(Wow, this one is long. Longest chapter yet, hope you enjoy it!)
Grillby sat in his office, head in his hands. This was the last thing he wanted to do, but Muffet made a clear violation of their pact. He felt a tug on his sleeve, peeking out of his hands he saw Frisk. Grillby sighed. "Hiya Frisk. What's up?"
They signed, "Is this a good idea?"
"I have to do it. Muffet tried to shoot Undyne and Papyrus, we have to retaliate." He pushed himself up and made his way to his closet. Frisk was jogging to keep up with his long strides, but he didn't turn to look at them. "We have to end this." He opened the closet and took out his pinstriped suit. "This thing has been through too much." He threw it on, grabbed his hat, and went out to meet with his crew. Frisk stayed in the office.
"Boss!" Doggo said, falling out of his chair, the dogs had been playing poker again. The others quickly stood up and at attention.
"At ease guys. Let's get ready." Grillby crossed the room and sat at the head of the table. On his left sat Undyne, Sans was at his right. Frisk usually sat at Undyne's side, and Papyrus was sulking next to Sans. The dogs were scattered across the table, and at the end both guards sat next to each other. "Alright. Ammo?"
"Dad's gathering all the ammo around the apartment as we speak. As for ammo here, we still have those crates we smuggled," Sans said, polishing his personal handgun.
"Right, those should definitely last us awhile." Grillby turned to Undyne. "And how are we on actual fire power?"
Undyne straightened up, "We all got our specialties, plus a couple extra pistols tucked away."
"Good, oh and Frisk is not coming so if any of you see them trying to sneak out just lock em in my office."
"Yes sir!" All but Papyrus answered.
Grillby turned towards the skeleton, "Papyrus, I know you're still a little shaken about what happened yesterday, but we need you to focus. You're our best sniper, we need you to be up in your post looking around making sure nothing sneaks up on us. You got that?" Papyrus raised one hand and gave a thumbs up. Grillby whispered to the other skeleton, "Sans keep an eye on your brother, we don't want him getting shot today."
"Got it, boss," Sans answered back, patting his brother on the back.
"We leave at noon, so we got five hours. Get your shit, and get ready to haul ass." With that Grillby stood up and went to the shooting range to make sure he wouldn't miss later on.
Mettaton slammed the door to his apartment, then leaned against it. "We're in some shit now," he said to no one in particular. Napstablook was already at the bar, helping Muffet clean up, and Tok… where was Tok? Mettaton looked around the living room and kitchen. If Tok wasn't already at the bar, she would have been making breakfast or cleaning up. "Tok? Where are you?" Mettaton called out. He continued his search, trying to find the missing robot. "Okay this isn't funny!" Walking into their shared room, Met noticed that Tok's charging station was still plugged in. "She always unplugs it in the morning. Which means she didn't unplug it when she got back from last night. Which means… she didn't get back!" Mettaton shrieked and quickly ran out the apartment to tell Muffet.
Muffet sat at the bar, two hands washing it down and another holding a glass of water, when Mettaton burst through the door screaming bloody murder.
"Muffet! Muffet! Tok's gone! She wasn't at the apartment and I don't know where she went! She could be in big trouble!"
Muffet sprang from her seat, Blooky was fazing through the bar to see what was wrong with his cousin, and she quickly tried to calm Mettaton. "Met? Met! Calm down!" The robot started to take deep breaths, Muffet helped him sit down. "What's wrong? Tok's…missing?"
Mettaton was fanning himself and nodded, "She wasn't there when I got back this morning. She left last night, to take a walk like she usually does. She thinks she can hide those from me, really ridiculous, but anyway she isn't back yet and I'm scared for her."
"Tok can handle herself, she'll be fine." Muffet had taken a seat next to Met. She was going to continue when one of her spider spies interrupted the conversation.
"Ms. Muffet? Message. Do you accept?" It spoke in a high-pitched voice, and very quickly. Muffet nodded. "Grillby was reported sending his men to retrieve their weapons and ammunition crates from the docks. Speculation: Grillby is starting war. That is all." It went away back into the ceiling.
