"Woah, what? You wrote this in about three hours?" Hell yeah I did.
On the downside, it's the shortest chapter so far - but only by around 200 words, so don't worry. (All of the chapters before this have been between 2000 and 3000 words, while this is only around 1800.
Frisk gawped at the massive, intimidating, mechanical structure that was floating in a lake of lava.
Well, that's impressive. The Hunger thought to Frisk. Before they could reply, they got a call. That would probably happen a lot through Hotland, they thought.
"S-see that building in the distance?" Alphys said. "That's the CORE. The source of all power for the Underground. It converts geothermal energy to magical electricity, by… Uhh, anyway, that's where we're going to go. In the CORE is an elevator directly to the castle. And from there… Well, I don't really know. You're kind of the first type of… whatever you are… that's fallen down here."
Alphys hung up. Frisk kept moving along the path, shooting glances at the CORE until it was no longer in their view. They reached what seemed to be a big, metal, glowing tube with "R1" above what looked to be an elevator door. They pressed a button that was to the right of the door and the door opened. They stepped in.
There was a sign on the wall opposite to the door. It had many buttons, but only three were lit up: Left Floor 1, Right Floor 1 (which had a glowing green light next to it, which they guessed meant that was where they were), and Right Floor 2. They hit Right Floor 2 and the elevator moved. In no time at all the doors opened and they stepped out.
The path continued to the west of the elevator. They moved along it and found Sans sitting in his sentry station, eyeing them. There was also a Vulkin that had a hot dog down its crater and a bird with another hot dog in its claws. As they moved past the bird, it said "Hey… isn't it weird that there's SNOW on that guy's roof?"
Sure enough, when they looked there was snow on Sans's station roof. The bird continued. "…guess he's just too lazy to clean it off." Frisk looked at it critically. The bird didn't notice. They moved over to talk to Sans, feeling nervous.
"hey buddy, what's up? wanna buy a hot dog? it's only 30G." Sans asked. Frisk declined. They still couldn't eat anything that required biting. "yeah, you've gotta save your money for college and spiders."
"What? Spiders?" Frisk asked, confused. Sans offered no explanation, just stared at them with his permanent grin. They quickly got nervous under his unblinking gaze (skeletons don't need to blink, obviously) and they moved further along the path.
ALPHYS posted a picture.
* dinner with the girlfriend ;)
It was a picture of a catgirl figurine next to a bowl of instant noodles, like the ones Frisk had taken. After about two more steps, their phone went off again. This time, however, it wasn't Alphys.
CoolSkeleton95 posted a picture.
* ARE WE POSTING HOT "PICS?"
* HERE IS ME AND MY COOL FRIEND
It was a picture of Papyrus flexing in front of a mirror. He was wearing sunglasses, and giant muscular biceps were pasted onto his arm. The biceps were also wearing sunglasses. Frisk let out a laugh before stumbling into another battle. As they put their phone away, they checked the monster, which seemed to be a coil of rope with shoes and a head. Its head was on fire and it was grinning hugely.
PYROPE – ATK 29 DEF 14. This mischievous monster is never warm enough.
"Is it cold in here?" The Pyrope asked, while throwing bombs at Frisk. The bombs had a large blast radius. Frisk thought of what they could do, before cranking up the thermostat. (Don't ask me where it came from.)
You crank up the thermostat. Pyrope begins to get excited. It was also getting harder to see as the waves of heat were actually visible.
"Hot! HOT! Hotter! HOTTER!" Pyrope yelled.
Pyrope wants more heat. The Hunger informed Frisk, as if they couldn't tell already. They cranked up the thermostat. It's super hot! Pyrope looks satisfied.
Frisk ran through some orange fire attacks before sparing the Pyrope and gaining 45G. Luckily, the room cooled back down (if you could call Hotland cool in the first place). It had been sweltering. They took a second to fan their face, and set off again.
ALPHYS updated status.
* LOL, CoolSkeleton95!
* …that's a joke, right?
CoolSkeleton95 updated status.
* THE ONLY JOKE HERE, IS HOW STRONG MY MUSCLES ARE.
This is actually pretty amusing. The Hunger said as Frisk took a detour south, before turning back around when they realised it was a dead end. Halfway back to the main path, they got another notification.
* NAPSTABLOOK22 has sent you a friend request.
* Accept the request?
Frisk clicked accept, but it seemed to have already rejected itself. They moved forward again and reached an area with multiple buttons and a couple of conveyor belts. They got a call from Alphys.
"H… hi…! It's Dr. Alphys." Mhmm, I wasn't aware of that. "This p-puzzle is kinda… um… timing-based. Y-you see those switches over there? Y-you'll have to press all of them within 3 seconds. I'll t-try to help you with the rhythm!"
Frisk moved over to the conveyor and stepped on it, pressing the first two buttons when they went past without a problem. However, on the third one…
"OK! Now press the third one!" Alphys interrupted their focus. "…..H-h-hey! Looks like you! Only needed to press! Two of them!" Alphys said, and then the forcefield turned off. They moved forward again.
