Toriel: Someone is in for a fiery time.
Shamir: And things are still not looking good, are they?
Me: Ugh, I've had a hard time writing this, you know? I don't even think I got two characters right.
Shamir: No worries. Even if that is a jumble, the rest is surely enjoyable!
Edit: I have fixed an error in the plot. Napstablook is corrupted by Flowey, while Chara makes a later appearance.
And so the next chapter begins!
CHAPTER FOUR: PLAYING WITH FIRE
[Feline Royal Guard HQ, a few minutes after the fight]
Toriel was standing tall in front of the teen monster that dared to attack a highly ranked monster, her eyes narrowed down to the point one could hear the muscles twitching, her irises a blazing red and her paws strongly folded, as if preventing herself to burn Shamir's attacker to a crisp. Nobody wanted to be the target of Queen Toriel's ire - Shamir's fury was a simple tantrum fit in comparison to what Toriel could do to someone. And Undyne was about to be on the receiving end of that particular fury, which Asgore did not reprimand - he knew Toriel could be extremely vicious when she wanted to be - his task at paw was to heal the poor jaguar captain that took a rather unfortunate blow in his shoulder, which broke the bone and tore the flesh apart.
Alphys was also furious at her sister, and her own wrath was no less smaller than Queen Toriel's - she hated the idea to obtain something without appealing to reason first - and while she fully backed Undyne up, doing such a thing wasn't really necessary. The small lizard's glasses were shining white, as if it was the first time she and the queen agreed on something, her claws shaking with some amount of rage. This was about to be ugly for her sister - and she sighed, knowing it all relied on her and the Queen of the Underground to set her sister back on track.
'Undyne, why did you have to get yourself through this?' the small lizard thought as a small frown formed on her face, eyes narrowed to the point of anger. She then nodded towards Toriel, as the Queen set herself aside for a moment.
SCRATCH! SCRATCH!
Two sets of red claw marks were now on Undyne's face, dripping with small amounts of blood, while Undyne looked in shock at her smaller sister, whose tears started to flow behind her glasses.
"ALPH-", Undyne managed to choke out, eyes still wide on Alphys, "WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!"
"You want a reason to that?" Alphys said, her face darkening, a sinister smile arising on her face. "I can't believe just how blind you can be."
"Alphy...why are you looking at me like that?"
Alphys summoned a small ball of electricity in her claw and threw it violently towards Undyne, kicking her in her ribs and a few paces back. Undyne gritted her teeth and narrowed her eyes, but she decided not to act on her internal rage. Toriel was watching with interest, while casting a few glances towards Asgore, whose healing was almost done.
"You're not thinking straight, you see..." Alphys said as her glasses shone white, while her claw was filled with electricity. "Shamir looks like he has opposed you for a good while. And you look like you were pretty beat up by him. What the hell happened here? Why did he have to be impaled like that?!"
"HE FORCED ME TO WAIT SOME MORE," Undyne bellowed as a spear formed in her hand and inadvertently threw nearly inches close to Alphys' position, while the latter gazed with huge eyes as her sister's attempt.
"I don't care. I backed you up because I really wanted to see you in the Guard. But no, you just have to screw things up your way!"
In that moment, Toriel talked to Asgore, as she hovered above the jaguar captain with worry - her husband said that the wound was soundly healed - yet, the jaguar was still in mortal peril. He was poisoned, and that was why he still had his eyes closed - however, Asgore was dilligent enough to ask Sans for an antidote. Toriel sighed in relief, knowing there was still hope for the Captain, because he represented a huge part of the authority over these lands, and losing him meant a terrible blow to the monsters' morale.
She then turned towards the two sisters that were bickering and stopped Alphys with a gentle paw over her shoulder.
"I will take it from here, Alphys. Please, do your best to assist King Asgore in taking Captain Shamir far away from here." Toriel said, with a stern expression on her snout.
"Of course, your Highness." Alphys said as she hurriedly went to Ribras, Rasha and Asgore.
"Shamir needs to recover," Asgore said with a pause, "but there's nothing I can do, if Sans won't be able to create an antidote for this poison we found in his blood."
"Sire, do not think like that!" Ribras said, "Sans the Royal Scientist will find a way out of this misery."
"Let us hope on that, Guard Ribras." the goat King replied, a heavy sigh leaving his breath. "Parvos will be acting as front escort, while Alphys here will watch our back."
