FlawlessMirage: I'll reference Frisk maybe once, but other than that, no, they're not important for now

Chapter 14: Just Desserts

"HUMAN! Get back...here...," The swaying lighting sets knocked a huge chunk off of Mettaton's head and he flatly fell forward. 'Damn it, this isn't good,' His ejected wings, the last chance he had at freedom, caught on fire rendering him immobile while the building slowly colllspaed around him.

'I-I have to get outta here!' Naruto made a break for the exit. He covered his ears to mute Mettaton's desperate cries. 'I have to save myself first, it's his fault for being a jerk.'

*CRASH-H-H-H

XxxxXxx

-Hours earlier-

Mettaton rolled towards the stack of crates being loaded onto the set. "Faboulous, not a moment too soon, now all there's left is for the main ingredient to arrive~"

He glanced at the Mettaton-shaped wall clock. 'The human should've been here by now...I hope he didn't get killed, his contribution would've given me ones of tens viewers!'

"Mettaton,"

'What will I do if he did get killed?! My viewers won't want to see me prepare the table scraps the king always gives me!'

"Mettaton!"

"Can't you see I'm trying to think?! What do you want now?!"

The worker shifted their weight. "You gotta see what's in these crates." They lead Mettaton behind the studio and into the loading center. "It's a disaster."

Cooked noodles drenched the loading center. They were tucked in between the fans and wires, oozing out the machines, and acting as the carpet and wallpaper. Mettaton scooped a handful of cooked noodles off the floor. "...this is..."

"And that's not even the worst part," They motioned to the other workers lying on the floor like corpses. "I-it's the human, we found him in one of the crates, he was rampaging like a beast and knocked them all out! We have no idea where he is now!"

"...SNEAK ATTACK!"

Mettaton raised his hand and grabbed Naruto's leg. He held the human upside down in front of his monitor. "It's your lucky day, human!"

The worker was taken by surprise with Mettaton's oddly cheery attitude.

"Gueeeeeees what?! After some technical difficulties you won't have to participate in Cooking with a killer robot for another three hours and in the meantime, you get to choose from not one, not zero, but two, yes TWO, activities!"

"Activity one: Clean up this hell of a mess!"

"Activity two: Unload the crates and hope to god none of them are nukes."

"Yeah well, what if I don't wanna do either of those stupid 'activities'!"

"I thought you'd say that, because I have a secret third activity in store: Sudden death! Your choice, human!" He wagged a finger in front of Naruto's color drained, wide-eyed face. "And no take backs for the third one."

Naruto furrowed his brow and grumbled something incomprehensible. "..."

"What was that, I couldn't hear you."

"I SAID...I'll unload the shitty crates."

"Wonderful, I would've chosen that too!" After dropping the human he rolled away to prepare for his delayed show.

Naruto started his trudge to the assembled crates. 'Peh, he's lucky I decided not to fight 'em otherwise I would've kicked his...' He paused at the crates then bent down to grab one. 'Pyrope said there were weak fireworks in some of these, but it can't be fireworks since they explode on impact.'

He popped the lid open. 'Salt packets.'

*creek

'Fruit Preservatives?! Are you kidding me, maybe that was the only crate with explosives...'

"HUUUMAN I HOPE THAT'S CRATE ASSE—"

*BAM

"...huh? What're you...wait...where's the human? He's in the back."

*SHRED

Naruto ducked down, peering over the edge, he caught a glimpse of Undyne angrily stomping around.

'So she was serious about choking me,' Naruto stood up on the crate then waved his arms. "Hey hey! Undyne, what's up?!"

"What's up?" Undyne muttered, her slow stomp speeding up the closer she got to the blonde brat. First impulses were lunging and shaking Naruto's neck as hard as she could. "WHAT'S UP?!" Undyne said through a tight-lipped smile.

"I check in with you and I see you in some dark, creepy ass building! What were you doing in there, shipping drugs?!"

"Guh...uh..."

She shook him back and forth. "I said what were you doing?!"

Naruto pointed at her webbed hands wringing his neck. "That's right...you're still a human." She begrudgingly dropped him.

"Ha...ah...listen, there's no need to get so...worked up, I was just pulling a small prank on Mettaton cuz he deserves it, you know. I had no idea they out explosives in them!"

"..."

'Maybe I shouldn't of said that.'

"..."

"EXPLOSIVES?!"

The front wall suddenly blew up and Tsundereplane flew through. "What the-I thought I told you stay outside!" Undyne yelled at the incoming flying machine.

"I couldn't stay outside when I heard you were talking to Naruto-kun...not that I care or anything." Tsunderplane's wing whacked Naruto in the stomach when she was landing and he fell back into the salt packet crate. "Oops, tee hee!"

