A.N: So Sorry about the delay my lovelies, but I tried to get this ready for Halloween and I didn't get the motivation for it until it was nearly too late, so by my Atlantic time I missed it...but I'm not sure it will read it since FF runs on Pacific time. We'll see. Just know that this is rightfully a Halloweenie chapter. Next chapter my little surprise that I mentioned ages ago will come into fruition! Enjoy!^.^
Despite their slight dread they continued on into the next room and found a sign that alluded to a puzzle, When four Bridge Seeds align in the water, they will sprout, as it said, but of course, it was easy to break the puzzle again as Sora once again picked up Frisk and he and the others merely waded through the water to get to the other side.
As soon as they entered the next room a monster named Aaron flexed in, and since he was so keen on body building and sweating up a storm, and winking after every sentence for some reason…. So, despite being ever so slightly creeped out by that, and the fact they had to avoid magic biceps and sweating bullets, Frisk and Sora had a flexing contest with him and he eventually flexed so hard he flexed himself out of the room. Frisk got hurt every now and then and had to eat one of their bicicles, which turned into a regular popsicle when singular, though they had to eat that second half too, to regain their health.
They didn't have much time to relax though as Heartless appeared. Some new Heartless appeared, such as a blue flower - Dire Plant like Heartless that was obviously trying to mimic Echo Flowers, but spit out Aero spells, thus it was dubbed the Aero Plant. There were also a few Bag O' Jewels that were probably there for the aesthetic of the minerals in the walls of these sets of caverns, not that our foreign quartet would know, they've never seen this particular kind of Heartless before even though these Heartless were originally in a world that's already been lost to darkness. And finally there were actually Heartless that were mimicking the nearby Bridge Seeds so they were dubbed Bridge Flowers, because they were little stubby things but the Bridge Seed looking flowers on their heads were in bloom, and Sora and the others found it was possible to bounce on them for extra height if need be for any combo attacks.
It didn't take too long to dispatch all the Heartless in the room, and once the room was cleared Frisk came out from hiding near where they entered and wandered over to the opposite end, looking around a cavern corner where most of the water in the room was.
"What's up Frisk?" Sora asked curiously. Frisk merely pointed in the direction they were looking in, and didn't give any other signs for Jiminy to translate.
"Looks like somethin's over there." Goofy announced. "I even see a little dock."
"Guess we might as well check it out." Donald sighed in resignation of how adventuring logic worked. Check every nook and cranny, one might never know what treasures one might find.
Goofy was the one to scoop up Frisk this time as they all broke the puzzle of the bridge seeds again and waded through the water over there. Over Goofy's shoulder, Frisk put a finger to their lips to signal to the others to keep quiet, and Donald guessed right away that an Echo Flower might be up ahead and whispered to Sora about his assumption. Sora nodded in agreement and waded faster to catch up to Goofy to let him know. Goofy got the message just as they reached the dock.
Here they found a bench next to an Echo Flower, they inspected the Echo Flower first before they checked the bench, but what the flower said didn't make any sense. "I just wasn't ready for the responsibility." It repeated to them. Looking back to the bench, they noticed something was under it, an Abandoned Quiche…
Sans could make quiche, and this quiche was a spinach quiche... or spinach egg pie as Papyrus would've called it, and it was somehow described as a psychologically damaged one at that….somehow…even the Echo Flower kind of sounded like him, but it was hard to say for certain... in any case there wasn't anything else noteworthy in this tiny corner of a cavern so they headed back, Frisk didn't look like they knew any more than they did about the quiche and what the Echo Flower said, so they didn't bother asking. Donald put Frisk on his shoulders for the short trek back as he was a bit envious of Goofy's attention to the kid so he took it upon himself for a small bit of bonding time.
"Alright, let's let Frisk do the puzzle this time, its bad enough we break it for them by picking them up and wading through the water ourselves, I actually wanna see those Bridge Seeds bloom." Donald announced to the others as he set Frisk down after they reached the Bridge Seed room.
"Sure!" the others agreed in unison, and then Sora noticed the lone sign in the middle of the water near where they originally came in from. "Hey, what's this sign say? 'Congratulations! You failed the puzzle.'" There was another exclamation point after the second sentence, but Sora was too disappointed at being duped to put enough cheer into it.
Donald started to bust a gut laughing at that. "Serves you right, Sora!"
Sora couldn't help but chuckle anyway, and at the sight of his tiny laughter the others also joined in for a chortle. "Yeah, I gotta admit, these things are pretty clever."
As soon as their laughter subsided, Frisk got to work on the puzzle, lining up the bridge seeds from the waterfall in the back to along a niche that jutted out from the opposite side of the tiny river. The trinity trio also noticed the sign about the Bell Blossom that could call the Bridge Seeds back if an error was made, but they knew Frisk knew what they were doing so they didn't worry about it. Especially since there were more glowing mushrooms that served no other purpose than to be mildly entertaining because they squeaked each time they were touched. Once all four Bridge Seeds were aligned they bloomed into pink flowers immediately, and they looked kind of like four leaf clovers only pink, but they did have green leaves in between their petals. Frisk crossed over on them easily, Donald did as well, but Sora and Goofy were a bit too heavy and the flowers they stepped on sunk a little under their weight. So they had to hop over, and then the cell phone rang.
