While Frisk had been rooting through trash, fighting the mad dummy and hanging with Napstablook, Undyne had been rushing back to the other path down Waterfall. She had met Monster Kid on the way, and had told him what had happened. She then took MK to her house and told them to wait there.
She had a plan. She knew that Alphys would have been monitoring the new human, and that she would know where they were. As she headed down to the River Person from her house, she saw Napstablook going towards the dumps. She wondered what the ghost was doing, but didn't stop to ask.
She did, however, stop to ask Gerson if he had seen a new human around. After he told her he hadn't but that he'd look, she took a ride with the River Person over to Hotland – despite the fact that she hated it there. This was kind of an emergency. Besides, Alphys's lab would be cool.
While waiting for the boat to get to Hotland, she had been thinking about the human. They were rather strange, even for a human… all of that chanting "blood", the nice cream cone turning to ash, and their superhuman powers… And Sans. Sans was watching them very closely. I wonder if it has something to do with the secret job Alphys says Sans has…
One time, when Undyne had been hanging with Alphys, the latter had accidentally said something about Sans working with her on something special. Undyne hadn't believed her at the time, and had said that she didn't think Sans would be able to work on anything, special or not. But earlier, he had been very much awake, and very much watching the human…
Undyne realised that she had reached Hotland while she had been thinking, and rushed up to the lab, trying to spend as little time as possible in the heat.
"ALPHYS!" She yelled as she burst in. She was met by two small people (who weren't as shocked as she had expected them to be), who turned from the monitor from which they had been watching something. One was Alphys, obviously, but the other was a human around Alphys's size.
Undyne recognised the human as the one with the purple soul of perseverance, Betty. They were wearing their usual cloudy classes and scribbling notes into their torn notebook. Betty had lived and worked with Alphys for a while now, but Undyne hadn't seen much of her. Anyway, back to the problem.
"H-hello, Undyne. We know why you're here. A-at least, probably." Alphys.
"Good! Can you tell me where the new human is?" Undyne requested.
The two scientist nerds shot a nervous look at each other, before Betty said "U-uh, actually… There's something you should see before that…"
Alphys moved back to the monitor and seemed to be rewinding the footage. They seemed to be viewing the garbage dump.
"Of course, the dump! I should've checked there!" Undyne said, frustrated. "Also, Betty. How come you aren't at the celebration?"
"O-oh, I… well, I wanted to spend a little more time watching this new human. They were acting quite… strange." The timid human replied. "Also… it's not like Chara really wants to have anyone around…"
"I-it's probably good that you did stay here… take a look at this, Undyne." Alphys moved so that they could all see the screen.
The screen was showing the new human moving slowly through the dump, occasionally stopping to look through the garbage. They looked a lot worse than the last time Undyne had seen them; their eyes were rather bloodshot and they overall looked rather… ragged? It was hard for her to describe. As the three of them watched, Undyne's training dummy (Asgore knows what it was doing in the dump in the first place) attacked the human. It seemed quite mad. The human was doing quite well avoiding all of its attacks, however. It seemed they were quite good at that.
Suddenly, the human was hit multiple times by some homing missiles. They visibly tensed up, and let out a very much inhuman growl. To Undyne's horror, they then proceeded to grow into the most terrifying beast she had ever seen.
*Slightly later and also back to Frisk…*
After Frisk had stopped laughing about the Winks of Fear™, they decided to call Papyrus in hopes that he knew where Undyne was.
Hey, maybe you shouldn't do that. Why not just… explore on our own? It'll be fun; no one will know where we are. The Hunger advised.
You have just provided me with a perfect reason NOT to do that. You should probably hone your persuasion skills. Frisk pulled out their phone and called Papyrus before The Hunger could answer.
"HELLO?" Papyrus yelled.
"Hi, Papyrus!" Frisk greeted him.
"OH! HUMAN! HOW NICE TO HEAR FROM YOU! WHERE ARE YOU AT THE MOMENT?" Papyrus asked.
"I'm just in the room past the trash area."
"HEY! THAT MEANS YOU'RE NEAR UNDYNE'S HOUSE! THAT'S TO THE LEFT-UPWARDS. LUPWARDS. ALL THE OTHER DIRECTIONS GO TO THE WRONG HOUSE. NORTH: GHOST HOUSE. EAST: TURTLE HOUSE. SOUTH: TRASH HOUSE. WEST: BIRD HOUSE."
