King: And we're back here again as I put in some work. I do apologize that these take so long, but that's just where I am at this point. Let's just go and get into it. Sound good?

/\

The trip to Hotland was quick. The trip in Hotland, however…

"Uhg…" Undyne's walking had long since become sluggish. She had to go point to point in Hotland for inspections. And because it was an official duty as Captain, she had to do so in her armor. Her very shiny, very hot armor.

Jaune, meanwhile, had more appropriate attire of a short-sleeve blue t-shirt with his jeans. He wasn't a guard, so he could get away with it. As the trainee passed Undyne another bottle of prepared water, he couldn't help but look back to the post they'd left.

It was a small guard station with two large guards in dark armor. How they weren't sweating was beyond either of them. They, like the other guards, had been confused by Jaune's presence before reasoning that Undyne must have just captured him and he knew better than to try to escape. Jaune sighed and turned back to Undyne in front of him and saw her sway a bit. He handed her another bottle of water and watched her down the thing as soon as she got it. "How many more stops do we need to make?"

Undyne went over her list in her head for a moment. After a moment she nodded once. "One last stop. We have to check in at the Royal Lab."

Jaune remembered something at the mention of that, "Didn't you say your friend was the Royal Scientist? Is that where she works? Or is this like a personal scientist under the King, kind of thing?"

Undyne let out a bit of a dry, both figurative and literal, chuckle. "Nah. She works at the Lab. I think she's the only one still there, but she also gets free room and board."

"Well, that's pretty good at least."

"Yeah. Given her style, it means she'll spend a lot of her free time watching anime and going online for stuff."

"Anime?" Jaune asked, having never heard the word before. "What's that? Some kind of cartoon?"

Undyne had to stop, causing her young charge behind her to bump into her. "You've never heard of anime?"

"No. I don't think so."

Undyne blinked for a moment before turning and continuing walking. "Alright, I'm gonna give you the rundown. If I don't, Alphys'll trip over herself trying to introduce you to all her favorites."

They spent the rest of the walk having Undyne explain anime. From magical battles, to giant mechanical robots, to some more subdued but ridiculous slice-of-life titles. One in particular got them laughing.

"You're serious?" Jaune got out through some laughs.

"Totally." Undyne couldn't help but chuckle, herself, with his reaction. "Their principal straight up fights a deer. The whole show is basically a fever dream most of the time." As she glanced back to the main trail, she shook her head a bit to push down the laughter. "Alright. We're here."

The building was large and looked more like a big white cube sitting in the middle of the volcanic region. It definitely looked like the kind of thing he'd think about when you said 'Labs.' But he got most of those design ideas out of comic books, so he usually wasn't the best judge of these things. First time for everything. As they approached, the door automatically opened for them, allowing them to see the dark room within.

Jaune couldn't help but point out, "That seems like a kind of dangerous design, don't you think?"

Undyne just shrugged, "Maybe, but if they tried to steal something or whatever they won't find anything useful in there. At least not without actual security locks."

As they entered, the low light made it hard to see but the open plan meant they weren't running into anything. Jaune's eyes tried to adjust, but there was just enough light to end up making that more difficult. "Is it always like this?"

"Sometimes." Undyne felt around the wall and clicked on a light, illuminating the room in a low light. It was enough to see where you were walking, but not enough to say the lights were 'on'. She looked around to confirm her surroundings. "Alphys is the type to work through nights until the lights automatically shut off, but not too often."

They walked through the area, beside a massive monitor that was showing a camera feed focused on Jaune and Undyne. However, the system seemed to lean toward keeping an eye on the human in particular. Jaune noticed this and felt more than a little concerned. He knew now that he was being watched, but that didn't make that feeling of that particular unease go away. It was as if he was being observed by a still unseen figure.

Undyne made her way to a door on the other side of the room and pressed an intercom button. "Hey Alphys! It's Undyne! Today's check in day!" After that, she backed away and leaned on the wall on the other side. "Now we wait."

As Jaune moved to join her by the wall, he asked, "Does she do this a lot?"

Undyne just shrugged. "Whatever she gets up to in there takes her forever to wrap up and come back out. Probably some experiment or something she needed to work on."

After a brief pause, there was the distinct sound of a hydraulic system opening an automatic door. They both turned to see the yellow lizard-like monster enter through the door. She was dressed in her lab coat and a pair of green sweatpants they could see peek out from the longer coat as she walked. She was barefoot and seemed to sway slightly. She looked tired, particularly mentally. That physical tiredness still manifested as she yawned, "Hey Undyne. Sorry, I lost track of time and I…" it was at this moment she noticed Jaune was also there. She immediately jumped backwards in shock, "The human! Oh gosh! I'm not prepared for this!" She was spiraling, freaking out at the sudden appearance of the human.