"HELLO! THIS IS PAPYRUS!"
"How in Sam Hill did you get this number?!" Donald asked into the speaker.
"HOW DID I GET THIS NUMBER…? IT WAS EASY! I JUST DIALED EVERY NUMBER SEQUENTIALLY UNTIL I GOT YOURS! NYEH HEH HEH HEH! SO…WHAT ARE YOU WEARING…? I'M…ASKING FOR A FRIEND." Chills went up everyone's spine at that Undyne had seen them but purposely chose not to act on it, probably because of Monster Kid but they couldn't say for sure. Regardless Papyrus continued. "SHE THOUGHT SHE SAW YOU HUMANS WEARING A DUSTY TUTU AND A BANDANNA. IS THAT TRUE? ARE YOU TWO HUMANS WEARING A DUSTY TUTU AND A BANDANNA?" He got a mixed reply of yes and no from various members of the group, though the yes outweighed the no, Papyrus couldn't quite make it out. "WELL WHICH IS IT? I CAN'T GO LYING TO UNDYNE OR I'LL NEVER MAKE IT INTO THE ROYAL GUARD!" The group all looked to Frisk, who mouthed out that there was no point in hiding. Deciding to trust Frisk on this they unanimously said yes. "SO YOU TWO ARE WEARING A DUSTY TUTU AND A BANDANNA…GOT IT! WINK WINK! HAVE A NICE DAY!" With that, Papyrus hung up.
Feeling the need to explain anyway Frisk started signing so Jiminy could translate.
"Frisk says it was for the best that we answered yes for Papyrus' sake, but even if we said no and changed into something else he still would have told her what we were wearing by completely assuming that we would never wear such a thing in the first place. Besides there's no point in hiding much, Undyne will fight us eventually but there's one more patch of grass we can hide in before we officially face her."
"Sounds fair enough to me." Sora quipped. "Don't worry Frisk, we'll protect you."
"I didn't wanna lie ta Papyrus anyway so that all works out fer me!" Goofy put in.
"Me neither!" Jiminy added.
"Lemme guess, despite how scary Undyne is right now she's actually a nice person once you get to know her?" Once again Donald was asking the important questions that bewildered the others for half a second, and naturally Frisk nodded. "Alright, we'll do it your way, kid. It's your world, and you're the one with a slight idea of where the Keyhole is."
Despite Donald's acceptance of how things were most likely and most definitely going to work, Frisk still felt the need to add, "We can't hurt her at all, we can defend against her attacks and when the opportunity arises we run as fast as we can." Jiminy translated.
"I think I get it, but that's not until we face her head on, right?" Sora asked. Frisk nodded again. "Got it! Don't worry Frisk, we'll go easy on her." Frisk smiled at that and continued leading the way.
In the next room the sign right across from them said this was the Wishing Room, and there were quite a few Echo Flowers in here, and when they looked up they understood why it was called the Wishing Room, especially after Frisk touched the first Echo Flower to their left. "A long time ago, monsters would whisper their wishes to the sky. If you hoped with all your heart, your wish would come true. Now, all we have are these sparkling stones in the ceiling…" Indeed, the sparkling stones in the ceiling of this cavern shone like stars. They even seemed to twinkle in the dimness of the cavern, and Jiminy's heart broke as the Echo Flowers progressed with each bit of a passing conversation.
"Thousands of people wishing together can't be wrong! The King will prove that." Uttered the second Echo flower to their right upon entering the room.
"C'mon Sis! Make a wish!" Gleefully came from the third Echo Flower, diagonally across the way from the second.
"I wish my sister and I will see the real stars someday…" Finished the fourth Echo Flower sitting right next to the third. Jiminy's determination to help the monsters of the underground grew tenfold, he would make sure they would be able to wish on the real stars or he was no Conscience worthy of the Big Blue Fairy.
Then they all ran into Woshua, a humble germaphobe who simply sought to cleanse the whole world, so they let Woshua clean them before sparing them.
The group then noticed a telescope next to the final Echo Flower in the room, they checked the Echo Flower first, and it was completely unrelated to the passing conversation of the other flowers, and also reminded them of something Sans said earlier about Papyrus not figuring out his own horoscope. "Ah… Seems my horoscope is the same as last week's…" Then they remembered that the Library ladies who actually wrote all the paper stuff were running out of ideas, so it actually all made sense.
Finally they checked the telescope and took turns looking through it, Sora and Donald didn't see anything but twinkling stones at first, but it was Goofy who moved it enough to find a big bright spot to see that there was writing on the lens and it said to 'Check Wall' with an arrow that pointed up. Goofy pulled away from the telescope and noticed there was a little hallway that reached a dead end across the way from the telescope, so maybe it meant to check that wall. With his deep thinking face on, Goofy walked all the way over and merely touched it, opening up a way through. He smiled widely to the others and they all gave two thumbs up for success, not wanting to utter a word since it seemed that it was disrespectful to rewrite over an Echo Flower.
