I'm very sorry that this chapter took a while, I wanted it done by the 30th of November but I only started it on the 1st of December. So that plan backfired completely.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy, as always! I have some important stuff to say at the end.
Frisk hesitantly moved out of the resort and along the bridge to the CORE. It looked really cool and futuristic, but at the same time scary and also there were a bunch of shadow sausages standing at the entrance. They got a call.
Ugh, again? The Hunger sounded rather annoyed. They ignored it. When they answered the call, it was obviously Alphys.
"Huh? Who are they? N-nobody else is supposed to be here… Oh well! We can't worry about that now!" She said. Frisk continued along the bridge and over to the entrance of the CORE, which was surrounded in glowing lights. They stepped inside and looked around. There were three options of where to go; in front of them was an elevator, and there were two doorways the left and right of it, respectively. "Ready? This is it! Take the elevator up to the top of the CORE!
However, when they tried to use it, the lift didn't work. Alphys commented on how that was strange before telling them to go through the right doorway and keep heading up. They did so, but were stopped by a pit of fire blocking the path.
"Alright, now just keep heading up!" Alphys told them, but then soon saw the problem. "…That pit… isn't on my map." She sounded confused, but quickly recovered. "Forget it! Let's try the left side!"
They turned around and headed back to the first room, before heading through the left door. There was a slightly long hall, with a circuits all over the floor and strange, glowing totem poles rising out of the abyss along the sides of the path.
"Okay, you should be able to make it through here…" Suddenly, one of the spoopy shadow sausages that they'd seen earlier rushed at them. "W-watch out!" Alphys yelled, as they were drawn into battle.
Madjick pops out of its hat! It was a strange monster with invisible limbs that had magic orbs floating on either side of its head. It was wearing a witch's hat, a strange tunic and boots that had curled ends, like jester's boots. Its head was obscured by the hat and all you could see was a slightly insane grin. Frisk checked it after getting over their surprise. MADJICK – ATK 29 DEF 24. This magical mercenary only says magic words.
"Please and thank you." The monster said, as an orb swooped at them and left behind floating crosses that disappeared after a couple seconds.
Madjick peers at you with strange eyes. Frisk tried to talk to it. It interrupted them by chattering to itself. Its gibberish dizzies you… your DEFENSE drops by one.
"Alakazam!" The orb shot many cross projectiles at Frisk, who was still wobbling around, dizzy. They were hit once but were able to spare it after that, although they were still feeling confused. They earnt 60G.
"T-that was close… Wh… why are there so many monsters here? I mean… It's no problem, r-r-right? W-w-we've just got to keep heading forward!" Alphys sounded quite worried. They continued along the hall and reached a door with a strange symbol above it, which reminded them a bit of the Delta Rune. It wasn't exactly the same, thought. They disregarded it and kept going forward.
There was forcefield blocking the way to a bridge made of glass that crossed the abyss. There were a couple more totem poles, and some deactivated lasers to the sides. It was easy to see the circuitry underneath the glass bridge.
"Looks like you can't proceed until you hit the switch. B-but those lasers will activate when you do. Ummm… looks like they'll come in this order: Orange. Orange. Blue. G-got it? Move until the third one!" Frisk pressed the switch but soon realised that Alphys had got the order wrong. They were hit by the first laser, which had been blue, but otherwise escaped unscathed. It was good that they were getting a hold of the beastly tendencies, otherwise they may have gone psycho. As it was, they just let out a short growl before calming down again.
"Oh my god… are you hurt? I… I'm so sorry, I… I gave you the wrong order." Alphys sounded distraught. "…Everything's going to be fine, okay? L-let's just keep heading to the right."
The landscape had changed, and now they were walking on a grey tiled floor, lined with flashing lights, with strange tubes holding coloured wires along the purplish walls. They were also at a crossroads. They could either keep heading to the right, or go up.
"A crossroads… Uhhh… Tr… Try heading to the right!" They were about to go right, but Alphys quickly changed her mind and asked them to go up instead. There was another sausage in the northern room, which had panels over the floor and- …they didn't get to see the rest, because they were dragged into battle.
Knight Knight blocks the way! It was what seemed to be a draconic face in knight's armour, wielding a Morningstar. Frisk checked it, out of habit. KNIGHT KNIGHT – ATK 36 DEF 36. This megaton mercenary wields the Good Morningstar.
"Goodbye." The monster said, summoning many miniature morningstars and smashing them all over the arena in an attempt to hit Frisk.