"Grillby, is ending the cease-fire? Why?" Muffet thought to herself. Then it clicked, "Last night… Undyne must've told him, that slippery cod."
"What are we gonna do boss?" Blooky asked, Mettaton was still calming down and this news didn't help.
Muffet looked out the window, to the stage, then to Blooky and answered, "We're going to fight. Go get Alphys. Mettaton, try to track Tok down. If we can't find her, we fight without her. Understand?" They both nodded. Blooky quickly floated out the door and Mettaton went to the dressing room where he could get a better signal. Muffet turned to the ceiling. "Spiders? Gear up, get every bullet you can find, make lots of web. We're gonna need a lot if we're gonna trap these sons of bitches." A wave of squeaks sounded above her, then another wave of scuttling. Muffet went to her office to grab her specialized guns.
Grillby and his gang were making their way down the street thirty minutes after noon. Any monster out was either hiding in alleyways or trying to hide behind lampposts, while others watched from their windows. They were mostly ignored, the Dog Guard kept getting off track with pets, but Grillby had only one goal in mind. Grillby stood stiff making his way down to Muffet's cafe; a gun passed between his hands, the only proof of nervousness. Another gun sat on his hip, each was freshly topped with bullets and more bullets rested in several pouches in his jacket. The Dog Guards walked between him and Undyne, each knowing the seriousness of what was about to happen, yet they still found themselves distracted every block or so. Undyne stood straight, not stiff like her boss, but with a sort of assurance that they were going to win. The skele-bros were currently getting into position on separate roof tops that had perfect view of The Spider's Web, incase there was any sign of an ambush. When Muffet is involved, you can never be safe from her millions of tiny soldiers all building webs designed to trap their enemies. As they continued their march through the city, Grillby caught sight of a monster child. Frisk flashed briefly through his mind, but he dismissed it quickly. They were safely locked away, safe from this turf war.
"You okay, boss?" Great Dog asked, her bat was being held over her shoulder, Grillby could tell it was freshly washed as it glinted in the overhead sunlight.
"Never better, GD. Before fight jitters, that's all." Grillby's grip tightened on his gun.
"If you say so, boss." GD went back to casually looking around the street. Her ears were perked up, as were the other's, listening for any sign of attack.
Grillby suddenly stopped, the others almost ramming into him. Undyne went around the dogs and stood next to him, about to ask him why he stopped when she saw it; Muffet stood onto a lamppost, Mettaton on the other, and giant web in-between the two.
Muffet was getting last minute preparations ready incase they were pushed back to the café, when Mettaton waltzed out from his dressing room. Arms already in gun mode, his freshly pressed tan coat, and Tok's hat hanging over his eye. Muffet wore her tailor-fitted gray and black pinstripe suit and spider web-design pencil skirt. A hat fit snuggly on her head, pushed back.
"Are we ready?" Mettaton asked, going behind the bar to get one last drink.
"Yes, we are. Everything is prepared if they push us back here, if I'm right we should meet them at the intersection between Toby Avenue and Fox Street." Muffet grabbed her own drink and finished it off. "Let's pray we win this."
Mettaton snorted, "Pray to who?"
"Whoever's listening. Let's go."
On the way, Muffet found Blooky, he said Alphys wasn't at her office but he managed to grab a few pouches of ammo. "Everyone's missing aren't they?" She almost shouted, Blooky shrunk in fear, but Muffet calmed down. "Go back to the café, there's still a few kinks to be worked out in the plan. Help the spiders." He nodded and evaporated. Soon they were at the intersection, Grillby not in sight, the spiders were half done with the web. Reinforced, close-winded web. Bullets couldn't get through and still as sticky as any web. It made decent cover, but was no protection from roof attacks. Mettaton quickly placed a few fog grenades in case more cover was needed and Muffet helped with the web. Once finished, Muffet decided to sit on top of one of the lampposts, for mostly lookout purposes. Mettaton soon joined her on the opposite post. It wasn't long before Grillby arrived.