"Of course, Sire!" the white leopard Parvos said as he quickly moved in position.
"Right." Alphys nodded as she stood behind Ribras, Rasha and Asgore.
"Let's get a move on. If he wakes up on the way, please, try to tone his anger down." Asgore carefully instructed his companions.
[Meanwhile, in Sans and Papyrus's home...]
"UNDYNE DID WHAT?!" Papyrus yelled louder than usual, completely taken aback by the news Sans brought to him.
"yup. she pinned shamir to the wall like he was a pusster." Sans replied grimly, even if he couldn't help dishing out a pun.
"A pusster? What's-" Papyrus stopped in the middle of his sentence as his expression turned to blatant anger.
"i-" Sans said sheepishly, sweat dropping off his skull, while shifting nervously from one foot to another.
"I FAIL TO UNDERSTAND HOW CAN YOU MAKE PUNS ABOUT SUCH A TRAGIC EVENT." Papyrus deadpanned.
"sorry, paps. you're right, i shouldn't be dishing out puns in the middle of-" Sans facepalmed. "and here i stand like an idiot wasting time. gotta go bro, sorry. and good luck with your tour - again."
"THANK YOU BROTHER! I PROMISE, YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED BY WHAT I'M GOING TO DO. " the tall, dashing skeleton said.
"ya might wanna avoid waterfall for a time. i have a bad feeling in my bones..." Sans said as he warped out to his lab.
Papyrus was wearing a different tuxedo than the black one - it was a blue one that had a small red heart as a pin-badge, and inside one of the pockets laid his trusty microphone. "IT'S SHOW TIME!" Papyrus said as he walked out the door, towards the small red car with blue stripes he drove throughout the Underground, aiming to please his fans wherever he went. With a happy grin on his face, he set the course for the Ruins, where small Froggits and Whimsuns enjoyed Papyrus' shows. But while the Ruins weren't exactly the best place to hold a magnificent show, he was a star, and what doesn't a star do to please his fans?
After a good fifty minutes drive, he was in front of the giant, purple Ruins door that was adorned with the Delta rune on it - and he pushed said door with force, while smiling towards the hidden camera in the bushes that his brother placed there, to watch out for any dangers.
[At the end of Ruins]
He didn't remember the Ruins being so dark, but his ever-going optimism made him look at life with a brilliant view, so it was typical of Papyrus to think something like, 'IT MIGHT BE JUST THE LACK OF LIGHT...' while he went down the narrow corridor which brought back good memories of his previous tours...but also of previous love.
["Hey, Papyrus. Isn't it cozy down here, love?" Patricia said, while she held the bony hand of her lover.
"YES, YES IT IS...W-WHEN I'M WITH YOU." Papyrus said, a furious tint of blue blush covering his skull.
"What would you do if I wasn't here?" Patricia asked coyly.
"I WOULD PROBABLY FREEZE." Papyrus stated, matter-of-factly.
"Papyrus, you're starting to rub off from Sans, you know that?" she said, a small laughter escaping her.
"I CAN'T REALLY ESCAPE MY BROTHER'S INFLUENCE..." Papyrus sighed, "BUT HE'S A GREAT BROTHER, NONETHELESS!"]
He reached the large, grey staircase that led to the old house of Toriel and Asgore, where Papyrus and Patricia used to spend a lot of time together, far away from monsters and trouble. He never knew why she was gone, or where was she, as he realised that these memories were returning in full force for a while.
Maybe one day, he would reach the Surface, find her.
There were so many things he wanted to say, but felt like he never had a chance to.
He sighed, and opened the door that led towards another large staircase, and made it outside the former Dreemurrs' residence as fast as he could, not wanting to remember anything right now. 'I have to focus, my fans are waiting for me!'
But Papyrus' fate was about to remain unknown...
[Sans' Lab, Snowdin]
Sans was squinting his eyes towards the computer screen, analyzing and re-analyzing the formula of the poison, struggling to isolate something that would give out the antidote. 'c'mon, this can't be happening! i have to! i have to press on, have to save my buddy...' he thought as sweat was bedding in large amount on his skull, and his bony fingers were typing as fast as they could every known formula, while stopping for a while to search through mountains of paper - the solution had to be there. He never let any challenge topple him, no matter how big or small that challenge was, something he shared with Alphys. They were best buddies for as long as he knew her, yet there was something different about the way he looked at her sometimes.
