he rend the very pavement before him with a massive slash. Although I do not know if he was saying all that because he was truly going in for the kill or if he just wanted to sound really cool. And to be fair, he was absolutely nailing it at the time. "DESTROY EVIL!"

Papyrus went into a flurry of swings with his great blade, creating vacuum waves of shimmering white that Corvus was only barely able to dodge half the time. He kept getting nicked with these devastating slashes, so the damage was piling up. When Papyrus finally relented with that runic circle fading before him, Corvus staggered for a moment before widening his stance. He stiffly readied his sword behind him. Papyrus did the same with his sword at his side, as if ready to lash out with a draw from its scabbard. A heavy chilling tension filled the air. These two warriors were about to decide their duel with a single stroke of their swords.

In an instant, the two passed each other. So fast that my eyes barely even saw it. They now stood with some great distance between each other, backs turned as a sudden explosion of wind blew every drop of rain over the harbor away. Even as the battle raged on for everyone else, there was a stillness between Papyrus and Corvus as they stood with swords outreached from having performed a passing slash to strike each other down. It took several seconds for the rain from high up to finally start falling on the battlefield again.

I watched and waited. Who had been struck down? Did they both get hit? A moment of silence later, I saw movement. Corvus began to twitch and grunt before he suddenly gasped and yelled in pain. And then...his top half slid right off his hips with both halves collapsing to the ground with a clank. My jaw dropped. Papyrus had cleaved Corvus right in two at the waist! I doubt even the H-Saber could have pulled that off in one stroke! And then Papyrus turned to examine the results of that strike. And his response...was not what I expected at all. "Nyeh...? Oh my god... OH MY GOD, ARE YOU OK?!"

"What does it look like you, fool?! I'm helpless!" Corvus groaned as he tried to push himself up to no avail. He was entirely helpless and nearly immobile with no connection to his legs. He was lucky that strike did not cut through something more important. "Ugh... Well played, warrior... Well played indeed... Wait, what are you... GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME, YOU IMBECILE! THIS IS HUMILIATING ENOUGH!"

"I didn't break you, did I?! I can fix this, I can fix this! I think I have some duct tape here..." Papyrus dropped his sword and rushed right over to Corvus like a frightened playmate who had accidentally hurt his friend. Even when fighting at his most sincere and serious, Papyrus...was still Papyrus. This duel was over with him as the victor, but now he had a mess to clean up that he probably felt he was obligated to handle. "Let's see, one of my action figures broke in two like this once... Too bad I don't have any glue."

"I said unhand me! You cannot repair damage like this without specialized equipment!" Corvus roared in embarrassment as he was helpless to stop Papyrus from trying to fix him. Just the very notion of a goofy skeleton warrior trying to reattach the two halves of his enemy back together just made me burst into a snickering fit. Although I was quickly reminded of what else was happening around us as a fireball flew by me.

Aries was desperately trying to land some hits on Sans while that goofball rolled around on his skates. Judging by his jacket looking a little singed, Aries must have landed a few glancing shots. But between the rain provided some extra flame resistance in his clothing on top of his body's integrity being made on par with that of his brother, Sans looked no worse from the wear. He finally boxed Aries in with a cage of bones popping up around him, which only served to frustrate the fiery robo stallion. "Hey, what gives?! Gimme outta here! I ain't no jailbird!"

No without someone shooting at him, Sans came rolling over to me. "Man, I just ain't cut out for this wiggidy jiddigy hardcore playtime. And I'm running outta jokes to go with this totally rad getup."

"I bet you are." I retorted as Sans came rolling to a stop beside me. My gaze then fell upon Undyne and Mettaton as they duked it out with their respective opponents. Mettaton and Orion were locked in an aerial swordfight while Undyne was now wielding two spears at once to try and overcome Alpha's longsword techniques. I then glanced down at the totally radical skeleton and asked, "Looks like you can finally take as much as you can give, huh?"

"Yeah, just don't ask me how. I don't know what happened tonight, but I'm feeling pretty solid now." Sans spoke before looking around at his friends just going at it. "Man... I am so proud of these guys now. As things stand, I can only barely keep up now."

"Didn't you say something last time on how if this world wasn't made of ink and paper, you'd be able to give yourself an edge?" I asked while I thought back to the last time Sans got into a brawl in the world of Project H and had to heavily rely on deception to be even remotely helpful.