In the next room they found themselves on a big dock, or board walk really, and there were tablets with writing on the opposite wall from them. There was water here but it was darker as there was no reflection to give any kind of shine to it, but they could make out the cattails that grew in the shallowest bits here and there. There weren't any Echo Flowers around in this room it seemed so they were finally free to talk, starting with Jiminy who definitely had something to say.
"That does it! I don't care when we find the Keyhole, we're staying until we help Frisk free everyone so they can go wish on the real stars!" The cricket huffed with determination.
"It's okay, Jiminy. That was the plan anyway." Sora told him soothingly, as he offered Jiminy his hand for the little fella to hop on from Frisk's shoulder. "Especially after that nightmare I shared with Frisk, there's no way that I'm letting them handle this adventure on their own, even if we do find the Keyhole sooner than expected." Frisk smiled gratefully at this.
"And especially after reading gloomy stuff like this!" Donald quacked from somewhere over near the tablets, evidently he read them all and honestly looked pretty dead inside because of it. His suspicions were coming true just as he thought but there had to be more than just what he read.
Cautiously, Sora and the others crept over to see what Donald was talking about and slowly read with horror at what he had meant.
Ancient writing covered the various tablets and they all could JUST make out the words. The first tablet was simply labeled 'The War of Humans and Monsters' while the others elaborated bit by bit.
"Why did the humans attack? Indeed, it seemed that they had nothing to fear. Humans are unbelievably strong. It would take the Soul of nearly every monster…just to equal the power of a single human Soul." The second tablet said, and things only looked grimmer as the third tablet continued.
"But humans have one weakness. Ironically it is the strength of their Soul. Its power allows it to persist outside the human body, even after death."
"If a monster defeats a human, they can take its Soul. A monster with a human Soul…A horrible beast with unfathomable power…" Foreboded the fourth tablet. The fifth and final tablet on this wall merely had an illustration of a strange creature…there was something very unsettling about the drawing, especially since the creature depicted was somewhat shaped like an upside down triangle…and that was just at a glance.
"There's more to it than just this isn't there Frisk?" Donald stated more than asked, but he still wanted to make sure. Frisk nodded solemnly. "And they don't get any brighter in news do they?" Frisk shook their head solemnly. "All the more reason to keep you and Sora safe." Donald finished in a quip. He knew now, how it was all done, the real question was how many came here before Frisk? The bunny shopkeeper back in Snowdin was too relieved to be comfortable about being extremely close to freedom, and if Donald was extremely right to think that human souls were the key to breaking the spell on the barrier placed by human hands with magic, then how many were needed? Again, he knew the answer would be given to them soon enough, he didn't even need to ask Frisk about it because he knew the kid would give him the same vague answer of it will come in time. Still it gave him every right to worry, but there wasn't any sense in worrying about it now.
There was a different colored platform at the end of the board walk that was just big enough for all of them to stand on, and it moved them across the way to another board walk. Then the lighting got even darker as they progressed.
Suddenly an electric blue spear stopped them in their tracks mere inches from their feet, it could've sliced Sora's nose off if he wasn't as careful. Then the armored figure of Undyne appeared from the shadows and summoned THREE spears to throw at them as the one that had stopped them before had faded.
"RUN!" Our heroes collectively shouted in unison just for the sake of if it wasn't already obvious. In all the scrambled commotion of booking it, Goofy scooped up Frisk once again and summoned his biggest and most protective shield, the Akashic Record. As nice as the Save The King shield was from their last adventure it had too many openings in it, the first version was better suited for this sort of thing but he didn't have it on him. So the giant book shield would have to do, and it worked pretty well as it deflected some of Undyne's spears. Sora and Donald deflected any stray ones.
To make matters worse, their path began to zig zag.
"WHO ZIG ZAGS A BOARDWALK?!" Donald exclaimed angrily, flicking away what stray spears he could with his Premium Mushroom staff. Then he quacked in horror as black claws started to paw at their feet as they ran, like creatures from the black lagoon or something since the water was so dark. "What is this a horror movie? C'mon can't you stupid things ever give us a break?!" Donald stomped on the claws as he passed by out of spite if anything.
"Since when have we ever been that lucky Donald?!" Sora shouted as he deflected a few more spears.
Thankfully despite Undyne initially aiming for them, they apparently had a common enemy in the Heartless as she aimed for them too, the Heartless under the docks all seemed to be mere Shadows so they were dispatched very easily even under Undyne's spears.
Since her attention was partly diverted from them, Sora took it upon himself to use magic to get rid of any either side may have missed, didn't want them following after all. Especially since they were reaching a straightaway that led into more tall grass to hide in, and Undyne's pillars were coming to a halt so she was going to lose time in catching up to them.
Finally all the Heartless were dispatched and the pillars cut off Undyne from their straightaway into the tall grass, she still kept throwing her spears however, but kept missing due to the awkward angle and losing sight of them as they all had practically dived into the grass when they reached it but she didn't see because of the last pillar blocking her view, plus they were on the side of her bad eye so she lost them because of that too.