Even Papyrus would tease him about that.
["BROTHER, ADMIT IT. YOUR FEELINGS HAVE CHANGED." Papyrus noogied his brother.
"wha'? i don't- no. my feelings for alphys haven't changed in the slightest. she's the best buddy i've ever had. though...i find her kinda cute sometimes." Sans blushed a bit, a faint tint of blue on his bony cheeks.
"THERE, YOU SEE? YOU JUST CALLED HER CUTE. WHAT FRIEND CALLS ANOTHER FRIEND CUTE?" Papyrus grinned.
"stop it, paps." Sans said, trying to scare his brother with his deathly stare, but Papyrus wasn't buying it.
"IF YOU WERE HONEST ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS - LIKE I AM - YOU WOULD STOP LOOKING HER FROM AFAR AND YOU'D BE LOOKING IN HER EYES." the taller skeleton said, as he adopted his usual dashing position.
"ya mean...see more eye-to-eye?" Sans said, smirking.
"JUST WHEN I THOUGHT YOU WEREN'T GOING TO DROP A PUN, YOU DO." Papyrus deadpanned.]
'it was like, "admit you love alphys or i will make fun of you all of your life, sans"...' the scientist skeleton mused as a small grin formed on his face. 'my brother can be really annoying sometimes, but he helped me through a lot.' Sans paused for a moment in his line of thoughts, 'if i would be losing him - i would tell everyone to stop pitying my sanity anymore. i would not vouch for my actions.'
Perhaps he will confess his love to Alphys someday, but right now, his main task at hand was Shamir. And results were failling to show up, but he was determined to have them, one way - or another.
[Meanwhile, in Waterfall...]
Undyne and Toriel were sitting one against the other, as if making a contest of stares - the teen fish monster was looking at the goat monster in annoyance, while the Queen of the Underground's eyes were slitted with rage. It looked as if neither were yet ready to make a move, to start a battle, but Toriel knew she had to instill some discipline in this rabid child before her. She knew Shamir wasn't giving out everything that he had, for Undyne wouldn't be before her if that happened - but it was something the teen before did not realise as she impaled the jaguar.
Undyne, on the other hand/fin, was still displeased that she didn't manage to reach some sort of agreement with Shamir. But something else was also nagging at her - Alphys' words. She'd never seen her little sister so mad at her, it felt so unreal to see the small lizard at the edge of her fury. Maybe she knew Shamir? Or grew close enough to him to care? 'Nah, if it would've been that, she would've made a run for him,' the fish monster was thinking as she looked at the empty space where the four monsters were standing, watching over the wounded jaguar captain, 'maybe she got pissed I hurt one of her friends, that would make much more sense...' Undyne drew her conclusion as she summoned a spear.
Toriel's eyes squinted at the sight of the spear and began propping her hind legs deep in the ground, her front paws out in defense.
"Hmph. I don't understand why you'd want to scold me so badly. My sister already handled that pretty well." Undyne said as she toyed around with the blue spear.
"Your time for disciplination is far from being over." Toriel said as she placed her paws upwards, small flickers of fire forming in her palms.
"You sound really angry, Your Highness," the fish monster said as she summoned armor on herself, "and that is the sound of a challenge to me."
"I have nothing to add on the matter. Challenge or not, you'll be set straight right here, right now." the Queen of the Underground bellowed in a raged voice.
Toriel started shooting out fireballs towards Undyne, which the latter managed to avoid with some difficulty, while extinguishing a few with her spear - but she was forced to summon spear after spear as the contact with fire melted them away. She then summoned a larger spear, and jumped in mid-air as she aimed for Toriel's opening, yelling in rage as she saw her victory - but her spear melted and she got some burns as she was welcomed by Toriel's defensive fire shield. Undyne looked flabbergasted as she backed a few paces and started summoning two waves of sharp spears that aimed to pierce the goat monster, but the Queen wasn't going to make things simple for the fish monster, so she countered the waves with rapid fireballs, while summoning a bigger fireball she threw at Undyne.
The mermaid-fish saw the ball coming and, in fear, placed both of her hands/fins forward, in an attempt to summon a shield of water. A vague wall of water manifested itself before her, though its' only advantage was that it cooled down the ball a few degrees that it actually was, before it hit her and knocked her on the ground. She shook her head, her eyes glinting with fury and determination, and began summoning a huge spear that was aimed for Toriel.