Sans let out a chuckle and said, "Yeah, I could. But it would still be cheating, so it's not like it's something I could take any pride in. Not like these guys, who have everything they need to fight the good fight. All I can do right now is just try to keep up until we can all go home."

It was around then that Sans and I looked over at where Aries had been standing. He was pounding and kicking away at the bone bars of his cage. And he was starting to make some progress. The bones were starting to crack. "Just wait 'til I get outta here! Gonna make a xylophone outta every last bone in your body!"

I looked down at Sans while he looked back up at me. We both smiled together as I asked, "Got something you need to finish?"

"Yeah, I guess so. You know what they say..." Sans spoke before rolling a bit closer to Aries right as that wall of bones finally started to collapse.

"When in doubt..." Sans said before raising his hands high. He curled his middle and ring fingers inward with his index and pinky fingers raised high for a rebellious hand sign. At that instant, five Gaster Blasters formed above him while ready to fire. And as they did, he let out a genuinely energetic call. "YOLOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Aries was not able to completely get around these blasts and was swept right up in one of them. It looked like it hurt as he was blown clear across the pavement. "Gah, why do those always hurt so much?! I thought those things are supposed to be random!"

"Oh, you mean like last time? Nah, that whole random number generator thing was phased out. Now my boys here will always bring the hurt." Sans replied as he patted his hand on one of his Gaster Blasters. He then peered over his funky glasses while his left eye socket still contained a light blue glowing iris. "Anyway, we're not exactly here you give you a dirt nap. Or is it a scrap siesta? Whatever, how about we wrap this up quick?"

"Yeah, good idea! Lets see you dance!" Aries laughed manically as he aimed both cannons to the sky and fired off rapidly alternating shots to send inextinguishable balls of fire flying up just to come crashing down all over the place. Sans had to really amp up his rolling moves to stay on the move. Not that he could not take a hit and being soaked to his bones in rain definitely would take some of the edge off, but it was not like anyone would want to get hit.

I was wondering why Sans was not at least trying to return fire while dodging this fiery eruption from twin volcano cannons. Maybe throw a few bones at Aries to trip him up or summon some Gaster Blasters. But once that rain of fire stopped, he rolled along on his wheels and pointed up. "Yo, hotshot. Eyes up there."

Aries looked up while I did the same. Ad hoo boy, Sans knew what he was doing. A few dozen Gaster Blasters had been gradually summoned in a big circle around Aries when he was not looking and were gazing down upon the helpless sap with unblinking eyes. That utterly stupefied look on Aries' face said it all. He knew he was screwed by then. And his response was rather appropriate after a moment of awkward silence. "Welp, I'm boned!"

Sans' face suddenly went blank as his smile drooped just a bit. But then he began to smile again as I started to picking up some muffled snickering. Papyrus noticed from nearby and caught on faster than I did. "Sans, no! Don't you start laughing now! It wasn't even that funny!"

Ugh, of course... If anyone was going to laugh at anything that could be twisted into a lame bone pun, it was Sans. And he really did look like he was trying to not start laughing while Aries and I looked on in bemusement. Papyrus then yelled, "Sans, that wasn't even a real pun! Don't do this to us!"

It was no use. Sans threw his head back as he started laughing hysterically. I get that Aries just accepting his fate as comically as he did was amusing to see, but Sans was taking it too far. But this still gave Aries enough time to turn the tables. An opportunistic grin settling on his face, Aries took aim with both cannons and lined up a shot on the distracted skeleton. "Bye bye."

Aries fired off two large bursts of fire while I could only watch. I was tempted to intervene, but we were sworn to our own opponents. Thankfully, I did not have to do a thing. Sans suddenly summoned a wall of bones between him and Aries at the last second to block the fiery explosion as the lingering embers were soon extinguished by the rain. He then smirked at a dumbfounded Aries like he had played him like a violin for one last cheap laugh. "Nice try."

Sans wasted no time in finishing things off right there. Every last Gaster Blaster opened fire at once, engulfing Aries in a bright white explosion of their combined energy while he let out quite the girly scream as he faced his doom. When the light faded, Aries stood there stiffly with cracks lining his armor and sparks flying. He then fell very stiffly right onto his face while thoroughly fried. And Sans obnoxiously pointed his fingers at his fallen foe as he yelled, "Brah, you just got DUNKED ON!"

"Please, someone shut him up... Just let me lie here in peace... You did good girls... Good work out there..." Aries groaned without budging from that spot. He was officially out of the fight.

"Oh man, that felt good. Nothing like...uh..." Sans started to say before he turned his attention to Papyrus over yonder. "Uh... Bro? You still at it?"