Grillby quickly shook off his surprise and leaned towards Undyne, "Radio those boneheads and tell them to get their asses down here." Undyne saluted and pulled out her radio. Grillby approached the spider and robot, with his gun hand pointed towards the sky. "Hello, Muffet. Mettaton." He didn't get so much a nod as response. "Have we come to this, really? Where a simple hello can't get an answer?"
"Quit stalling, Ciro. We know why you're here. So are you gonna shoot us, or should I make the first move?" Muffet held two guns and loaded another.
"You always did, Anthea." Grillby leveled his gun at her head for a moment, the dropped it. He walked away without turning his back.
Undyne and Mettaton asked the same question: "Why did he/she just call you Anthea/Ciro?"
Muffet and Grillby answered the same way: "It's my first name."
Without warning, a round of bullets came from one of the buildings. Muffet and Mettaton quickly took their cover. Muffet looked over to Mettaton and nodded. Mettaton began firing towards the buildings tops, while Muffet scaled up the one where the bullets had come from and started firing at Grillby. Grillby and co. took cover behind buildings and began shooting as well.
Undyne fired harpoons as well as bullets, trying to find a way to break their little web-blockade. They either bounced off, not leaving so much as a bigger hole, or getting stuck. She eventually ran out of harpoons and focused solely on Muffet and Mettaton. Muffet kept swinging between the fire escapes on the buildings only stopping to take precise aim, but it wasn't ever for long. Mettaton always stayed behind the damn barrier, firing up at the rooftops.
The Dogs had taken to running between alleys, shooting when they could and reloading the second they were covered. Although GD and LD didn't have guns, they used their bats to the best ability. Using them to knock bricks out of the buildings so GD could throw them in hopes of hitting Muffet. The Guards, since they had special riot gear, had taken to standing in the middle of street, trying to track Muffet and shoot her.
And Grillby, who ran from alleyway to trashcan and back to alleyway, was just trying to get close enough to the barrier to try and get around it. The occasional bullet would come for him, but Muffet seemed more determined to shoot Undyne than anyone else. Grillby took no extra time trying to get to the barrier. When he finally reached it, he started hacking at it with his knife. Mettaton tried to scare him off by firing at the web, but none of the bullets went through. He would sometimes turn his head to try and see where Muffet was, but it wasn't until he heard a crash when he fully turned around. All the firing stopped, even from Sans and Papyrus. There, on the sidewalk curled up, was Anthea Muffet. And her top left arm was wriggling next to her. Grillby started making his way towards her when an ear-splitting scream rang out. The scream had come from Mettaton, who had leaped clear over the barrier and rushed towards Muffet. She was losing blood fast when Mettaton picked her up, and no one tried to stop him because he was pointing a gun at Undyne and none of the Guards were close enough to stop him from shooting. Mettaton fired her Tommy gun arm, making everyone duck down, and ran inside one of the boarded up buildings to try and get Muffet to safety. Grillby stood, stared at the building, then looked towards Undyne. She shook her head and pointed up. Sans stood with one foot on the building's ledge, with a rifle on his shoulder and looking through a scope.
"Muffet don't you dare! Don't you dare die now!" Mettaton knelt over his boss, who was now propped up on a wall.
"Shut up!" Muffet screamed. Mettaton backed away, fear evident in his eyes. Muffet shook her head. "I'm sorry, just don't yell at me again." Mettaton nodded. "Now listen, I'll be fine. Once the bleeding stops I'll be able to grow it back, but it's going to take a while."
Mettaton nodded in comprehension and went back towards Muffet so he could bind the wound. "At least you weren't left-handed." Mettaton tried to joke.
Muffet cracked a small smile, then grimaced. "Can't believe I didn't see that son of a bitch aiming at me, must've taken him several minutes at least."
"I'm sorry I didn't see him sooner, I was trying to get Grillby away from the web before he broke it."
Muffet smiled again, "The only thing that can break the web is a grenade explosion." She tried looking out through one of the boarded up windows. "What's to stop them from busting in here? This just might be the end of me, Met."
"Don't say that! You still got five arms, fully capable of shooting, and you got me. And you know what I got?"