As they hid in the grass they desperately tried to catch their breath so they could slow it and silence it faster. Goofy stayed close to Frisk who in turn kept his nose in check from sneezing their position away, and Donald and Sora were farther apart amongst the grass to avoid detection.
Then they heard it, the metallic stomps of Undyne's armor making their way towards them, they stilled the breaths by trying to hold them, though their hearts pounded in their chests from running, fear, and anticipation. Her steps stopped, none of them were brave enough to even think of causing a distraction, they didn't know her power aside from summoning spears, and close range was not a good option at the moment. She seemed to have found her prey, she was closer to Goofy and Frisk…but she didn't seem to be looking at them…Then she lashed out and grabbed something…someone…it was Monster Kid! Realizing her mistake, Undyne gently put him back down, scanned the rest of the area with her good eye and walked back the way she came in the slight thought that she may have missed them jumping in the water.
Our heroes finally gulped in breaths of air as soon as they couldn't hear her metallic steps, and with the coast finally clear they all crawled out of the tall grass. As they stood up, Monster Kid popped out of the grass too, happy as a kid who just met their superhero.
"Yo…did you see that?! Undyne just…TOUCHED ME! I'm never washing my face again…! Man are you guys unlucky. If you were sitting just a LITTLE bit to the left…!" This last sentence he addressed to Frisk and Goofy, and mistook their exasperated expressions for disappointed ones as they continued. "Yo, don't worry! I'm sure we'll see her again!" With that he ran on ahead, tripping again but of course got himself back up and kept going.
"He nearly got hurt with the way she grabbed him an' he's still excited? Even my Maxie had his limits." Goofy quipped as he shook his head and clicked his tongue like a worried parent. Letting his shield fade as he put Frisk down at last.
"I completely agree." Jiminy added his two bits of munny.
"For all we know she probably pat his head after she put him back down since he wasn't her target." Donald told him in understanding. "If she continues to be that persistent he'll see for himself how uncool it really is that she's going after us since he's kinda our friend at this point."
"Still she's definitely not all that bad, she's definitely the kind to play fair, and she did help us with the Heartless back there." Sora spoke up. Frisk nodded in agreement.
"Maybe we're gonna hafta make friends with her, right Frisk?" Goofy suggested and turned to Frisk for confirmation. Frisk did indeed nod eagerly with a smile.
"I figured as much, but this won't be as easy as it was befriending Papyrus, so we have to stay on our toes." Donald replied expectantly. Everyone nodded.
With everyone in agreement they continued on and found themselves in a small room with a set of save points, an Echo Flower, another mouse hole and a table that had some cheese that had been there so long that a magic crystal had grown around it, making it extremely stuck to the table. The Echo Flower only said 'squeak' as it repeated what the mouse in the hole said.
So they saved. Knowing one day the mouse might extract the cheese from the mystical crystal…it filled them all with determination.
They went on into the next area and found neon blue and possibly glowing water nearly everywhere, Sans next to a telescope and just beyond him was a box, and next to the box was doorway of sorts and standing outside of it a little further down was a strange grey, tear drop shaped monster with legs. They decided to talk to Sans first since he was the closest.
"Hey, Sans. What's up?" Sora greeted, having completely forgotten about his shared nightmare with Frisk for the moment.
"i'm thinking about getting into the telescope business. it's usually 50000 G to use this premium telescope…but…since i know you guys, you can use it for free. howzabout it?" He winked, hoping they'd take the bait for this classic. Which of course they did.
"Sure! You go first Goofy." Sora offered.
"Why thank you kind sir!" Goofy bowed gratefully, and then took a look see in the telescope. "Hmm…not much ta see here."
"Wha? Well, let me try." Sora suggested. Goofy let him have a go at it and got similar results, and getting the joke wanted to see if he could convince Donald to go for it. "Hey, you're right. Not much at all, it's so blurry."
"Alright move over, Sora. You two probably aren't even using it right!" Donald butted in nudging Sora out of the way, and once he looked in, immediately got offended as he quickly looked around in the telescope. There was nothing but red. "Hey! What's the big idea?!" This he directed at Sans.
"what? you aren't satisfied? don't worry. i'll give you a full refund." Sans winked again since they didn't pay in the first place. He was satisfied though, he could hardly believe all three of them fell for it, and wasn't too surprised the kid wasn't fooled, nor the cricket...He figured the cricket just plain didn't trust him, couldn't blame him if he's that much of a stickler for safety.
Donald groaned and put a hand to his face in exasperation, he should've seen this one coming from the comedic skeleton. Then he noticed that he felt something wet on his hand, and slowly pulled it away from his face to find some kind of dark gunk. He quacked in exclamation, and it brought on the attention of the others. Donald in turn looked up at them and realized the full extent of Sans' ruse as he pointed to both Sora's and Goofy's faces. They both had gunk on their eyes that they looked through the telescope with too.
The ol' black eye trick, how very clever of Sans. It didn't take long for Sora and Goofy to realize the same thing as Donald as they wondered what the dark smear on his eye was and looked to each other and noticed similar dark smudges, (though it was more noticeable on Goofy's eyelid than anything) and frantically started looking back and forth between each other and Donald until the lightbulbs finally went on and their gaze settled on Sans. The skeleton was simply smiling as always, though he winked upon noticing that they realized what he did to them.