"More duct tape, Sans! I think it's working!" Papyrus called out while continuing to try and patch up a constantly complaining Corvus. Sans just laughed and shook his head. And all I could do was turn my gaze up at the sky. How was Mettaton fairing against Orion?

As it turned out, it was still a struggle for the aerial performer. Orion was just too fast, diving and zipping around Mettaton to make landing shots on him all but impossible. He was at least maintaining his defenses with Orion's projectile attacks unable to get by Mettaton's barrier shield. Drawing in close for a direct strike with his swords did not work either. Orion soon called out after backing off, "Your defenses are impeccable, but we're not getting anywhere like this!"

"Yes, you're quite right! Well, if there was ever time for a finale..." Mettaton replied while starting to smirk. I suppose frustration was getting the better of him by then. He then threw his arms out to the sides as...dozens upon dozens of his little box drones started emerging from behind him out of nowhere and rapidly started forming a spherical cage around Orion! "It is now! See if you can get by this!"

Once that massive orb of drones had Orion surrounded from all sides, they started rapidly circling Orion in alternating patterns. It was utterly confusing, especially when they all started shooting pink energy shots in the shape of hearts. Orion had to be quick to cut them out of the air, but there was far too much to keep track of. If Mettaton could not catch Orion normally, he would instead overwhelm with sheer confusion!

"Where are you?! Stop hiding!" Orion shouted while even trying to cut down the number of drones with sonic waves launched from his swords. But it was not enough to ease things up. Although he soon turned to face his opponent as he called out, "Ha! There you are OW!"

The wrong target pierced the wall of drones. One of Mettaton's disembodied legs had left his side and had kicked Orion right across the face before leaving the sphere. It came flying back in only for Orion to hold it off with his swords, but this only resulted in the other leg to come flying in and nail him in the back of the head. Orion let out a yell of frustration as he fended off passing kicks and glancing shots from the drones whirling around him. But then...it all stopped as Orion called out, "WHERE ARE YOU?!"

"Right here!" A voice spoke from directly above. Mettaton was floating right above Orion with his fully charged arm cannon pointing right into his face. Orion was stuck with now way out. "Time for the curtain call!"

Orion let out a shriek of pain as a massive pink blast of energy burst from Mettaton's cannon and pushed Orion right down into the pavement far below. A huge explosion of that vibrant pink energy followed as Orion was soon left in a crater while smoldering from the heaviest hit Mettaton could muster. Ever so gracefully, Mettaton descended like an angel from on high with his rocket engines growing quieter with loss of thrust. "Bravo, Sir Orion! I could never hope to keep up with you in the air!"

I hurried over to check on them. Orion was down for the count with significant damage lining his body, but not enough to cripple him. I looked over at Mettaton as his legs returned to his body and allowed him to stand upon the ground. "I think you did enough. There's no need to destroy him."

"Perish the thought, Hunter! I had no intention of sending him to meet his maker." Mettaton replied before holding out his left to his fallen foe. "I suppose that means we are done here, yes?"

"Ye... Yes... I think this is as far as I go." Orion groaned as he let go of his swords to take hold of Mettaton's hand to pull get back on his feet. "I feel...strangely relieved that we'll both be going home alive tonight."

I fetched Orion's swords while Mettaton patted his opponent on the back. "While you may not have quite as much grandeur as Alpha over there, your aerial finesse is second to none. We should dance again sometime. Now... What ever became of our daring captain?"

Now that all of Alpha's enforcers had been dealt with, all that remained was the maverick king himself. All eyes fell upon the only two combatants who were still locked in deadly combat. Mettaton's audio drones continued to sing Undyne's praises with that spectacular battle ballad setting the tone for this clash between a machine tyrant and an undying hero who refused to let death take her.

Even with all the time that had passed between the eight of us settling our own duels, Alpha and Undyne had failed to make much headway. Undyne's twin white spears glowed a brilliant white in the dark while Alpha's glowing energy mane and his plasma sword shone a brilliant hot yellow. Sparks flew as Alpha made a series of very heavy strokes with his sword while Undyne boldly parried with her two spears crossed over each other. With a stomp of her foot, Undyne summoned a magic spear from the ground that stabbed hard into Alpha's arm to force him into dropping his sword. Undyne followed with a hard kick to his body to launch him away from her before stabbing one spear right into his discarded weapon. Sparks flew from the wrecked sword hilt as the blade faded away. "Scum like you don't deserve any quarter!"