Smells like stardust. They decided to sing to the monster. You sing Shyren's song. Knight Knight starts to look sleepy…
"Close your eyes…" A miniature sun appeared and shot even smaller balls of light at Frisk, which were very hard to avoid due to the sheer amount of them.
Knight Knight watches quietly. Frisk kept singing, and the monster fell asleep and started snoring. They spared it and earnt 70 gold.
"Sorry, I… I… I thought that… Let's try the right path instead." They exited the northern room and headed east. They came across a blue bridge that had many, many blue lasers along it. There were a couple red lights glowing within the darkness surrounding it.
"M… more lasers… Okay, I… I won't mess around this time. I'll just deactivate the lasers and let you through." There was a pause. The lasers were still there. "They're… they're not turning off… I can't turn them off, I… I-I-It's okay! I have this under control! I'm going to turn off the p-power for that whole node. Then you can walk across." The lights turned off at the same time as the lasers. "Okay, go!"
They walked along the long bridge, becoming highly nervous as there was what seemed to be an unending row of lasers. Suddenly… "W-WAIT! STOP!" All of the lasers turned back on. They were surrounded by beams of blue light, and there were even some going straight through them. They stood perfectly still.
"Th-the power… It's turning itself back on. D-damn it… Th-this isn't supposed to… I… I'm going to turn it off again. When it turns off, move a little, and then STOP. OK? Y-you won't get h-h-hurt."
They moved forward slightly before having to stop as the lasers flickered on again. They repeated the movement until they reached the end of the bridge. "S-see? I've got everything under control. Everything's under control!" Alphys sounded like she was telling it to herself more than to Frisk.
While they moved forward, they asked The Hunger, Hey, you okay? You haven't really been talking much, apart from to narrate the Fights. You haven't even been insulting Alphys!
Isn't that a good thing from your perspective? It answered snarkily.
Yeah, but you're being kind of suspicious.
Hmph. Before Frisk could ask it to elaborate on the 'hmph', Alphys started talking again. They were at a three-way crossroads; four if you counted the way they'd came.
"OK! Y-you should… You should… I don't know?" Very useful, Alphys. Who knows what we'd do without you? It seemed The Hunger was back to normal. "This doesn't look like my map at all… I'm sorry… I… I… I have to go."
Way to ditch us, Alphys. Frisk noticed that there were a bunch of signs on the wall. Ew, it smells like ozone here.
What does ozone even smell like? Frisk asked as they moved to get a better look at the electronic signs.
It smells like this place.
Very descriptive, thanks. Frisk read the signs. One read 'North, the warrior's path. West, the sage's path. Any path leads to the end.' The other, 'East… The End.' They headed west, since they didn't want to go on the warrior's path, and they didn't know what to expect in the east. They saw a conveyor belt carrying the ice blocks from Snowdin and chucking them into the abyss. However, this abyss was white, unlike the other ones that were black. It also evaporated the ice blocks as soon as they made contact.
Frisk headed further along the path. There was a sign. 'Solve this puzzle and The End will open.' There was one of the familiar shoot-y box puzzles, but this one was much more complicated than the others had been. Eventually, they managed to get it right, but they'd been there a while by then. They left the puzzle area and continued along the path. There was another crossroads. They decided to go up instead of right. They found a dead end with a sign that said 'Why not relax and have a nice snack?' alongside a Glamburger. They shrugged and picked it up, despite knowing they were unable to eat it.
After that, Frisk turned around and left the room, going right this time. They found another sign at another three-way crossroad. 'Traverse the northern room and the end will open.' They decided not to, since they remembered the warrior path was to the north, and also since they had already opened the end by doing the puzzle. No point in wasting time. They continued going right. There was another crossroad, and they headed up again. They found 100G inside a trash can and headed back down, and kept going down. There were two more signs. 'To the east! This is The End.' 'I cannot fight. I cannot think. But, with patience, I will make my way through.'
There was a long blue bridge ahead of them. Its support beams disappeared into the white abyss. There were flashing lining the walls, and totems rising out of the white. This bridge actually had a railing. They walked along it. They encountered a monster.
Astigmatism drew near. It looked like a Loox, but scarier. Out of habit, they checked it. ASTIGMATISM – ATK 32 DEF 26. This relentless bully ALWAYS gets its way.
"…Don't pick on me." It told Frisk, as they dodged the masses of magic white hoops that floated around and towards them.
Astigmatism gives you a hypnotising glare. You don't pick on it.
"Finally someone gets it." It used the same attack as before.