Frisk started the giggle fest as they couldn't hold in their laughter anymore and the others followed suit regardless of being the ones the joke was done on.
"Good use of a classic, Sans!" Goofy complimented, as he and the rest of the group waved their goodbyes and walked over to the water's edge to wash the gunk off.
Once they were all washed up…ignore the potential pun on that one…They went over to the off white tear drop shaped monster to see what it had to say, while Frisk went over to the box to sort out their inventory.
"What's a star? Can you touch it? Can you eat it? Can you kill it? ... Are you a star?" The monster asked curiously. Because the second to last question was the creepiest, so against Jiminy's better judgement of answering the monster, they instead walked away slowly and into the doorway that was right there.
They were pleasantly surprised to find the Nice Cream guy here, completely relocated to the extent that the ancient glyphs on the back wall have been painted over with a list of 21 flavors of ice cream, there was also another box in here as well as another glowing mushroom. Since Frisk had eaten a whole bicicle and cleared up their inventory a little, they were fully prepare to buy themselves and everyone else some more Nice Cream, they needed it after that run in with Undyne. But of course the Nice Cream guy was blue figuratively again since he hadn't fully taken notice of them yet.
"I relocated my store, but there are still no customers…" He said somberly, then winked one eye open, noticed them and cheerfully decided to reveal his new marketing campaign. "Fortunately, I've thought of a solution! Punch cards! Every time you buy a Nice Cream, you can take a punch card from the box. If you have three cards, you can trade them for a free Nice Cream! They're sure to get the customers to come back!"
Well that worked out perfectly in their favor! Jiminy denied wanting a Nice Cream again so Frisk paid for Sora, Donald, and Goofy's Nice Cream, while Frisk got the free one. Albiet, they had to disrupt a couple of spiders that were in the box playing a card game with only those three cards, some games just have to end for the greater good. Satisfied with their Nice Creams, and Frisk sharing a tiny smidge with Jiminy anyway, they left, heading downwards and coming across Echo Flowers as they went, seemingly a passing conversation that was a continuation of the Wishing Room Echo Flowers.
"So? Don't you have a wish to make?" Said the first one they came across.
"…Hmmm, just one but… It's kind of stupid." Said the one next to it.
The path split up around here and for now Frisk led them to the left, only to find an area that was a dead end though had more glowing mushrooms and one lone tall patch of grass. Frisk went into it and came out with pair of Ballet Shoes and equipped them, feeling more dangerous with them on…but with hope they would be somewhat useful against the Heartless the next time they appeared. However Frisk was a bit at a loss as knowing what to do about the Tough Glove, what with not wanting to bring up Skuld's name for the sake of maybe Skuld was another Keyblade Wielder, or better yet both the Bandanna and the Tough Glove belonged to someone else entirely and they got them as gifts from both of the owners of the names. But still…not wanting to bring up the issue in case it was all just a mere coincidence, Frisk kept the Tough Glove in their inventory for now until they got to another box.
Suddenly just as Frisk was about to try to pirouette, mushroom Heartless appeared, and they looked exactly like the glowing mushrooms all around Waterfall, so Jiminy wrote them in as Glowing Fungi for their new names. Luckily these Heartless were easy enough to dispatch of no matter which variation of the shrooms they were (with the sole exception of the Gold Tricholoma but that one was more difficult to keep in place than to dispatch it), so when Frisk round house kicked one to the face, no one had any qualms of Frisk joining in on this particular fight. Even luckier, there were only four of them, same number as the actual glowing mushrooms that were already there, so there was one Glowing Fungi for each of them.
Naturally that scuffle didn't take long so they headed back and went the way they were supposed to go to move on. Then Papyrus called again.
"HELLO! THIS IS PAPYRUS! REMEMBER WHEN I ASKED YOU TWO HUMANS ABOUT CLOTHES? WELL THE FRIEND WHO WANTED TO KNOW…HER OPINION OF YOU BOTH IS VERY…MURDERY. BUT I BET YOU KNEW THAT ALREADY! AND BECAUSE YOU KNEW THAT…I TOLD HER WHAT YOU TOLD ME YOU TWO HUMANS WERE WEARING! A DUSTY TUTU AND A BANDANNA! BECAUSE I KNEW, OF COURSE…AFTER SUCH A SUSPICIOUS QUESTION…YOU TWO WOULD OBVIOUSLY CHANGE YOUR CLOTHES! YOU'RE SUCH SMART COOKIES! THIS WAY YOU'RE SAFE AND I DIDN'T LIE! NO BETRAYAL ANYWHERE! BEING FRIENDS WITH EVERYONE IS EASY!" With that he hung up completely satisfied. Again, Frisk signed and Jiminy translated that not changing clothes was for the best.
Regardless of how uneasy this whole situation was making everyone, they continued on with determination that things were going to turn out all right. They even ran into yet another Echo Flower, still continuing the conversation from before.