"You are getting on my nerves, old lady! But I'm not just about to let you walk away with no injuries!" Undyne bellowed as she launched the spear.
Toriel wasn't flinching at this attack, knowing that the teen was - most assuredly - out of any new attacks to pull on her, and the goat pyrokinetic did nothing but counter the huge spear with an equally sized fireball.
"And I'm not going to spare you any breath," Toriel retorted as she summoned waves of rapid fire, that forced Undyne to jump away from their heat.
'She's fierce, no doubt about that. She keeps me at bay willingly, as if she's not a fan of close contact. Well - that is her weakness!' Undyne thought as she coated one of her new water spears with poison, and began rapidly advancing towards Toriel, using her agility to avoid the attacks headed her way. Toriel saw where this was headed, and decided to jump away from the insane charge, but the fish monster was having none of it as she began swinging at the goat monster with fury, cutting through her fur and poisoning her in the process.
"You're gonna have the same fate as he did." Undyne said as a sinister smile was plastered on her face, while Toriel stopped herself from fighting.
"Maybe. But I want to tell you something though, Undyne." Toriel said sternly.
"What. What could you possibly tell me-" Undyne bellowed in some anger, until Toriel raised a paw to silence her.
"Shamir wasn't giving out all of his strength in your battle against him. He didn't want to hurt you, but that won't stop me. Even if I'm going to be crippled by this poison, you should know that Shamir was actually very proud of your progress." the goat queen said as she tried to steady herself.
"Why should I believe you, huh? You're going to die." the fish monster looked at Toriel in puzzlement.
"That's why you should believe me. My husband and I went to great lengths to ensure that Shamir will be a powerful and just warrior to lead the Guard. I could sense some magical reserves inside his SOUL. He wasn't using his most powerful abilities against you." Toriel continued, as she held onto her right arm.
"He did use some badass swords on me...it still hurts." Undyne said as she could feel the hurt on her scales.
"He can handle those swords with efficiency if there's no careful blow to place. If he is planning to give out a blow with that ability - it is enough to turn someone to dust. But that planning comes with a cost, as his magic is partially gone - along with a part of his stamina." Toriel said as she began falling to her knees due to the effect of the poison.
"Are you serious? If he would've been striking in full force-" Undyne's mouth went agape.
"Yes." Toriel nodded as she felt her eyes slowly closing.
Undyne's eyes widened in shock, as she summoned away her next spear and plopped on the ground, starting to rub her forehead, while Toriel heard this before she collapsed.
"The poison can be cured by Sans' and Alphys' magic. If he can figure that out in due time to save you both..."
[Asgore's bedroom in New Home...]
The five monsters carefully placed Shamir on the king-sized bed, while their expressions were betraying worry and sadness. Each of them was hoping that Shamir will be saved, as everything was relying on Sans' genius. Alphys, however, wasn't going to stand there doing nothing, so she walked out of New Home with Asgore's permission. She took the long elevator that led towards the CORE, and from there, she focused her mind on teleporting. 'I have to reach Sans. Something has to be done!' she thought as suddenly, a whirr of electricity and light began enveloping the small lizard, until she disappeared completely.
Inside the bedroom, the four remaining monsters were sharing their thoughts, trying to find a ray of optimism in this sea of sadness all over them.
"He was really awesome back there, putting the brat in place." Ribras said as he sat on a red armchair Asgore used for reading.
"He's awesome at boxing too. If you'd see how he knocked me out." Parvos said, as he was supporting himself off a wall.
"There was never any hostility in his actions back there, Ribras, did you see?" Rasha said as she stood next to Shamir, on the other end of the bed.
"All I know is that I have a really bad feeling inside me." Asgore said as he left out a sad sigh, while the others looked at him in surprise.
"Don't worry, Sire. Not everything is lost...yet." Parvos said as he searched for a pipe he used to smoke from.
"Please, do not-" Asgore said as he shook his paws in desperation at Parvos' pipe.
"It's just for decoration. Shamir gifted it to me for my birthday...and I gave him a pipe too. His is a pure white."
"This is really good craftsmanship," Ribras said as he cast a glance at Parvos' pipe. "maybe we should ask for a Delta rune donning on our captain's pipe?"
"I'm afraid that is Toriel's specialty," Asgore said, but the moment he relinquished Toriel's name, a heartache went through his chest.
'Tori...I hope you're safe.'