Undyne massaged her temples. "Great, looks like I'll have to stay here until we can find and dispose all the explosives."

"Found one!"

In his hand held what looked like a stick of butter but with EXPLOSIVE handwritten in capital letters on the front. "Be careful how you handle that thing, it isn't your typical, petty human bomb, it's no doubt they used magic to make them."

"What's the difference?"

"It's random. They could be anything. Time bombs, TNT, firecrackers, or a deadly artillery shell, the worst part is, some monsters can shape bombs to look like spoons even and the last thing you want is to die by a fucking spoon. In any case, we're gonna have to get rid of every single one of these crates."

Mettaton rushed in. "Darling, don't you know how long it'll take for reshipments?!"

'He came in fast.' "Maybe a day."

"Exactly, I can't wait 'maybe a day', I need it now!"

"Tough luck, unless you want to be blown to bits that is."

"...well," He faced the human. "Since I can't have human cake, it'll be human sushi rolls. How about it?"

Undyne snorted. "Yeah right, you're seriously going to eat a human? Last time you said eating humans went out of style ten years ago."

"This one's not an infant or a grungy old person for once!" He dragged Naruto to the set where neat piles of cooking supplies were spread out across the counter. "Perfect timing too, my show starts right about now!"

*BOOOM

'The crates, already?!'

"What the...what was that?!"

*BAMMM

A camera piece smashed on the ground right before Mettaton. "NOOO! That camera cost so much, oh no, my oven, it was limited edition...the fridge too?! That one was my favorite!"

Ceiling pieces and movie set rained down like hail, chunk by chunk, the entire studio was falling apart. Naruto dove under the counter before the dishwasher nearly flattened him. 'Nothing against humans my ass, they wanted to kill me all along, and Mettaton too! I have to get out of here!'

He rolled from under the counter just as a large metal bat crashed into it, the site giving Naruto chills up his spine. He shook it off and ran.

"What a disaster..." Mettaton muttered, he tried following the human to the exit, but instead of sweet freedom, he was monitor down on the crumbling floor. He scanned the area and found the culprit was lighting equipment.

XxxxXxx

'Wait...! Undyne, I can't leave her!'

Turning around, Naruto re-climbed over debris and slid under tangles of wire. "Undyne?! UNDYNE SAY SOMETHING!"

A mountain of broken equipment along with a conk on the head of a metal bar stopped him from going any further. 'I can't move...ha...ah...'

*BOOOOOOOOM

'Why do I have to be so...weak?'

OoO

'Damn, that was awful, the entire studio's in pieces. Those dumb kids had no idea what they were doing,' Undyne prodded her spear into the debris. 'I'll give them this, they're a lot smarter than I give them credit for.'

*shift-shift

Her eye homed in on a pink arm shoveling out of the pile, she smiled. 'He he, I should start calling him cockroach from now on.'

Naruto took a moment to shake debris out his hair then walked over to Undyne. 'How the hell did she get out without a single scratch...maybe I shouldn't of went back for her!' Although he'd never admit it to her, he was relieved to see Undyne.

Undyne playful nudged Naruto with her spear. "Hey kid, you didn't see Mettaton under there, did you?"

"Like hell. How am I supposed to know where he was while I was knocked out like that, I bet he's dead anyways."

"PLOT TWIST!" Mettaton announced, pretending the debris was center stage. "I'm alive."

Undyne and Naruto both choked. The top half of Mettaton was clean off with a few hanging wires being the exception.

"Mettaton, half your goddamm body's missing!" Undyne screamed. "Holy shit, what's Alphys gonna say...Oh my god, Alphys! ShemustbeseeingthisrightnowandandIhaven'tevencalledherinliketwo hourswhatifshegotrobbedorworsethosebloodykidscould'vecomebackandburntdownHERlab orevenworsethanthat...!"

"Well, looks like everyone's here...almost everyone, any idea where the plane went?" Mettaton asked.

Undyne's toothy smile spoiled from his question and she uncharacteristically rubbed her arm. "...she told me she was going to go see the human, I thought after he came out she would too, but—"

Naruto scampered to the spot where he emerged and shoveled through the debris until he either reached the hard ground or found Tsundereplane's traces. Undyne and Mettaton exchanged glances.

'He's a determined guy, alright, but I bet even if he digs up the entire ground, he already knows he'll never find her.'

'All this for Tsundereplane? He must only care because he's connected to her...'

Naruto abruptly stopped digging. "Ha I finally found ya! Hey-hey Tsundereplane! I like your hat, it's really cool!"

"It's fabulous that you found her and everything, but maybe you should get her out first, then flirt later!"

Undyne eased off the jagged ceiling chunk she was sitting on. "Haha, she's probably too big for him to–"

"No, I got it." A sharp tone of remorse found its way into Naruto's voice, puzzling Undyne and Mettaton.