"Don't say that! C'mon, I promise I won't laugh!" It repeated. There weren't any more Echo Flowers nearby, but there was a tablet on a kitty corner wall just before the next room.
"The power to take souls. This is the power that humans feared." Surprisingly these sets of words were emphasized by the quotation marks, much like the very first tablet that simply said "The War of Humans and Monsters." And the words themselves made sense, as logically anyone would be afraid of such a power to take a soul, especially since the process to obtain one is…what it is…death in and of itself.
However there was nothing that any of them could do or say about the uneasiness they all felt at this particular tablet's words, plus there had to be more to it since it stopped or paused for now. So they continued on into the next room.
This room was huge and they all got an eerie feeling right off the bat, and it didn't help that it was a long hallway with water on either side.
"So help me if this is just like running from that close call with Undyne…" Donald grumbled in disdain, not even in the mood to finish his sentence. The others silently agreed. Frisk was the only one who even knew what was usually in this room…but it felt different somehow.
The group walked cautiously along, Frisk expecting to see yellow tentacles at any second now, but getting worried each second that passed when nothing of the sort came along. Suddenly they heard a splash from somewhere behind them, slowly their heads turned to look for the source and found a long black tentacle wiggling and blocking the possibility of the way back.
"That better not be Ursula again…" Sora groaned. "It was bad enough when she caused me and Riku to get separated during our Mark of Mastery exam."
"She made it ta yer islands?" Goofy asked curiously.
"Yep, caused a whirlpool and everything." Sora replied.
"I'm pretty sure that's not Ursula." Donald said for the sake of it. "I don't see purple suction cups on that thing."
To make matters worse the tentacle had friends, and not just the other tentacles in likeness, of all things Screwdivers and Missile Divers were actually crawling out of the water much like the regular Shadows from before. Then, slowly, a dark bulbous head with big eyes rose from the far side of the water, quite possibly belonging to the tentacles. Frisk knew it was Onionsan, but they couldn't tell if he turned into a Heartless or not as it was too dark to see.
However, the tentacle and its brothers started whacking at the Screwdivers and Missile Divers, even throwing some of them against the walls. Completely leaving our heroes alone. When the Heartless were all completely taken care of, even the ones that were a little further up ahead, and ones that hadn't even climbed out of the water yet, the bulbous head turned to our heroes and leaned in closer to them. The very tip top of its head was pale yellow.
"Hey there…Noticed you were here and totally not one of them… They're not very nice, they made me ink…" He greeted awkwardly and explained as he wiped his face off and revealed his true coloration as that pale yellow, and he retracted his tentacles and followed our heroes along the water as he talked. "I'm Onionsan! Onionsan, y'hear! Aside from those creepy things, Waterfall is still pretty great! It's my Big Favorite!" His eyes got bigger and cuter as he said Waterfall was his favorite. Then his head sunk a smidge for his next sentence. "Even though the water's getting so shallow here… I, have to sit down all the time but…" He popped his head back out with something akin to determination in his eyes. "He-hey! That's OK! It beats moving to the city! And living in a crowded aquarium!" He looked meekly to the side. "Like all my friends did!" He sunk his head in the water again as he got a little depressed again. "And the aquarium's full, a-anyway, so, even if I wanted to I…" His head popped back up in a burst of hope. "That's okay though, y'hear! Undyne's gonna fix everything, y'hear! I'm gonna get out of here and live in the ocean! Y'hear!" Then our little group finally made it near the exit of this long hallway cavern, and Onionsan couldn't help but point it out, with literally a tentacle. "Hey…there…That's the end of this room. I'll see you guys around! Have a good time! In Waterfallllllllllllllllllllllllllllll" He kept extending the L as he sunk all the way down into the water. And so our group carried on into the next room.
Just a few steps in and the white walled thing happened again, and it was weird this time because Shyren was hiding in a corner but somehow they encountered her anyway. She's tone deaf and is too ashamed to sing her deadly song, though she likes pretending to be a pop idol anyway. Frisk whistled a jazz ballad, Sora hummed along, and Shyren followed their melody as she steadily became much more comfortable singing along. Frisk whistled and Sora hummed some more – monsters were drawn to the music. Suddenly it's a concert…Sans is selling tickets made of toilet paper. The humans whistle and hum some more. The seats are sold out. They felt like rock stars. The crowd tosses clothing – it's a storm of socks…but the constant attention…the tours…the groupies…It's all….Shyren toots aggressively and thinks about her future. Frisk, Sora, and Shyren have come so far, but it's time. They all have their own journeys to embark on. Frisk and Sora whistle and hum a farewell song, and Shyren gives one final toot.
"Of course Sans would show up in the middle of all of that." Donald quipped exasperatedly as they all came out of that weird white box set up again.
"Would ya expect anythin' else? Just be glad those weren't his smelly socks, ahyuck!" Goofy chuckled.
"I'm just glad we could give Shyren a little more self-confidence, right Frisk?" Sora said, looking to Frisk for a small bit of confirmation. Frisk nodded eagerly.
"Oh look! More tablets!" Jiminy pointed out. There was one near an opening to another room, but there were two more along the hallway that seemed to continue on.