"Gun arms?"
Mettaton held up his phone, "Connections." He started making calls. Muffet slowly stood up and peeked out through the window facing the street, Grillby's gang was hacking at the web while Grillby himself stood back a few feet staring up at the top of the building.
A sharp knock sounded about ten minutes later at the back door of the building. Muffet was sitting again, her head shot up when the knock came, but Mettaton held out her hand and waited. A series of knocks came this time; nine knocks the suspiciously sounded like the beginning of Mettaton's song.
"Met… who is that?" Muffet got up, her arm was still bound but the bleeding had stopped a while ago.
"My connections." Mettaton opened the door. There stood BurgerPants and NiceCream. Behind them stood two girls Muffet had never seen before, a gator and a cat who looked near ready to faint.
"Hiya Mr. Mettaton!" NC said and walked in holding a shopping bag. He pulled a sandwich out of the back and handed it to Muffet. "Made some food for y'all. Hope you like it Ms. Muffet."
Muffet took a bite into the sandwich and smiled, spider jam. "It's wonderful NC, thank you." His smile grew and he pulled some rope out of the bag and began tying knots.
BurgerPants let the gator and cat go through before him, they immediately went straight for Mettaton, and began jumping around him. BP waved solemnly at Muffet and went towards NC to help with the knots. Muffet looked back towards Met who was trying to calm the girls down. "Bratty, Catty, calm down please. We're trying to hide."
They stopped jumping the cat, most likely Catty, asked, "Hiding from who? There was no one out on the street."
"What?!" Muffet jumped up and looked out the window. It was true, Grillby and his gang were gone. But the web was still intact.
"Well," Bratty said, stepping in front of Catty, "there were some monsters down a block or so gathered around a dog. They were trying to get a stick or something from it."
Muffet looked at Mettaton, together they said, "Annoying Dog."
"Who's that?" Bratty and Catty said.
"Annoying Dog is a thief who works for the Temmies. He looks like a normal dog, but that's how he does it. Acts all cute, then once your back is turned, BAM!, all your stuff is gone." Muffet explained, walking towards the girls and held out two hands. "My name's Muffet by the way, pleasure to meet you girls."
They shook her hands with lots of vigor. "The pleasure is all ours, Ms. Muffet!" They said.
"We have, like, always-" Bratty started.
"Totally wanted to meet you in person!" Catty finished.
"That's nice. Mettaton, a moment please?" Muffet grabbed Mettaton's hand and dragged him near the window. "Met, exactly how are these girls gonna help us? And why are NC and BP tying all that rope?"
Mettaton smiled, "Well Bratty and Catty are going to be our distraction. Now don't worry," he said when Muffet was about to interject, "they're not gonna get hurt. Grillby wouldn't shoot to passerby's, right?" Muffet nodded in agreement. Met went on, "And the rope is for, in a way, tripping them up."
No sooner had Mettaton finished explaining did NC pipe up, "All finished Sir!"
Mettaton clasped his hands together, "Wonderful dear, now go tie it up exactly like I told you. Bratty, Catty, dearies?" They were at his side in a second. "Go and distract Grillby and his crew like I told you. Don't directly talk to them, but talk loud enough to make them listen."
"Yes Sir!" they yelled and all four went out the front door.
"Now we wait, how about we mend that web up a bit?" Mettaton offered his elbow, Muffet it took it with a smile. Together they walked out, ready for round two.
Grillby grumbled to himself as the crew walked back to the web. They had just spent at least half an hour trying to get Papyrus' bone attack back from some weird dog. They didn't get it back. And that damn web hadn't so much as gotten one cut while they were working on it. Today wasn't going as planned, but Grillby decided he was not going to stop him from completing his goal. He was going to send Undyne and some of the Guards into the building Mettaton and Muffet had stowed away. To his dismay, when they got back, Muffet was back on her perch of the lamppost. The only sign that she had been hurt was the bandaged stump on her left shoulder. Mettaton was behind the web, smirking with his hands behind his back. He was holding something, it probably wasn't a gun. Holding his hand up, Grillby stopped his crew, taking in if anything had changed about their surroundings. Nothing he could see, but he didn't trust it. Suddenly, he heard two voices coming from his left. Turning quickly and aiming his gun, he took a look at the intruders. It was two girls, a cat and an alligator. They had yet to notice him or his gang and they were talking really loudly about something.