"So be it! I still carry blades that you can't tear from my hands!" Alpha roared as he lunged at Undyne while he summoned his plasma claws from his knuckles once again. Undyne was caught entirely by surprise after likely not noticing him use them earlier and suffered a clean slash right to her chest. But much to my relief, her new enchanted armor held! Even Alpha was shocked by this turn of events. "Wha... What sort of primitive armor is able to endure such searing heat?!"

"Stop thinking and start fighting!" Undyne roared before turning her face towards Alpha and suddenly weaponizing the very rays of light that were constantly exploding out of her right eye socket. A wave of raw white energy tore into Alpha and even threw him back before Undyne covered her eye with her left hand to try and stabilize the very energy spilling out of her. "Heh... Never tried that before."

"What even is this power you have found?! It defies all sense!" Alpha growled as he regained his footing, his body showing signs of battle damage. "You are nothing but flesh and bone! This power should not be possible for one such as you!"

"Yeah, I don't know what it is myself, but I'm not questioning it!" Undyne replied while still showing off her best piranha smile. She then pointed her spear at Alpha while I glanced up. Dozens of ethereal spearheads were beginning to rain down upon the battlefield. "All I know is I won't let myself die here! Not until I break you!"

Undyne came in swinging as Alpha did the same. Spears and claws clashed while Alpha was continually struck by these falling spears. And yet he utterly refused to buckle under them. Alpha's tenacity was frightful to behold as he muscled his way through whatever attacks Undyne hit him with from any direction that was not ahead of him. As for Undyne, while no longer displaying that ridiculous hot-blooded bravado from earlier, she still looked and sounded like she was having the time of her life. There was no fear in that face. Especially when she began to sing in time with the music that serenaded their battle. "You killed me once! You won't do it again! Your path of destruction is doooone!"

"Gah, again with these infernal lyrics! Must I tear your throat out to silence you?!" Alpha shouted before taking a quick swipe at Undyne's face. But she stood firm, spear held vertically in both hands to both that slash with the blades hissing against her enchanted weapon. "Undying... A fitting name for a cockroach that just won't stay squashed under my heel!"

"Though you struggle on, here I remain!" Undyne sang as she pushed Alpha's arm away while ducking low to land a kick on his leg to trip him up. Now unbalanced, Alpha could not repel a hard stab as Undyne dug her spearhead into his softer waistline. Her weapon stuck in him, she summoned another spear to her hands and landed a harder shoving thrust to his tougher chest to shove him back. "While all of our hearts beat as one!"

Alpha was becoming desperate. Either that, or just utterly frustrated. Struggling against a fellow machine warrior like Mettaton or myself was one thing, or even a more esoteric entity like Sans, but struggling this hard against a living breathing organic creature was infuriating Alpha to no end. He swung his bladed hands in rapid succession to try and scathe Undyne from a distance, but she began to approach with a spear in each hand that she swung and twirled to deflect each incoming plasma wave. "You never thought our lives meant anything! Your life must mean nothing as wellll!"

Undyne was really rocking along with that music as she sang with a spectacular voice, even while continuing to lock blades with Alpha. I never would have guessed she was capable of such sophistication and nobility upon first meeting her. But now this mighty hero was proving to be more than a match for the maverick king as she landed blow after stinging blow even while barely flinching from the searing slashes that did get by her defenses. "But we soldier on! With our victory we'll sing bots like you should all rust in helllll!"

For the sake of getting some distance between them, Undyne jumped back when Alpha tried to catch her in a pincer slash with both hands. She then promptly threw herself at him for a crushing drop kick that sent him flying quite a distance back. And I soon found that such distance was necessary for her next move. Undyne then thrust her spear heavenward as she sang her lungs out, a whirling mass of spearheads being summoned from the ground behind her. "Real heroes fiiiiight! To defend what is riiiiight!"

We all stood transfixed as the wind started to howl. Twin maelstroms consisting of hundreds of magic spears were whirling behind her with one made up of her usual green spears and the other of that shade of red the very first spear she threw held. They passed by her harmlessly with Undyne avoiding getting swept up in them by staying right in the middle. Alpha saw all too late what was coming and unleashed explosive bursts of plasma from his horn to try and destroy the incoming spear tornados, but it was all for naught as they swept him right off his feet! Even as Undyne sang of his impending defeat. "You fight for the sake of a gaaaame!"