ALPHYS updated status.
* that's the last time i try to help with a puzzle lmao
Of course she'd leave right when we're about to do a steam jumpy puzzle. Great. Frisk thought. The entirety of the next puzzle was made of switches and steam jumpies. Frisk looked to the conveyor belt that was supposed to bring them back safely if they fell.
They slowly forced their way forward along the conveyor belt, going just slightly faster than it was pushing them back. By the end of the belt they were exhausted, and they collapsed while trying to regain their breath.
You know, you could've just done the puzzle instead of… whatever that was. The Hunger informed them. They ignored it, choosing instead to pick up their phone, which was ringing once again.
"Oh… my god? You just… what did… how…?" Alphys hung up after that. Frisk took a while to recover before getting up again and heading further west. They entered an area with a microwave and paused to read the multiple status updates that Alphys had put up.
ALPHYS updated status.
* WHat
* what even is that human?!
Only that one concerned them. The rest…
ALPHYS updated status.
* OMG? ppl think Mew Mew 2 is better than Mew Mew 1?
* LOLLLLL that's a joke right…
ALPHYS updated status.
* omg… DON'T THEY GET IT RUINS Mew Mew's ENTIRE CHARACTER ARC
ALPHYS updated status.
* My Mew Mew 2 Review:
* Mew Mew Kissie Cutie 2 Is Neither Kissy Nor Cutie.
* Its Trash. 0 stars
* BETTY_THE_PERSERVERING liked this post.
Frisk was so busy laughing at the updates that they didn't notice the two slightly dumb guards from earlier coming up behind them, in a room filled with wireframes and pipes pumping out steam.
"Hey! You! Stop!" They swirled around sharply. "We've, like, received an anonymous tip about a beast disguised as a human, wearing a striped shirt. They told us they were wondering around Hotland right now… I know, sounds scary, huh? Well, just stay chill. We'll bring you someplace safe, OK?"
Frisk, who had been tensed up ready for a fight, relaxed and let out a breath as the two guards started leading them back the way they'd came. Suddenly, the guard who had been talking stopped and looked at the other, silent one as he whispered something to him.
"…Huh? What is it, bro? The shirt they're wearing? …like, what about it?" The guard looked at Frisk, who had tensed up again. He turned back to the other guard. "Bro… Are you thinkin… what I'm thinkin? Bummer. This is, like… Mega embarrassing. We, like, actually totally have to kill you and stuff."
Before they could run, they were drawn into battle. They looked between the two guards before checking the loud one. RG 01 – ATK 30 DEF 20. Royal Guard member with shining, polished armour.
Both of the guards said "Team attack!" and shot a bunch of stars at Frisk. They dodged them all. 02 watches your movements.
Frisk checked the silent guard. RG 02 – ATK 30 DEF 20. Royal Guard member with stuffy armour.
"Like, perish and stuff." The loud guard said as they shot more stars at Frisk. They had an idea and moved up to clean 02's armour. You clean RG 02's armour. Its cooling dirt begins to wash away.
"…getting… warmer…" 02 said, and a glowing green armour symbol appeared and started floating around the star attacks. Frisk ran into it a bunch of times, and… "…can't… take it… armour… too… HOT!"
02 threw off his chestplate and revealed a sweaty torso. "…much better." To be honest, it kind of turned Frisk on.
Now is really not the time for that. Please, please get on with the battle. It's your turn. The Hunger begged them. RG 01 looks bothered by something.
Indeed he did. He looked incredibly flustered, and Frisk couldn't even see his face. They had an amazingly mischievous idea. You tell 01 to be honest with his feelings. What are you doing?
"I… I…" 01 stuttered, his attacks going all over the place.
"…what?" 02 asked. Frisk was grinning.
"D-dude… I can't… I can't take this anymore! Not like this! Like, 02! I like… I like, LIKE you, bro! The way you fight… The way you talk… I love doing team attacks with you. I love standing here with you, bouncing and waving our weapons in sync…" Phrasing lol. "02… I, like, want to stay like this forever…"
"…" 02 was silent.
"Uh… I mean, uh… Psyche! Gotcha, bro! Haha!" 01 was panicking.
"…01."
"Y-yeah, bro?"
"…do you want to… get some ice cream… after this?" 01 looked relieved.
"Sure, dude! Haha!" 01 and 02 are looking at each other happily.
Frisk spared them and earned 100G. They walked off back to the elevator together, all happy n stuff. Frisk continued along their path.
ALPHYS updated status.
* oopswait how's the human doing
They moved north along the path before it turned east.
ALPHYS updated status.
* Top 10 Shows That Make You Forget To Do Your Frickin Job
They kept walking. They were in another black area. Oh dear.
More like "OH YESSS" amiright? The Hunger laughed as Alphys turned on the lights to reveal Mettaton on a news set.