"Then I was like, 'OMG Becky, why did you un-friend me?', and she was like, 'Because you're, like, a total freaking basket-head!'" the Cat said, they walked by and the gator added on.
"That is, like, so totally un-cool. Really Catty, you, like, need better friends."
"You are so right Bratty. I'll start looking later."
The gator playfully pushed the cat, "OMG Catty, I was, like, totally talking about me!"
"OMG Bratty! You're already my best friend!"
They continued on and Grillby shook his head to try and clear the confusion. They continued down the street, giving no signs they had even noticed him. "Uh Boss?" GD asked tapping him on the shoulder.
"Yes?" He looked back towards Muffet and saw Mettaton holding up a button. "Oh Stars. Everyone down!" Grillby dropped to the floor, followed by his gang. A sound echoed through the street, but it wasn't the sound of an explosion. It was the sound of gas releasing. He opened his eyes to find the entire street, from them to the web was completely covered in some kind of smoke. "What the hell! What kind of game are you playing Anthea!" She only waved one hand in response, a sort of 'come and get me' movement. Before thinking, Grillby stepped into the smoke. Looking down he noticed, it didn't hurt and it didn't smell. It was harmless. He motioned for everyone else to go ahead. Slowly they stepped through the smoke, moving their feet around for any sign of ropes or other traps. They made it about halfway when Muffet fired her gun into the air. The sound of the shot froze them all, and they didn't notice the rope falling onto them. Grillby was about to push it off when it froze to the ground. He tried melting the ice, but his fire did nothing.
"Special ice sir!" a voice called above them. Grillby looked up and saw the bunny guy from Muffet's café. His hand was frozen solid, but it didn't seem to bother him. "Doesn't melt by conditional means!" He was pulled away just as he finished his sentence.
"How do you think Nice Cream bars stay cold for so long?" Muffet said from her perch. She smirked down at Grillby and jumped down. She circled around the tied up gang, barely touching the rope. "Now there are two ways we can do this. You agree to reinstate the cease-fire…" She pulled out her gun and leveled it at Undyne's head, "Or the fish gets it."
"Don't do it Grillby! Finish what this bug started!" Undyne shouted, the gun was pressed against her head.
"What I started? You were going to shoot Mettaton!" Muffet argued.
"The bot was trying to manipulate Papyrus!" Undyne insisted.
"No he wasn't!" Papyrus joined in.
"Pap calm down!" Sans interceded.
"No Sans! Mettaton meant me no harm!"
Soon Muffet, Undyne, Sans, and Papyrus were all arguing. "Enough! Everyone shut up!" Grillby shouted. His flames rose again, only to blacken the rope. "Shoot me damn it! Shoot me, Anthea! No one else here deserves to die. Kill me and end this stupid war."
"Grillby no!" Undyne said. She felt the gun move from her head. Everyone watched as Muffet slowly leveled the gun at Grillby's forehead. "Boss! Don't let her do it!"
"What else can I do?" He stared at Muffet and nodded his head.
"If you truly want me to, who am I to deny a dying wish?" She cocked the gun.
"Muffet if you fire that gun, I swear to the Stars I'll quit!" A loud, mechanical voice rang out.
"Tok?" Muffet questioned and turned her head to face the young robot.
"Tok! You're okay!" Mettaton rushed towards his friend, but instantly backed off when a giant dog-like creature emerged from the shadows. Others joined it, almost a dozen. "What the hell are those?"
"Amalgamations," the voice of a certain scientist said. Alphys stood as straight as she could next to Tok, although she was shaking like a leaf.
"Experiments from long ago." Gaster was last to appear. His crutch at his side and sad smile on his face.
"Alphys?" Muffet and Mettaton yelled.
"Gaster?" Grillby and his gang yelled.