I cannot imagine how that must have felt. Alpha let out a roar of agony as he tumbled through the air and was constantly bombarded by countless magic spears from all sides as the two maelstroms swirled around him. Even his plasma barrier would not provide enough protection to ride the storm out. There was no way this was not Undyne's trump card. This was meant to bring Alpha to his knees. As if to signal a victory, Undyne held her spear high as her two maelstroms began to run out of spears to plunge into her enemy. "You're following the path of genocide, but now true heroes stand in your waaaaaaaay!"

We all burst into applause as the music even began to fade out. With the wind dying down and the whirling tornadoes of magic spears exhausting themselves, Alpha plummeted like a rock and hit the ground with a thunderous clank. The rain began to let up as well and weakened into a light downpour. All of Alpha's enforcers, battered and beaten, could only look on as the mightiest of the five struggled to climb to his feet while dented from hundreds upon hundreds of magic spear strikes. "What power... How can this power...even be feasible in such...a flimsy body of flesh...?"

"Typical cold machine logic, huh?" Undyne snarled as she stood tall with spear in hand. "That's why your kind never win. You can't process the will and determination of those who have the drive to protect the world you want to destroy!"

"At least I know when the mission has failed..." Alpha grumbled as he shuddered with an unsteady balance. His plasma claws retracted as sparks burst from cracks lining his armor. "All of you! Retreat for now! This miscalculation has proven much too troublesome tonight. If only it had just been Hunter... Next time... Next time, victory will be ours, Hunter!"

"No." Undyne spoke coldly as I felt my eyes widen. The fight was over. All five of our opponents had been bested. Was she not done?! "There isn't gonna be a next time for you!"

With a swift lunge, Undyne rushed forward and punched Alpha squarely in the chest to throw him back. Before he could even hit the ground, a tightly compactd cluster of magic spears shot up from the ground and pushed him higher and higher into the sky at breakneck speeds! And I quickly saw why.

What followed was quite easily the single most ridiculous feat I have ever seen anyone pull off in my life. Undyne made a massive leap skyward before summoning a series of spears in the air during her ascent. But not to be used as weapons. She used them to chase after Alpha by rapidly springboarding off of their shafts! They were rising so high into the sky that I had to adjust my optics to zoom in just so I could keep up with what they were doing. "This is gonna be big..."

The cluster of spears pushing Alpha ever higher into the sky suddenly stopped and sent Alpha flying up into the air as they vanish below him, his body being carried along by sheer inertia. Undyne soon caught up and shot above him as they were now well beyond the highest rooftops of the skyscrapers nearby. She held her spear high as it grew to several times its original size while losing its more physical properties, now looking like its composition was somewhere between lightning and white flames. Taking her weapon in both hands, she plummeted towards Alpha with a downward stab as her voice bellowed through the air. "This is it! Ageless Slash of Eternity!"

The instant her spear pierced Alpha's body, our jaws dropped open. And thunderous shockwave exploded from the point of impact and split the sky! A massive hole in the clouds above formed in an instant as all rain was blown away! I could hear Alpha let out an agonized roar as they plummeted to the ground below. We stood back and braced ourselves for the impending impact. And what an impact it was.

The instant Undyne rode Alpha right down into the ground at terminal velocity, there was a massive explosion of white magical energy that nearly threw us off our feet. I closed my eyes, hoping that Undyne did not kill herself with the fall. But when the light faded and we all gazed upon them, there she still stood. Boots still planted against Alpha's battered body with her spear still deeply impaled through him. A crater lined with cracks laid below them, though not terribly deep. But my HUD was quick to discover that the danger was not over. My eyes went wide as I called out, "That one pierced his fusion core! Get clear!"

Undyne gasped lightly before she jumped back several times while leaving her spear plunged through his body. Light began to spill from the cracks in his armor as Alpha struggled to get to his feet. His body now on the verge of complete destruction, Alpha held a hand to his chest as he grew ever brighter. "I... I will remember this...! Undyne the Undying...!"

Seconds later, we all held up our arms as a massive fiery explosion engulfed Alpha. And then, all was quiet aside from the sound of bits of scrap metal falling around the harbor. Just little bits and pieces of Alpha that were not instantly vaporized by his destruction. We all looked on at where the maverick king once stood. He was gone for now, but I understood the nature of the dreaded Alpha Virus. This was just one of many bodies he would come to inhabit. There was a long road ahead.

"That... Lord Alpha... He's...gone?" Orion asked with understandable confusion. This was his first bit of action, so i doubt he knew all that much about his superior at the time.