The closer one by the seemingly singular room mentioned a great treasure, and naturally Donald went right inside. Only to be halted by the puzzle that pretty much said to keep going down the corridor to listen to a song so one could play it on the lone piano in the room. So Donald was in the lead in heading back out and down the corridor but not before reading the more important tablets along the wall as they passed by.
"This power has no counter. Indeed, a human cannot take a monster's Soul. When a monster dies, its Soul disappears. And an incredible power would be needed to take the Soul of a living monster." Said the one tablet.
"There is only one exception. The Soul of a special species of monster called a 'Boss Monster.' A Boss Monster's Soul is strong enough to persist after death…If only for a few moments. A human could absorb this Soul. But this has never happened. And now it never will." Said the other.
Continuing past the tablets they came across a lone statue of a monster with horns leaning against the wall. There was a spotlight of sorts above it and it was raining solely on the statue, but the structure at its feet seemed dry. Still the group felt bad that the rest of it was getting rained on, luckily just up ahead there was a bunch of umbrellas free for use. Goofy took one and placed it atop the statue. Inside the statue, a music box began to play a sad sounding melody.
It didn't take long for them to figure out this was the melody needed to solve the piano puzzle, especially since they began to see the mist trail of the notes that needed to be played above the statue. So they headed back, and Frisk played the notes, having known them so well. Circle, up, right, circle, down, down, right. The wall in the back of the room opened much like the one in the Wishing Room.
Inside this next room was a round red sphere that Donald was immensely disappointed at, what with having been on just as many adventures with his Uncle Scrooge and nephews for grander treasures untold than this. Even Ariel's thingamabobs were worth more in his honest opinion.
However, despite Donald's displeasure at the sight of it, it was indeed a legendary artifact. But before doing anything, Frisk dialed Toriel's number, and the receiving ringing came from Frisk's inventory. Everyone looked at Frisk in bewilderment, Donald on the other hand looked at them in horror since he was the one who made the extra calls to Toriel to know about the dog swiping her phone in the first place. Frisk could not pick up the artifact…because they were carrying too many dogs. Still, the others continued giving Frisk looks of confusion and horror. Now, Frisk went into their inventory and deployed the Annoying Dog. The same one that did its own stunts in Snowdin, the same one that always steals Papyrus' secret weapon, and the very same one that naps in that secret room in the forest before reaching Snowdin.
The dog absorbed the artifact and ran straight through the wall. Donald actually tried to catch it but he hit the wall, unable to follow. The artifact was gone, and all Frisk had left was dog residue, a weird crystallization of white fluff that multiplied and occasionally turned into Dog Salad when used.
Bewildered by all that they just witnessed they got the heck out of there and continued down the hall passed the statue and the two humans got themselves an umbrella. Donald and Goofy didn't really need it. Donald was a water fowl of course and naturally liked the rain, and Goofy shared with Sora, and of course Jiminy had his own umbrella but was still on Frisk's shoulder so he didn't need to use it.
Unsurprisingly there was a reason the umbrellas were there, as the next hallway of caverns were dripping with water, and there were puddles everywhere. As they walked, they ran into Monster Kid again, who was standing in an alcove where it wasn't raining, but was super happy to see them.
"Yo! You guys got umbrellas? Awesome!" Monster Kid said excitedly, moseying up to Frisk since they were more his height. "Let's go!"
So off they went, happy to have the pleasant company of each other. Just as they reached the corner to another raining hallway, Monster Kid spoke up again.
"Man, Undyne is sooooooo cool. She beats up bad guys and NEVER loses. If I was a human, I would wet the bed every night…knowing she was gonna beat me up! Ha ha."
No one dared to say a word or tell him the truth that he was in the presence of two actual humans who were already intimidated, not scared mind you-intimidated by Undyne. So they kept walking in peaceful silence, up until they passed by an Echo Flower they couldn't reach, but was indeed noticed by Monster Kid.
"So, one time. We had a school project where we had to take care of a flower. The king - we had to call him 'Mr. Dreemurr' – volunteered to donate his own flowers. He ended up coming to school and teaching the class about responsibility and stuff. That got me thinking…YO! How COOL would it be if UNDYNE came to school?! She could beat up ALL the teachers!"
Everyone froze and dared to glance at Jiminy, who was already being held back by Frisk with a single hand around the cricket in all the right places to keep him from going anywhere and to be quiet. But it didn't go unnoticed by Monster Kid.
"Hey what's that little dude's problem?"
"Oh, he's just a stickler for rules and such…and REALLY didn't appreciate that comment about Undyne beating up all the teachers…"Sora admitted, hoping Monster Kid would get the hint and apologize or at the very least change his thought process. Luckily Monster Kid chose the latter and it was somewhat helpful to them in the end.
"Umm, maybe she wouldn't beat up the teachers…She's too cool to ever hurt an innocent person!" Monster Kid backtracked on his words a bit and everyone sighed in relief. Even Jiminy calmed down, and simply nodded to show he was satisfied…but the second Frisk released him…he chewed out Monster Kid anyway…albeit surprisingly, gently. Monster Kid, apologized for offending the cricket in any way and promised to be good about their schooling.