Frisk laughed a bit. It seemed they'd never tire of Papyrus's antics. "Thanks, Papyrus. You saved me a bunch of exploring."
"NO PROBLEM, HUMAN FRIEND! CALL ME IF YOU NEED ANYTHING ELSE."
"I will." Papyrus hung up just as they realised they hadn't asked if he knew where Undyne was. But that didn't really matter anymore, seeing as they had learnt where her house was. They moved lupwards towards her house, entering the side cave that it was within.
"Yo! Dude, where've you been? Undyne's looking all over for you!" Monster Kid rushed up to Frisk.
Ugh, it's them.
Don't be mean.
"Oh! Hey MK! I didn't expect to see you here. I was actually looking for Undyne. Do you know where she went?" Frisk asked, neglecting to answer the question.
"Uhh, I think she went to Hotland for something… But she told me to stay here!"
"Well, I'm sure she won't mind us meeting her halfway, right?"
Yes, lure them away and kill them when we're alone!
Quiet, you.
"Ummm… okay!"
Don't they know not to trust strangers? Especially ones who have previously had a mental breakdown and started chanting "blood" in front of them.
That was you, not me.
Ha! I wasn't even real until you hit your head in the dumps. I was just a figment of your imagination that you blamed all of your shortcomings on. But now that I am real you'll have many, many more problems.
"A-all right, let's… get going then." Frisk stuttered, trying to ignore The Hunger.
You know I'm right. The Hunger continued, as Frisk and MK headed out and to the east. All of that stuff before? That was all you. YOU were the one who had a mental breakdown. YOU were the one who was wondering what monster dust tasted like.
YOU were the one who killed Papyrus.
Frisk inhaled sharply and choked back a sob. Fortunately, MK didn't seem to notice. Luckily for them, The Hunger seemed to drop the subject. It seemed to be contended by just taunting them, for now. They decided to focus on where they were. They had just exited the room, and were now outside what looked to be a shop. There were also two paths they could take.
"Which path should we take?" MK said, hesitating and looking between both paths.
"I think you should take the path into here, and buy some stuff! Wahahaha!" An old croaky voice told the two of them. It came from the shop. Frisk looked at MK and shrugged, before walking inside.
In the shop (which was actually a small cave, with a shop set up inside) they saw an old archaeologist-looking turtle. He said "Hey there! I've got some neat junk for sale, if you want anything!"
"Actually, we'd like to know if Undyne came through here." Frisk requested politely.
"Undyne? Yeah, she just came through here asking about someone who looked just like you." The old man replied.
"Yes, that would be because she's looking for me. Do you know which way she went?"
"I think she went over to Hotland. She took a ride with the River Person. If you're lucky, the River Person will be just south of here. They can take you to Hotland. Otherwise, you can take the other path. It'll take a little longer and there are some puzzles, but you should be fine." They thanked the old turtle, and he told them to take care before they moved on along the southern path. All that was there was an empty river.
"I guess we'll have to go the long way." MK nodded in agreement before the duo turned around and headed further east. The first room they entered was a long one, filled with echo flowers and waterfalls. There were also a couple of plaques describing how the barrier was made and how to break it.
The room following that one was very dark, but the glowing grass lit up when they hit the magic mushrooms. As they were leaving the room, they encountered a rather strange creature.
What's wrong with that thing's face? The strange creature was intensely vibrating. Plus, its face was floating off. Frisk tried to say hello to it.
"hOI! i'm TEMMIE!" It said, before disappearing into thin air.
"Well. That was interesting." Frisk commented. MK agreed. They moved onwards.
The next room was a puzzle room. As in the whole room was a puzzle. There were lanterns that seemed to light up the room, without which MK couldn't see. Of course, Frisk had night vision, so they didn't bother doing the puzzle, they just told MK where to stand and eventually they got to the end of the room.
The room after the puzzle room was also quite dark and seemed like a dead end, but Frisk could see a northern path that was hidden in the darkness. They moved forward and entered a slightly flooded hall, with a bunch of echo flowers. Frisk tuned out the echo flowers, like usual. At the end of the hall was a singular plaque that described a prophecy.