[Sans and Papyrus' home]
It was the first time Alphys used teleportation.
And she landed just outside the skeleton brothers' house, thankfully, but was still a bit wobbly after this experience - Sans explained to her it would be quite bad first time - but she didn't yet go through teleportation's side effects, like nausea, constant disorientation, fear of light. In some ways, that was good as she wanted to halt those effects for as long as possible right now. Shamir was in a really bad situation and Sans couldn't do everything alone, but nobody knew that someone else was also in danger of dying from poisoning. Then again, Alphys was still mad at her sister for outright aiming to kill one of her friends...
She found Sans working on the formula, and he looked almost - desperate - but also kinda cute. 'Gah, Alphys, what the hell is wrong with you?' she mentally chastised herself, but she couldn't stop looking at the skeleton before her. They had so many things in common - well, perhaps apart from animes - and she was also very impressed with the amount of dedication he was giving out to his secret project, amongst other things he was doing to make sure the Underground was going well in matters of technology.
"Sans?"
"gah, alphys!" the small skeleton said as he fell off the chair in panic. "wh- what are you doing in here? you were-"
"Shamir's safe in New Home", Alphys paused, "well, as safe as he can be, right now."
"ah. i see. well...i've tried to figure out this damned formula, but nothing ever works." Sans said as he looked at the computer screen hopelessly.
"Let's see what two heads can do in this matter," Alphys said as she looked at the formula herself.
'she's so cute when she smiles so awkwardly like that...' Sans thought as he gave her a curious glance.
'He's so funny when he looks lost like a puppy.' Alphys was thinking as she was examining the numbers on the screen.
The two were so close to one another, the tension in the air so dense you could cut through it with a knife. It was almost as if they were and weren't aware of the gazes they gave each other - when Sans pretended not to look, Alphys did - and viceversa, until they began rambling about science and magic.
"Maybe it's about magic. She usually coats her spears with this poison, but it's used only when she's in full anger."
"but what kind of magic could be countering such a dangerous poison..."
"Sans? I-" Alphys looked at him, with a faint blush on her snout.
"what is it, alphys?" Sans looked at her, with a funny smile on his bony face.
"Nothing. Let's just carry-mmph!" she said as she was cut off by a kiss placed on her snout.
Her tongue resisted, at first, the temptatious lips(?) of the skeleton, but she decided there will be no going back after this moment. She steeled her courage and returned the kiss, a surge of determination in her veins. Sans's free hand was glowing with blue magic as he kissed Alphys fervently, and Alphys' free hand was glowing with yellow magic, but they were too busy to see that they actually discovered the cure for the poison.
Only love could cure hatred's venom...
[Ruins]
"HELLO? ANYBODY IN HERE?" Papyrus asked as he treaded through the darkened corridors of the Ruins, until he reached a cave with a green spot in the middle and a powerful light beaming down that particular green spot. He saw a yellow flower growing in there, and decided to be as friendly as he could while passing through the room.
"YES. THERE'S SOMEONE IN HERE. ME!" the flower answered as it turned its' almost robotic face towards Papyrus, speaking somewhat glitch-like.
"AND WHO MIGHT BE YOU?" Papyrus asked as he pulled out his microphone, like he was taking an interview.
"I'M FLOWEY. FLOWEY THE FABULOUS FLOWER. AND YOU ARE MY NEXT GLAMOROUS VICTIM!" the glitch-like flower said with a twisted grin.
"WH-WHY? I H-HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING!" Papyrus said as he felt his monster SOUL pulled out in battle.
"POOR SWEET PAPYRUS. DON'T WORRY, NOBODY IS GOING TO MISS YOU. RIGHT, BLOOKY?" the glitched flower said as a ghost appeared behind him.
"yes...it will be just as you said..." the ghost said as he let out a banshee-like screech that made Papyrus's bones rattle gravely.
"DUST WILL BE EVERYWHERE!" Flowey, the glitched flower said, a maniacal laughter echoing in the room.
[Wichita Police HQ, Surface.]
"This isn't going like we hoped."
"Yeah, but you see, there's nobody that saw that guy, apart from Roger."
"But he described him head to toe. And there's no way it could be him, he's shorter by an inch! And what if his footprints were there - no gun was found in the torpedo of that truck."
"What about the kid?"
"Kid doesn't know anything."
"Ugh...so you were right. Truth has to set him free."