Naruto took Tsundereplane's mob cap out and slammed it in front of them. He fell on his knees and pounded his fist on the ground. "...this...THIS IS ALL MY FAULT!"

Undyne bent down to his level. "Hey, don't beat yourself up like that, I shouldn't of brought her here in the first place."

"Please Undyne, the human's the reason why the plan moved forward..." Mettaton cut shortly when Undyne gave him a malicious glare. "...which isn't to say it's entirely your fault!"

Undyne sighed, starting to stand up as Naruto calmed down. "I'm calling Alphys and telling her about everything that just happened, you guys stay put or whatever, I don't care."

Mettaton laced back and forth. 'First the lab, now my studio, what's next? Someone will destroy my resort?!' He spotted a large crowd of monsters coming towards them. "Undyne...Undyne!"

"God damnit!" What the hell did you not understand about me being on the phone?!" She barked.

"Haha, ok, you heard nothing from me, miss!"

'No-no-no, they're coming, and I look like a mess! What am I going to do?! Hey, I know, I'll hide under...' It was too late, monsters in all shapes and sizes lugging massive cameras flocked around Mettaton. "...!" Fortunately, he instantly recognized the monsters down to their individual scales. "Oh my film crew, and my unloading crew too, what a surprise, I thought we lost you in the blast!"

"Haha, gotta do more to us than that to get rid of us!"

'Noted.'

"Hey, boss, since the lab's all destroyed and junk, that mean we don't gotta work any more?"

'Of course that's the first question these ingrates ask.' "No. Even better, you get to...RE-BUILD THE ENTIRE STUDIO!"

"Aw what?!"

"Hey, hey, what happened to the studio anyways?"

"Whatever happened, it happened to his face too!"

"Questions will be answered later in the latest new installment of MTT news, including all the gory details...whenever that will be...Right now, I have to get there to make up for the lack of 'Cooking with a killer robot'! It'll be a double premiere!" 'And I'll sabotage that brat even more across the entirety of Hotland.'

*click

"You're not going anywhere, Mettaton,"

Mettaton revolved around his barely functional wheel to Undyne's hunched back. "But my fans!"

"What? Are your fans going to fix you?"

"Um no but—"

"But nothing, we're going straight to Alphys' lab so you won't look like a smashed toaster!"

"She'll just have to come to me, smashed toaster or not, I'm going to the news station!" He wedged out of the debris and rolled down the ash littered ground.

She squeezed her temples. 'He's so irrational, heh, my favorite part about him.' "Kid, get up, we're going to...kid?!"

"Wha...he's gone too?"

"You still have us fish lady!" A crew member cooed.

Undyne gave them a malicious glare and they all cowered down. 'What else could go wrong after this?!'

OoO

Naruto reached a staggering tall elevator, beyond, an overhanging cliff leading to the depths of the churning magma. He approached it. One hand was tightly clutching Tsundereplane's mob cap, the other murdering the elevator button. 'The plan's still the same, I still go to Monster kid, but I'll find wherever Pyrope and his cruddy gang are and send them to hell along the way.'

"Out of my way!" Naruto was suddenly on the ground coughing up dirt. 'Damn it!'

He sprung up and tried pushing the metal bully himself. "Who do you think you are?! I was here first!"

"Pipe it you brat, you're taking forever just to open the elevator door, I had to intervene!" Five seconds passed with no cooperation from the elevator. Mettaton tapped on the door. "Hm, I think you broke it."

"That's why you gotta use brute force at time's like these!" Naruto pulled hard on two door's crevice to no avail.

"Well, that absolutely did not work, cretin. How about I try my hand at this, I'm more equipped for this job anyways." Just as his fingers clung onto the crevice, the door automatically slid open. "Like I said." Mettaton suddenly fell forward.

Naruto ran on Mettaton and into the elevator's air conditioned comforts. "Ha, see you later!"

Mettaton's metallic arms wrapped around Naruto and pulled him not just into the elevator but into Naruto as well. The two fell on the ground together while the elevator door slid shut.

"Why'd you have to follow me here?! Don't you have wings or something?!"

"They broke! And I wasn't following you, you followed me!"

"Now you can't fly me anywhere!"

"That's what's most important to you?!"

*bing

Naruto and Mettaton tumbled out the elevator.

"Uh...you two alright?"

Standing over them was a small body of flames wearing the typical happy-go-lucky expression most monsters in Hotland seemed to carry. Mettaton quickly situated themselves at their presence.

"Of course I am!"

"H-hey! You're Mettaton, right? My sister loves your show!"

He went through a mental checklist of all his adoring fans. "Your sister?"

"Yeah, my sister, she goes to school around here, wears a fuku."

"Never seen her."