"Nah... The boss... He'll be back... He's stubborn like that." Aries groaned as he started to force himself to stand up. "Ain't the first time he got scrapped... Oh man, everything hurts..."

"Are you quite done yet, you imbecile?" I heard Corvus growl as he...actually started to stand up. Did Papyrus really put him back together? Or at least I thought he did until I got a good look at his waistline. Dozens of strips of duct tape had been wrapped around him many times to hold him together. And it was working.

Even then, Papyrus urged Corvus to move carefully. "Easy there! No sudden moves until you get home! I don't want you to fall apart again!"

Aries then gave his brother easily the driest and most serious stare I had ever seen on his face. "Dude... Bro, are you seriously being held together by a bunch of duct tape? And you can feel your legs?"

"Do not even ask me how this is possible, Aries. It shouldn't be, but it is." Corvus grumbled while Aquarius let out an amused little giggle from nearby. To see such a proud and stoic shinobi...now barely held together by duct tape that his own enemy used to try and repair him was...just a very special kind of amusing. Regardless, Corvus tried to focus on the main situation. "You all heard our lord. We are to retreat and await further orders from him."

They all flinched when Undyne suddenly glared at all of them with light still constantly bursting from her left eye socket. She had already destroyed Alpha on her own power. She could easily do the same to them. But that glare soon softened as she said, "Fine. You guys get outta here. And stay out of trouble, got it?"

The four siblings soon gathered together in a loosely spread out group. Battered and scraped, they were far from ready for more action. They had conflicted gazes upon their faces and I could guess why. I then said, "You've seen what Alpha's really after tonight. You're not really in favor of his ambitions, are you?"

"We...have our orders..." Aquarius muttered softly while she looked easily the most apologetic over the whole battle. She had very nearly slain Undyne herself and that look of horror on her face when she staggered back... The four of them only knew of fighting other robotic opponents. But never taking the lives of flesh and blood people.

"And that's what you are all striving for? Just to destroy and destroy until there is no one left besides those who bow to your king? What sort of life is that? Where is the zest for life if all you know is to destroy?!" Mettaton of all people called out with genuine conviction in his robotic voice. "Why destroy when you can create? To inspire? To fuel the hopes and dreams of others?"

Aries looked like he was wanting to try and say something, but nothing came. Instead, Papyrus suddenly spoke up after removing his helmet to show his perpetually smiling face. "You don't really want to do that, do you?! There's no need for violence! Why don't you do a kindness instead?! I know there's good in all of you! You can be better than this! You only need to try! The Great Papyrus believes in you! So you should believe in yourselves!"

So naive...and yet so inspiring. I was tempted to just brush Papyrus' words off, and yet... The sheer conviction in his tone was too sincere to ignore. At that moment, I truly wanted to believe every word he said. Despite being a spectacular swordsman who was even able to best the likes of someone like Corvus, he was still the loveable optimist he had been from the moment I first met him.

I think his words were getting to them. All four of our opponents could not even look us in the eye. Finally, Corvus spoke with eyes shut. "We must go now."

There was nothing else to say. Any further attempts to convince them otherwise would be wasted. Orion spoke first as he spread his wings. "It was an honor getting to face you all tonight. Sir Hunter! I look forward to testing myself against you again!"

"You take care of yourself, Orion. You did well tonight." I replied before his wings flared up and sent him rocketing into the sky and out of sight. I then looked over at Aries and said, "Looks like the girls made it through in one piece, huh?"

"Heh... Yeah, whaddya know? Big sis Krakatoa and little sis Vesuvius are still standing." He replied while looking very relieved that his prized incendiary cannons survived the battle. He then pointed both hands at me and said, "Next time, let's make it just you and me! I've had enough time in the bone zone for a lifetime."

Sans got a good snicker out of that. "Yeah, sure. Just don't sop being fun, hot shot."

With that said, the two cannons on Aries shoulders rotated outward until they were pointing backwards before they turned towards the ground. Locked in place behind him, the two cannons flared up in a very different way as they sent Aries rocketing into the air to function as an improvised rocket pack. Nowhere near as fast or graceful as Orion, but it was fun to hear him let out a howl of exhilaration to go flying off over the city like that.

Aquarius began to walk towards the sea with her spear shaft in hand. "I wish we would not have to meet like this again. I hope that...we can meet without weapons drawn next time. Farewell, all of you."