Undyne stepped up and between the two, "Calm down, Alphys. There's no reason to freak out."

"Too late!" Alphys was already scrambling around, picking up various papers and loose trash items they hadn't noticed with the low light. "I haven't cleaned up! I don't even have any shoes on! Come on, Alphys!" She smacked her fist against her head as she seemed to move faster in her ramblings.

"You're… taking this a bit bit differently than I expected." Undyne was used to being surprised at this point, but she wasn't sure why Alphys wasn't afraid of the human. Unless… "You've got cameras around the Underground." Undyne sighed as she remembered that fact about the Royal Lab.

"I wasn't spying, I swear!" Alphys tossed some of the garbage away before turning to the two in order to make her case. "It's a security measure. And when I heard a human had appeared in the Underground, I wanted to make sure everything was okay. That's all!"

"It's fine." Undyne walked over and gave her old friend a pat on the back. The difference in strength caused the reptilian to stumble. "It's part of the job. As long as they aren't in people's houses."

"Of course they aren't!"

"Then there's no problem, is there?" Undyne took the bag Jaune was carrying and pulled out the clipboard. "Time for the usual checks."

As they went on, Jaune kept to the side. It shouldn't take too long, but he didn't have anything to add. Then, he heard a knock at the door. That's weird. I thought they were automatic. He approached to see if there was anything weird going on, only for the door to suddenly open and Jaune was knocked back by what felt like a truck. Then he felt a hand grab his leg and drag him out the door before it shut.

\/

"Alright. That's everything." Undyne signed her report and placed the clipboard away.

"Yeah." Then, Alphys threw in a curveball. "So… Undyne… I have a question."

"Hmm? Sure, what's up?"

"Are you and the human seeing each other? Like, romantically?"

This caused Undyne to sputter, "Where the hell is that coming from?"

"Well, I mean, he's carrying your stuff, you're letting him stay in your house…"

"Because I'm training him!" She quickly cut off that thought process. "I can't have him slacking off when I'm not looking."

Alphys narrowed her eyes, almost as if she didn't believe the Guard Captain.

"What's with the look?" Then Undyne seemed to hit a realization before her own eyes narrowed in retaliation. "You've been watching too much anime."

"But it all lines up!" Alphys seemed to burst from her suspicion and into her usual self. "It's just like in Millennium Girl with Shoji and Anna!"

"Alphys, you told me yourself that anime is fake. Just entertainment." Undyne was, admittedly, embarrassed at her attitude upon finding out and, in retrospect, it should have been obvious it was fake. Humans couldn't make airships or use magic.

"But art can imitate life, and vice versa!"

Undyne just sighed and turned, about to call Jaune over and settle this. Only to him gone. "Where'd he go?"

"Where indeed?!" A theatrical voice called over the loudspeakers in the Lab. "Viewers all over the Underground have been clamoring to know where this human is and why he's still on the loose!"

Alphys cringed to herself, remembering something important. "Oh no."

"Oh yes~" The voice resonated through the open plan of the lab. "This is the big break I was hoping to find, practically falling onto my lap! At last, I'll be able to bring my performance to the Surface as well as the Underground! My finale performance in the Underground is upon us! And now, Beauties and Gentle-beauties! It's show time!"

\/

Jaune landed with a hard thump. He groaned as he stood again and looked back at where he'd been to find the ground between himself and the lab was broken apart with no clear way across. What looked like a massive vent was on the other side expelling large amongst of volcanic exhaust.

Dusting himself off, he grabbed his Scroll from his pocket, thankful they were designed to be as tough as they are. He was about to call Undyne, having been given the number the day before. However, he noticed an Underground-wide notification on his Scroll's events timeline. Curious, he checked what was going on.

It was a news feed for MTTV news. On the screen was a box with several light panels in yellow with red panels making a letter M."Good evening, Beauties and Gentle-beauties!" Its voice was dramatic and expressive, perfect for a performer. "This is Mettaton from MTTV News! We have breaking news in the Underground! For the first time in quite a while, a human was seen in the vicinity of Hotland!"

Jaune sighed as he looked at the screen, "Well, that's not good."

"I'm certain this is quite the impacting news, but there's no need to worry. Yours truly is on the case to hunt down the human and take their soul! The duty would normally fall onto the Gaurd Captain Undyne, but given the area it would be best to ensure her own safety by taking this endeavor on myself."

