DISCLAIMER: Undertale does not belong to meeeeee.
Once Sans was finished speaking his piece, Asgore nodded in acknowledgement, and gestured to Alphys. "As the Royal Scientist, you have the greatest knowledge of our capabilities versus the humans' capabilities. Is it possible to defeat them without substantial casualties?"
The yellow lizard stood up, clutching a binder of notes in her claws, eventually remembering to set it down and open it up. "W-Well, most of our knowledge of humans comes from pre-Barrier times. There are some d-documentaries that have washed into Waterfall since then, but most of what has come here h-has been fictional. Entertainment is the l-largest interest of humanity, and that is reflected by what has fallen down here."
Alphys, settling into her element, pulled out a packet of papers and passed one to each of the table's occupants. It showed a graph, with large amounts of useless stuff compared to the little useful information. "Th-this is a generality of all items documented in the garbage dump as of last week. Books, furniture, jewelry, knick knacks, food, videos, and more. Most of the things are heavily damaged by water, even new things, indicating that Mount Ebott is close to the ocean in a tropical region. The heavy water damage points towards hurricanes and floods as being the cause of the humans' loss of stuff, although, it c-could also just be damaged because of being washed a long way to Waterfall."
Sans brought his sock-and-slippered feet up onto the table, leaning back in his chair. "how does this help us find out the humans' capabilities?" He had an idea, but this was dragging on a bit long for his tastes. He wanted to get straight to the point, a trait born in his scientific background, and fostered in his laziness.
As though the question reminded Alphys of something, she nodded, pulling out a large map of the Surface world. An area near the middle of the map was circled, close to the equator, where lots of hurricanes occurred.
"Th-this is around the area that I believe Mount Ebott is. If it were on the other side of this land mass, we would experience what the humans call earthquakes, so we aren't there. As I mentioned before, the water damage indicates previous exposure to water in large quantities, and it has bacteria that isn't really found here in the Underground. Thus we must be somewhere in this area, and that being the case, we can figure out the humans' capabilities in our area, and how to best combat them."
Undyne laughed, hefting the large sword that normally rested in her house. "If they have weapons like these still, we'll be able to fight them pretty easily! Alphys can create better weapons for us like nothing!"
Mettaton hummed thoughtfully, lifting a metallic finger before speaking. "Darlings, you're forgetting the weapon that the Yellow soul had. He didn't use it, but the projectiles for it were quite dangerous when inspected. Remember Alphys? And even though it was a primitive model compared to our own, it was created long ago, enough so that humanity has probably progressed to much greater weapons since then."
Sans went still at the implication of this... and brought his feet down. "if that's the case, us monsters are at a huge disadvantage. the bullets in the gun of justice were dangerous even when not in use, filled with an odd black powder that exploded when hit with a decent force. the only way to combat that danger would be for all of us to get human souls."
As the cloaked Riverperson leaned forward, their voice trilled out in warning... "Tra la la... One mistake would be a lethal one. The Angel needs to finish their journey for the safest outcome."
Sans glanced at the cloaked being, trying to see inside their hood. How did they know about the RESETS? Were they always aware? It would make sense, especially with their constantly cryptic remarks. But then, why hadn't they said anything beforehand?
Asgore sighed and looked around the table. "Unfortunately, that's not an option at this point. In order to declare war with the ability to win, we need to know humanity's current state. It would be safest to scout out humanity, bring back some of their latest technology, and analyze it before we leave the Underground en masse. The only hurdle remaining is finding out what the citizens want... Perhaps there should be an announcement made."
"welp, glad that's settled. i'm going to grillby's. you know where to find me." The shorter skeleton seemed about done with this meeting, and after walking out the door- the wrong door- went into a shortcut and vanished from sight.
He took a step, and landed in the entrance of the fire elemental's establishment. A quiet sigh escaped his teeth, and after pulling himself up onto the stool, he rested his arms on the counter and laid his head down. That was tiring... and what made it more tiring was the fact that the kid still hadn't returned. This had never happened, because the kid was always there, unable to be killed... Was there a limit to their power, and if so, did they just happen to hit that limit with Undyne? Were they watching from the void, trying something new?
...did they finally lose interest?