The rain then stopped as they came into a HUGE cavern with a narrow path, it was huge only because it got a good look at the castle from here, and with all the twinkling minerals in the ceiling…the sight was gorgeous. They all felt the need to look at it as Monster Kid went ahead a little to get the best spot to see it in the middle of this cavern to look directly at the castle. The others went and joined him, Sora sat down and Jiminy hopped off Frisk's shoulder for a moment to enjoy the view properly. Frisk stood next to Monster Kid, and together they all enjoyed this amazing view of the castle, completely forgetting about the worries that should have come with it.
Donald and Goofy couldn't help but mentally chuckle, as from this distance the castle looked kind of like Disney Castle, but the gorgeous view wasn't quite enough to make them homesick as they had been home for quite a while there before setting out on this new adventure with Sora, even with all the crazy stuff that happened in between such as dealing with the Data Worlds inside Jiminy's journal, and being there for support for Sora and Riku's Mark of Mastery exam.
Eventually they managed to tear themselves away from the picturesque view that they successfully seared into their brains, and continued on, running into what seemed to be a dead end for one of them, as Monster Kid looked at the ledge that appeared to be the way forward almost pitifully. Almost, because he brightened at a realization, as Frisk and Sora dropped off their umbrellas in the corresponding umbrella holder.
"Yo, this ledge is way too steep…But it looks like you guys could climb it just fine!" Monster Kid said with cheeriness.
"Don't you want to come with us? We're more than strong enough to pull you up too." Sora tried to reason, but Monster Kid was determined to find his own way.
"Don't worry about me. I always find a way through! You guys go on ahead and go see Undyne!" With that, he went back the way they came before they could try to reason with him further.
"Gwarsh! What d'ya suppose that was all about?" Goofy asked completely confused, knowing just as well as everybody else that they could've all gone on together.
As usual Frisk was the only one who knew better as they got Jiminy's attention and started signing to him.
"Frisk says it's for the best, since we're gonna have another run in with Undyne up ahead." Jiminy announced.
"Oh great, it better not be another zig zagging board walk." Donald groaned.
"Actually its much worse," Jiminy translated. "Undyne will be trying to get us from below us, and the boardwalks go every which way and there are holes everywhere."
"Just our luck then." Donald grumbled further.
"Just as long as we don't run into anymore Heartless I'm sure we'll be fine." Sora said optimistically as they helped each other up the ledge and continued on.
They found two tablets along the wall and a set of save points. The tablets didn't lighten their mood any.
"The humans, afraid of our power, declared war on us. They attacked suddenly, and without mercy." Said the first one closest to them.
"In the end it could be hardly be called a war. United, the humans were too powerful, and us monsters, too weak. Not a single Soul was taken, and countless monsters were turned to dust…" Said the other just past the save points.
Speaking of which they saved as the boardwalks were right there, and they weren't taking any chances when it came to Undyne. The serene sound of a distant music box…filled them all with determination.
Cautiously they continued one the boardwalk, knowing what would generally happen thanks to Frisk, but still dreading it nonetheless.
It took 16 steps out on the boardwalks before they were stopped dead in their tracks by the sound of something not theirs being summoned, then suddenly out of the ground came out the electric blue of Undyne's spears. She was playing fair by making them form a pattern around them where they could dodge them, and then they heard her armor clanking from below and finally saw her figure following their movements. As soon as this first batch of spears disappeared they made a break for it.
Donald scooped up Frisk this time because he was the closest to the kid and Goofy's shield was not going to help here, and not to mention when he was extremely panicky he was the fastest even with the extra weight of carrying a kid that was Frisk sized.
And of course more Heartless showed up just as Donald complained about the first Zig zag they come across which just happens to be the first obstacle of the whole boardwalk. Silver Rock Heartless were everywhere and messing them up by firing light attacks at them….but again, Undyne proved to be a fair antagonist in this situation as she carefully placed several of her spears underneath the Silver Rocks as well even when they teleported. Sora helped too of course with some well-aimed Firagas, but still, it was amazing to see how far Undyne was willing to go to play fair.
The longer they took, the faster Undyne's spears got, so being puzzle breakers as they were, they hop, skipped, and jumped some boardwalks as the holes got numerous and more maze like. They followed Frisk's pointing finger to head for the big square area to continue on.
In this next area, the speed of Undyne's spears reset to the first slow space and kept persisting until they hit the dead end, and the spears stopped.
They waited patiently for a few minutes, hoping with all their might that they lost her. Donald felt safe enough to put Frisk down, and so they walked back but stopped dead in their tracks as they heard before they saw Undyne slowly walk toward them…She freaking JUMPED all the way up here…in ARMOR. She was more powerful than any of them imagined…Donald wondered if she could beat Hercules in an arm wrestling match, if she could he would bet a lot of munny and win on it… but those thoughts were not important right now.
As she blindsided all of them by summoning three spears from above and sent them crashing down to a spot between them and her, slicing the board walk in half. She was on the supported half so she did not fall like they did. They all blacked out on the way down, faintly hearing the splash of their half of the board that they were standing on.