Astigmatism doesn't care about fighting anymore. Frisk spared it and earnt 50 gold. They continued along the bridge, before reaching the end of it. There was a lift and another door with the almost Delta Rune. They assumed the lift was the one that they were supposed to take to get there, and stepped through the doorway.
They were in a heart-shaped arena. They floor was black and was rimmed with pink. Mettaton was standing in the middle of the arena, with his arms retracted behind his back.
"OH YES. THERE YOU ARE, DARLING. NOW. BEFORE WE START THE SHOW, THERE'S SOMETHING YOU NEED TO KNOW." Frisk cocked their head, interested. "YOU'RE PROBABLY ALREADY AWARE, BUT THIS WAS ALL JUST A BIG SHOW. AN ACT. ALPHYS REACTIVATED PUZZLES, DISABLED ELEVATORS. SHE ENLISTED ME TO TORMENT YOU.
I'M VERY SORRY ABOUT THAT, BUT WE WANTED REAL REACTIONS, YOU SEE. ORIGINALLY, SHE WAS GOING TO COME IN HERE DURING OUR 'BATTLE,' PRETEND TO 'DEACTIVATE' ME, 'SAVING' YOU ONE FINAL TIME.
NOW, I WON'T LIE. THERE WASN'T ONLY ONE REASON FOR ALL THIS. FOR ALPHYS, THE SHOW WAS ACTUALLY A SIDE AFFECT. SHE THOUGHT THAT IF YOU REGARDED HER HIGHLY ENOUGH, SHE'D BE ABLE TO CONVINCE YOU NOT TO GO TO THE CAPITAL. BUT WE REALISED THAT IT WOULDN'T BE NICE TO KEEP YOU IN THE DARK, AFTER YOU WERE SO KIND TO HER." Frisk could see Alphys at the doorway, looking sheepish. "SO. WE'LL DO A FAKE BATTLE HERE, FOR THE SHOW, AND AFTER THAT'S DONE WE'LL SHOW YOU ON YOUR WAY TO THE CAPITAL. DOES THAT SOUND OKAY?"
"Yeah, that's all right for me. I don't mind if you use real attacks in the fake fight, either. It'll make it more interesting, and I can handle it." Frisk told Mettaton.
"IF THAT'S WHAT YOU'D LIKE. I HAVE NO DESIRE TO HARM HUMANS. FAR FROM IT, ACTUALLY. MY ONLY DESIRE IS TO ENTERTAIN. AFTER ALL, THE AUDIENCE DESERVES A GOOD SHOW, DON'T THEY? AND WHAT'S A GOOD SHOW… WITHOUT A PLOT TWIST? THE CAMERAS WILL BE ON IN A COUPLE SECONDS, SO GET READY." Alphys gave them a thumbs-up from the doorway before it closed behind them. "CAMERAS ROLLING IN THREE… TWO… ONE… AND, ACTION!"
Mettaton's arms came out from behind his back, one of them holding a microphone. A spotlight fell onto him, and the ground around them was lit up with red lights. Mettaton started his spiel. "IT'S TIME TO HAVE OUR FINAL SHOWDOWN. IT'S TIME TO FINALLY STOP THE MALFUNCTIONING ROBOT… NOT! DO YOU REALLY THINK YOU HAVE A CHANCE AGAINST ME? SORRY, FOLKS! THE OLD PROGRAM'S BEEN CANCELLED!" The platform rose up into the air and graphic effects lit up the darkness around them to make it look like they were going incredibly fast, while music played in the background. "BUT WE'VE GOT A FINALE THAT'LL DRIVE YOU WILD! REAL DRAMA! REAL ACTION! REAL BLOODSHED! IN OUR NEW SHOW… 'ATTACK OF THE KILLER ROBOT!'"
Meanwhile, Chara was trying to keep their fangirl squealing down to a minimum since their whole family was sitting down at the TV to watch this episode.
I'm very sorry that I left it on such a cliffhanger, but I didn't want to have a really long chapter, or to cut it off in the middle of the fight. Of course, if the majority of readers would prefer the chapters to be longer, I could start doing that.
Now, onto the important stuff! So, I made a discord server where we can all talk about the story and you guys can tell me what your theories are and I can be cryptic and not actually answer anything, unless I do by accident.
Sounds like fun, right? Here's the link.
discord
.gg
/fXYgeBK
Because FFN is a pain, I can't actually link to anything and anything that looks like a link gets deleted, so you'll have to copy that and put it in properly.