"Take care of yourself, Aquarius... It was...a good time." I replied while glad to see she was not too busted up. Upon reaching the edge of the harbor, she leapt skyward with a powerful jet of water from her heels launching her high. The maiden of the sea performed a spectacular spiraling flip before diving right into the surf and out of sight.

All eyes fell upon Corvus. He placed a hand on his waist to check how well his two halves were being held together before bringing his hands together to make a type of hand sign. "Once again, you failed to disappoint. You all displayed honor here tonight. Hold your heads high and return home with pride, warriors."

With a sudden flash of black, he was gone. The city was quiet aside from the distant ambience of the safer sections of town. The outbreak was finally dealt with. I then spoke softly, "I guess that's it. Right, doc?"

Doctor Luminous, who had been very patiently quiet most of the evening, finally spoke to me. "Yes, it would seem so. Sorry if I didn't speak as often as I could. This was...a very interesting event to watch. I even finished my popcorn. I should probably turn in for the night too. You'll be back soon, right?"

"Yeah, I'll be heading home in a bit. Have a good night, doc." I retorted before the transmission was finally cut. Now with no one else listening in, I turned to face my companions. "Well then... I guess that's it for this story?"

"Yeah... Guess so." Undyne said with a sigh before closing her eyes. A few seconds later, she opened just her right to reveal that her eye had returned to its original red and yellow coloration. "Man, I swear I've done that before, but not like that. I don't think I've ever felt more unstoppable."

"You really had us thinking you were a goner back there... Glad to see you proved us all wrong." I said as I decided to not inquire as to how she managed to bring herself back from just a pile of dust. I doubt any of them had the slightest idea of how to explain it in the first place. "Although I gotta say...I think I like this side of you more than the side that drop kicks people to say hello."

"What?! Am I too intense for you all the time?! Meh, fine. Just because I'm hot-blooded doesn't mean I can't be dead serious sometimes. I just hope that punk is gone for good after that." Undyne retorted while almost sounding offended at first. At least she took it in good fun.

Papyrus then turned to his brother and exclaimed, "Sans, I just remembered! You actually beat that fiery fighter?! With so many Gaster Blasters?! Astounding! I never knew you had it in you! I guess you're finally not such a lazybones anymore!"

Sans chuckled uneasily before saying, "Uh... Yeah, I guess I did. Just...um...don't go telling everyone about that when we get home, all right? I got a reputation to keep."

"Oh come on! Just when I thought I could finally start being proud of you!" Papyrus groaned with his hands on his head. Yeah, that sounded like something I would have expected him to say. Although Papyrus then asked, "But you'll take all that ridiculous clothing off soon, right?"

"Hmm... You know, I bet I could use this for some new standup routines. Just not all the time. Man, that totally rad lingo really takes a lot outta ya after a while." Sans replied while he was still soaked to the bones with the rain having finally stopped. With a massive hole in the clouds above us, the moon was now shining beautifully down upon us like a beacon signaling our victory.

"I'm just glad you were all able to keep up with me tonight! I was concerned my NEO state would be too far ahead, but you all caught up in no time...oh?" Mettaton began to speak before he noticed one of his audio drones carrying over a familiar helmet. It had retrieved Undyne's discarded helmet. It vanished upon handing it to Mettaton along with every other drone that had gone silent over the harbor. "Ah, must not leave this behind. I do believe this is yours, captain?"

"Huh? Oh, right! Thanks! Hate to lose this little beauty... Wait..." Undyne said before she took it in hand and looked down at her new armor. Even though she had finally regressed back to her normal state, her armor remained permanently changed. "Whoa, when'd my armor turn into this?! Man, this all looks so sweet! Too bad my helmet doesn't match it anymore and... Hang on!"

Undyne only then reached behind her and pulled her tattered ponytail forward to examine it. And she was rather distraught over the damage it had incurred. "Aw man, I've been growing this out for years! It'll take way too long to get back to how it was..."

"At least you can even it out until then, right?" I replied before I felt a subtle ripple through the air. "Hang on... Was that... Gah?!"

Just like that, twin portals of purest white expanded around us and swept us right off our feet. It was abrupt, but I understand it meant we had reached the end of the ride. I got a fulfilling experience out of this trip into the world of Project H. But just when I thought that was it, something grabbed me by the hand.

I looked ahead. Undyne had managed to reach out and grab a hold of my hand even while her four friends did the same by grabbing onto her legs. Although Sans was holding onto Papyrus instead. She grinned at me while we were all held in this limbo between two white voids pulling us in different directions. "Hey! I guess this means...you're not from that world, huh?"