'...! That girl...she was in Pyrope's gang...that's his sister!' "Is she around here?!" Naruto asked.

"No, she said she was going to be out for a little bit, that was the last time I saw her. I'm not sure when she'll come back to be perfectly honest."

"Anyways, guys, about my name...oh they're gone? Rude."

Mettaton practically melted over news of his fan. "It's such a nice feeling to know I have another adoring fan! This horrible day just got semi-less horrible!" His endless gushing annoyed Naruto to no ends—and he knew it. "Don't you love the feeling of someone other than yourself appreciating your hard work ...oh wait, of course you don't! Ha ha ha!"

'How can she be a fan of Mettaton yet want to also kill him, that doesn't make sense.'

"Ha ha!"

'Maybe it isn't even her, there's a lot of fire people who wear fuku's after all, right?'

"Ha...ha..."

'I might be overthinking this, oh well, wherever they are, I hope they're close so I can pound them to the ground even sooner!'

"Ugh, it isn't fun if you're not insulting me back, you're making me look like an idiot."

"You don't need me for that."

"Dear oh dear! You're by far one of the rudest humans I've ever encountered, didn't your parents teach you any manners?!"

"...its not like I have any parents to teach me manners."

The deadness of Naruto's once colorful eyes shut Mettaton up immediately.

'Huh, he sure had an interesting childhood.'

"Ohmigod! It's the arsonist! Hi!"

Naruto walked up to Vulkin who had a hot dog sticking out of their crater. "Where'd you get the hot dog from?"

"There."

"...! Oi, Sans!"

Sans arms were resting on yet another concession stand, wildly similar to the one Naruto encountered at the Waterfall. "Hey kid, haven't seen you in a while, how'd your fight with Undyne go?"

"I'm still here, aren't I?"

"Ha ha yeah, say, what happened to Mettaton?"

"Oh he, he got caught under this big rock, you know."

Sans caught Naruto rubbing his neck and averting his eyes, prompting him to change the subject. "Man, that sucks...I guess I'd ask you if you want a hot dog right about now, but seeing as you're broke most of the time, I won't bother."

"Wait, wait! How many hot dogs can I get if I sell Mettaton off?"

Mettaton put the finishing touches of his signature on Vulkin's back. "Aaand there, all done, darling!"

"Squeee! This is like the 32nd best day of my life!"

'Measly fans.'

"Eh, Mettaton?" Sans slouched on the counter top. "I could give you a half-empty ketchup packet."

'Measly Sans.'

Mettaton extended his arms and slammed the counter top, startling Sans awake. "WHAT?! I am AT LEAST worth a full ketchup packet!"

Sans peeled Mettaton's hands off the counter and his arms retracted back to his body like stiff measuring tape. "Not the state you're in. Half you isn't nearly as valuable as the full."

"Are you kidding me? I could outshine everyone with just my arm!"

Something bright caught the corner of Naruto's eyes. '...! That's...' Naruto bolted from the stand leaving Mettaton and Sans bewildered.

"I'm guessing the human has a short attention span?"

"..I guess, well, I'm sure it's nothing."

A/N: The ruins & snowdin arc focused on the Naruto's loneliness and the Waterfall arc focused on the divide between humans and monsters, this arc will focus on how Tsundereplane's death (along with others), a supposed insignificant, background character, affects the entire hotland.

Which might be strange considering how the other arcs developed Naruto, but that's not what this is solely about. What this arc will be centered around is developing the monsters and it serves as an allegory to the genocide. So be prepared, because I can't believe I'm literally dedicating this arc to Tsundereplane of all monsters, what have I become...

OoO

Also here's something I thought up of when I read some Underswap comics to make up for the late update:

Sans: "Hey, hey, human over here!"

*walks over to recently cleaned concession stand* Menma: "Oh, if it isn't little Sans, what're you selling today?"

*grins* Sans: "Hot dogs, only for 30G!"

Menma: "What, 30G?! All I have is 3G I guess I'll go hungry for the day and starve...I don't think I can handle another day...but I wouldn't want to steal from you or—"

*shoves hot dog in his face* Sans: "Are you kidding me?! You're one of my best friends! Free of charge!"

*takes hot dog and wipes a tear* Menma: "Aw, Sans, what would I do without you, you're the best!"

Sans: "Hehe! Yeah, 'course I am!"

Menma: *walks away while Napstaton glares at him* "Dont give me that look shaggy, Sans is the biggest idiot in all of underground, heh, and that's saying something!"

*smiles as they walk away* Sans: "Ha, he thinks he played me like that as if I didn't notice right away...what a jokester."

*Menma from distance* Menma: "WHAT KIND OF...HE PUT A WATER SAUSAGE IN HERE?!"

Sans: "Jokes on him."