The soft thud of a bottle on the counter had the skeleton looking up, meeting the eyes of the concerned bar owner. A tired smile was shown as Sans took the bottle, which didn't fade as he drank the offered ketchup-whiskey blend. Some moments passed by as the fire elemental cleaned a glass, watching the skeleton until said skeleton spoke. "sorry grillbz, guess the meeting just has me bone-tired."
A low crackling had Sans' smile look more genuine, as he took another swig of his unique blend. "nah, i'm fine. i'm not so sure that the others will be. the humans are a big unknown at this point, and we don't even know where we are geographically compared to them. our first encounter with them could be the deciding factor on whether or not we win or lose... it's never happened like this before."
Grillby was the sole confidant of the short skeleton, due to their intermingled past. Back when monsters had first been locked underground, the fire elemental had been a general in the war, and the royal scientist at the time recruited him for his knowledge of humans. He'd worked alongside Gaster for a while, offering unique insights on their experiments with remains and the Barrier, and when Alphys came into the picture, he took more of a backseat role. However, when Gaster had taken his experiments too far, mutilating human remains with determination and magic, Grillby had quit the research and moved far away from Hotland. He'd opened a bar in Snowdin, and had stayed there since then, with one exception...
Years after he'd quit, he got a message from his old friend. In it, was a single picture of Gaster... and his two sons. They looked happy, and healthy... The fire elemental closed the bar temporarily and set off towards Hotland- a much more difficult task than it was now, due to the Riverperson not existing at the time. When he arrived at the Lab, he saw that much had been accomplished in that time- a gigantic machine sat in the lava, with chunks of ice floating by frequently, no doubt a coolant feature. A dull rectangular building marked the entrance to the machine, and possessed a bright neon sign on the far side declaring the machine to be 'the CORE'.
Entering, Grillby made his way to the new lab within the CORE, using the map on the back of the photo to guide him. Curiosity was settled upon arrival, where Gaster, his two sons, and Alphys were working. The eldest son was named 'Sans Serif', and spoke in a unique font in the same way his father did. (Gaster had explained a long time ago that the way skeletons spoke and wrote was called a 'font'. Apparently that extended to artificially created skeletons.) However, the younger skeleton was too young to have a font yet, being a babybones.
The scientist and his former colleague had a pleasant reunion, with pictures taken and everything, but all good things must come to an end...
Gaster had invited Grillby to see the beginning of the CORE, and hear of its intended purpose... a mass teleportation system, based upon his son's unique magic. It was not merely a teleportation system through space, but time as well. If they could go back before the war, they could prevent it from happening, and they wouldn't be sealed underground. The primary tests had gone flawlessly, sending jars of flowers to the past and retrieving them successfully, but now was the time for a live test.
It went unexpectedly, entirely, horribly wrong.
The first part, sending the scientist to the past, worked perfectly. But during the return process, the machine began to overheat. It shorted out halfway and began to malfunction, sending the room's occupants into a frenzy as they tried to stabilize it, to no avail.
The short skeleton, barely a teen monster at that time, was the most frantic. He saw the impending explosion approaching and banished Alphys out of the room, sending her to 'get help', but really pushing her to safety. Grillby didn't know the machine as well as the short skeleton, and knew that if there was any chance of the process being halted, it was up to him. So upon request, he took Papyrus away to safety, locking the child into a room on the other side of the CORE before returning.
A blinding flash of light met his eyes as he returned. Sans was holding out his hands in front of himself, struggling to contain the explosion in process, but shaking and sweating. He couldn't do it alone, and Grillby knew this. As the cyan magic containment failed, the fire elemental rushed forward and attempted to shield the child's body from the explosion, while emitting an oddly shaped magical barrier to deflect the energy around them...
They saved the CORE from exploding entirely, and salvaged its main usage as a power supply... but Grillby's oldest friend, Sans and Papyrus' father, was erased from existence. Due to the blast exposure, Grillby and Sans still remembered him, and while Papyrus had only a vague sense something was wrong, the rest of the Underground was ignorant entirely. It was from there that the fire elemental took the two skeleton children and brought them to his home in Snowdin, taking care of them the best he could.
To this day, the bond forged between Sans and Grillby remained strong, and the short skeleton would often take his troubles to the fire elemental for advice. It wasn't often he came there to drink, but when he did, it was because he had something heavy on his mind.
Tonight was no such exception.
"grillby... we're going to the surface again. but this time, without the kid, we're taking souls and waging war..."