"Uh... Nope. I'm not exactly Hunter. I'm just...someone else assuming his role. And I'm just going home like all of you are." I replied while they all looked on as the portals remained open indefinitely. They probably would not close until we were sucked through. So I then said, "My real name is James. And I don't think I'm from your world."

"Oh ho, that's right! You did say you're the same human from that little pony karaoke party we wound up at! Good to know your name, human!" Papyrus called out with a big smile on his face.

"Ah, it's coming back to me! Yes, it was dear James all along! So good to see you again, darling! And you did not disappoint tonight!" Mettaton added while he dangled off of Undyne's leg with just one hand. "At least this time, we can give a proper farewell. Is all well back home for you?"

"Not...really. That's the whole reason why I voluntarily went into that world tonight. To get some practice in for the upcoming trials. Things are...not doing so hot where I come from right now." I explained while trying to not go into too much detail. "Sounds like things are pretty calm where you are though."

"Hey, it was awesome finally getting to kick some evil butt for the first in way too long! If I could come with you, I'd bring the thunder!" Undyne declared with that brilliant toothy grin. Although that smile became more subdued as she said, "Hey... It really fun getting to fight the bad guys with you tonight. You're cool, all right? You take care of yourself out there, James."

"Same to you. And don't let that little slacker take anymore risky shortcuts. You guys really cut it close tonight." I replied while looking past her right at Sans, who tried to look a way with a very sheepish grin on his face.

"Oh, I'll be sure to punish this little lazybones if he ever tries that again! Right, Sans?!" Papyrus declared while looking down at his bro.

"Guys, come on. You know I hate making promises." Sans chuckled before looking up at us. "But in all seriousness, yeah... I really need to break this bad habit. Man, i really thought you were a goner back there, Undyne... I don't know how I would've told Alphys if you didn't pull yourself together when you did... I don't know how I'd live with myself if any of you got killed because of me."

"Then just don't do it again! Simple as that, right?!" Undyne snarled down at him before looking back at me with her tattered ponytail billowing in the windy vortex of the portals behind us. "Anyway... I really shouldn't keep you, right? You've got your own battles to fight, right?"

"Yeah... I should be going. They'll start wondering where I am if I don't get back before long." I spoke while feeling a twinge of sadness over having to say goodbye to my new and familiar friends. Brief as our time was together, I was grateful that I got to meet them. And I was doubtful that I would ever see them again. "It was great meeting you all. Take care out there."

"Knock them dead, darling!" Mettaton called out with his prizewinning smile on his face.

"Goodbye, human! We believe in you!" Papyrus too cheered while also never letting his bony smile weaken.

"We're rooting for you, dude!" Sans added as he peeked over his goofy glasses. Even his smile looked genuine for once.

And finally, right as she released her grip on me, Undyne called out with a huge toothy grin. "Best of luck out there, hero! You'll do fine!"

We never looked away from each other as each portal pulled us back to our respective worlds. I smiled somberly as those four strange yet wonderful heroes smiled back at me. Then...whiteness. Followed by the sensation of me getting thrown through the air and landing on a soft and slightly bouncy surface. I found myself in a familiar room while resting on a complimentary air mattress. Which disappeared in a flash of light once I rolled off of it. Things were quiet. Nothing sounded amiss. The command center was still with only subtle sounds of quiet activity beyond the walls. I was glad that no one had come in while I was away. "What a ride that was..."

Suddenly realizing I was still in my bathroom, I heard a knock at the door. Smolder's voice then spoke from beyond the door. "James, you OK in there? You've been really quiet in there for maybe three hours!"

"It's been that long?! Uh... Yeah, sure! Just let me wash my hands and I'll be right out." I replied before running the sink to wash my hands out of etiquette instead of because I actually needed it. I was surprised they did not really hear anything else when that portal first sucked me in at the start.

And so I sit her at my typewriter documenting this crazy day. Ocellus and Smolder had been preoccupying themselves all afternoon to wait for me to finish. Smolder in particular really wants to read this journal once I am done with it, although I have to wonder how much she will actually believe since whatever happened there probably would not be shown in the pages of the book itself.

After such a crazy battle, I feel like I am ready for anything. And good thing too. I feel like we may come across the next wave any day now. Reinforcements keep coming and we continue to prepare ourselves with every passing day, but will we be ready when the time comes to truly test ourselves for a proper battle? We will have to wait and see. And I doubt we will be kept waiting long.