Jaune could tell this was mostly an ego boost for the robotic figure, but also wasn't wrong. He decided he'd seen enough and closed the stream to open a call to Undyne.

After a moment, she answered, "Hey! Where are you?"

"I'm on the other side of a chasm. I'm not sure how I got over here, but I remember getting hit before I got sent here. It all happened so fast."

"Other side of a…" There was a moment of pause where he heard something in the background. "Crap. You must've been tossed on one of the vents."

"Wait, they have enough force to do that?! Why?! How?!"

"Take it up with the magma. Now focus! There's a robot after you called Mettaton. He's a performer down here, but he was apparently built to hunt humans." He could practically feel the side-eye she was giving Alphys (assuming she was still in the Lab). "Okay. According to Alphys' map, there's a system of vents you can use to get back here. Go down the path and turn left."

"Got it."

"Are you certain it'll be that easy?" The voice of the killer robot caught everyone who heard it off guard. The box-like robot slammed down onto the ground in front of Jaune. "My apologies for interrupting your conversation, but a star rarely stays on the sidelines for very long." The robot swung around as his arms flew out as if to say ta-da!

Jaune hadn't known what to expect, but a box with arms and one wheel wouldn't have been on a list if he had. However, he knew better than to underestimate an opponent. Undyne drilled that one in pretty early. He pulled up his shield and got into a ready stance.

"Oh! Looks like you're ready for a fight. Then let's give the viewers a wonderful trailer! An appetizer for our real show!" Mettaton lowered down from his wheel before shooting forward like a missile.

Jaune hadn't expected that either, but Undyne's training was helpful. Before, he'd have tried to block head on. Now, he knew to angle the shield and mitigated the damage by sending the robot to the side. The force leftover was still enough to make his reel back, but he kept on his feet.

"Impressive." Mettaton landed easily before his wheel redeployed. "Hardly a graceful parry, but to hold your own despite your weakness is admirable. But what will you do against this?!" He swung his hands to either side as missiles of mini-Mettatons flew toward Jaune.

The young knight was instantly on the move to avoid the incoming drones. They, of course, followed him. And it was that fact that gave him an idea. He moved in a wide arch to keep them on his tail before swinging around to his target. He ran toward Mettaton with purpose before jumping around the robot. He allowed himself to look back if his plan worked, only for the drones to fly around the bot, clearly avoiding him. "Oh come on!"

"A valiant effort. And not the worst idea. But things won't be that simple. It wouldn't make for good television!"

Television? Jaune ducked past a drone and something caught his eye. Another drone above them with a camera, likely broadcasting the action.

Mettaton saw this and looked to the camera, "So you finally noticed. In that case, we'll stop here for now." He snapped his fingers and the drones flew away from Jaune and back to the robot. "After all, We're only in the first act of our performance!" The wheel retracted and a flame started to let Mettaton fly. "But don't worry, darling. You'll finally have a chance to be a star! Then, of course, you'll have to burn like one. Ciao!" And thus, the robot rocketed away and left Jaune coughing as he dealt with smoke and dust.

As Jaune's coughing fit finally ended, he couldn't help but look off to where the robot had flown away to. He was just left stunned and confused. What was he supposed to make of that?

Then, he heard his scroll going off. He looked around, finding it having fallen nearby. He picked up and answered, "Hello?"

"Finally!" It was Undyne. "Listen, that robot pulled something with the doors and they won't open. Alphys is working on it, but the security doors dropped and I can't just bust it down. Just, stay put and…"

"Yeah, no." Then there was Mettaton's voice invading the call. "Listen, human. I have a show to put on and if you don't move along, that won't happen. Either you get a move on, or I come back to take your soul now. And I promise you, it won't end well for anyone."

"I'd listen to him for now." Alphys called out from the lab over Undyne's line. "Mettaton was able to get into my security system. We can't be too careful right now. Just play along and I'll help you from here if you need me while I try to free up Undyne."

"Okay. Sounds like a plan." Not like he had a better one. "He's probably going to keep broadcasting, so keep an eye on that."

"Got it." Undyne grumbled, not happy about it, but not able to do anything about it. She paused for a moment before speaking up again, "I'm not done training you yet, punk. So don't you dare die on me. Got it?"

Jaune paused for a moment, but ultimately smiled. "Promise. And an Arc never goes back on his word."

"Better not. Good luck, punk." The call ended there before anything else could be said.

Jaune put his scroll away and looked back toward the horizon where Mettaton flew off. "Guess I'm going that way." He got to stepping and started his next step of the journey.