In the next room was what seemed to be a not-very-safe bridge. When they had almost reached the end of the bridge, MK stopped. He seemed to be contemplating something.
"Yo… so, you know that stuff that happened earlier with the telescope… and the ice cream cone?" Frisk stilled. "What was that all about? I've never seen a human do those weird things… but, uh, I've never really talked to a human either, just looked at them."
Before Frisk could answer, there came loud stomping sounds from the area they'd just left. Undyne rushed around the corner and froze at the start of the bridge. She was wearing her helmet.
"Kid!" She yelled. "Get away from that thing!"
MK looked around confusedly. "What thing, Undyne?"
"The human thing! It's not safe to be around them!" Frisk's heart dropped. How much did Undyne know about them?
Well, well. It seems like she's finally got some sense into that tiny head of hers. The Hunger was itching for a fight, Frisk could tell.
MK looked confused and then slightly scared. They hesitantly headed towards Undyne, stopping in the middle of the bridge. "Why isn't it safe Undyne?"
"It… it's not properly human! I saw it turn into a horrible beast, now come here!" MK started to go towards Undyne, but tripped and was hanging off the edge of the bridge.
"Yo, w-w-wait! Help! I tripped!" Undyne moved towards the kid quickly, but nowhere near as quick as Frisk moved. They pulled up the kid and moved back slightly. Undyne took another step towards the them. MK looked between the two of them and moved to stand between them.
"Y… y… yo… dude…" MK addressed Undyne. "If… If y-you wanna hurt my friend… You're gonna have to get through me, first."
What a foolish child.
Frisk couldn't see Undyne's face, but they imagined it looked as shocked as they felt. Undyne took a step back, and then a few more, before she turned around and left.
"She's gone… Yo, you really saved my skin." MK thanked them. "…man, I should go home… I bet my parents are worried sick about me!" Frisk was still frozen on the spot. MK took a couple steps back, before turning around and saying "Later, dude!" before running off the same way Undyne went.
After staying still for a couple seconds more, Frisk went in the opposite direction off the bridge. They entered a room with another, smaller, bridge, which they crossed, before entering the next room along. This room was very much different to the previous two. It had a huge spiky mountain-rock that took up the whole room. The path went through the middle of it. As Frisk moved forward to follow the path, they looked up and noticed Undyne standing at the top of the mountain. Although it didn't seem important, they also noted some mechanical infrastructures rising out of the ground far behind her.
"Seven. That is the number of humans that are currently living with the Royal Family. The King and Queen are trying to teach them all magic so that they can break the barrier. Six. That is the number of humans currently able to use magic." Undyne turned to face them. "But you? You aren't really a human. Your soul may well be useless, for all we know. Which is why it's a good thing we don't need you. That is why I'll kill you, here and now, so you no longer pose a threat to everyone's hopes and dreams."
Frisk took in a breath to reply, but before they could Undyne continued. "First, however, I shall tell you the tragic tale of our people. It all started long ago…" Undyne paused. "…No, you know what? SCREW IT! WHY SHOULD I TELL YOU THAT STORY WHEN YOU'RE ABOUT TO DIE!? NGAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" Undyne dramatically threw of her helmet, her eye gleaming in the light. "YOU! You're standing in the way of everyone's hopes and dreams! Alphys's anime made me think humans were cool… with their giant robots and flowery swordswomen."
Pretty sure those aren't too accurate.
"BUT YOU? You're just a coward!"
Rude.
"Hiding behind that kid just so you could run away from me! And let's not forget your wimpy goody-two-shoes shtick! 'Oooh, I'm making such a difference by hugging random strangers!'"
She has a point there, you know.
"You know what would be more valuable to everyone? IF YOU WERE DEAD!"
She's really into this whole "killing" us stuff, isn't she?
"That's right, beast! Your continued existence is a crime! Your life is all that stands between us and freedom! Right now, I can feel everyone's hearts pounding together! Everyone's been waiting their whole lives for this moment! But we're not nervous at all. When everyone puts their hearts together, they can't lose!"
That's not true.
"Now, beast! Let's end this, right here, right now. I'll show you how determined monsters can be! Step forward when you're ready! Fuhuhuhu!"
Oh, this will be fun.
Yeah, I left you on a cliffhanger. Sorry not sorry.