Mafiatale
An Undertale AU Fiction by D101 Reviews
Chapter 02: Your Best 'Friends'
The street lamps were on now and Frisk had spent the entire day trying to find a way back to his aunt. He was tired, scared, hungry and as dusk matured into night, he became colder and colder. He was only wearing a thin cotton shirt. His aunt had insisted that he wouldn't need his jacket today; that he'd only get his shirt sweaty and dirty if he wore his jacket on such a nice warm day as this.
It was also her insistence he wore his shorts today, again for the same reason. Now because of her his knees were cut-up and bloodied, his shins were dirty and his socks were muddy. His shoes had been polished to a shine this morning and now they were filthy. Frisk sniffed despondently and made his way down another street.
A young monster, Frisk couldn't tell if they were male or female, slipped by. They were dressed in a very slim fitting pin-striped suit with perfectly polished dress shoes. They also had a fedora pulled low over their eyes, a golden flower stuck in the brim of said hat. They looked at Frisk for a moment and Frisk felt incredibly unnerved. He ducked down another side alleyway to avoid that piercing gaze.
He sniffed and rubbed at his eyes as he walked down the alleyway. He didn't know why but he knew he had to get away from the monster whom he'd just passed as soon as possible. He didn't like their eyes. Their eyes just felt… wrong.
The alleyway that he'd taken to avoid the monster however was much darker than the others he'd been down this evening; the wall lights here having been shattered by something. It felt colder too, though Frisk didn't know why. Broken glass crunched and splintered under his feet as he walked amongst the cobblestone of the narrow side street. Garbage and refuse banked up against the walls that flanked him.
He came to a small open area that looked like the back entrance to two very grimy looking tenement buildings. A lone streetlamp stood in the middle of the empty space, lighting up a very small circle in a very dirty and ugly orange glow. As Frisk stepped under the light he wondered if he should knock on the back door of any of the buildings to try and ask for help.
And then he heard footsteps behind him.
Frisk turned around quickly and saw three tall monsters walking towards him. All with black pinstriped suits. All with hats pulled low over their eyes. All very big and powerful looking.
One of them had pale green, slick, wet looking skin, with huge bulbous yellow eyes that looked to be in danger of popping out of their head and a mouth wide enough to fit around Frisk's whole head. They had no nose but two little slits in the middle of their face. A Froggit.
The second had very rough looking orange skin, like the skin of a carrot. Stringy green hair escaped beneath the brim of his hat, a few strands falling past to brush the nostrils of his very flat, squashed nose. His mouth was but a carved facsimile of the real thing, cut into a rough, cruel smile, like a jack-o-lantern. His eyes had the same look to them, except they cut through into his hollow head and revealed two, burning white flames that danced with glee. A Vegetoid.
The third had a very small mouth and two slanted, slit like nostrils instead of a nose. Their skin was a coppery colour and their teeth were uneven and sharp. A single, huge eye took up most of the monster' head, and it stared at Frisk intently, hardly blinking. Bloodshot, watery, it's iris was a deep, brooding blue. When it did, it was slow and deliberate. A Loox.
The Loox was the first one to speak.
"This is a lot easier than I thought it'd be," he said cooly.
"Ribbit ribbit," the Froggit replied, seeming to agree. The Vegetoid merely cracked the knuckles on both hands reflexively. This seemed to be enough for the Loox.
"Sorry kid," the Loox said, his iris darkening, turning from blue to black, to red. "You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Frisk back up away from the three monsters. The monsters stepped forward in time with Frisk's retreat. Frisk backed up so quickly that he ended ip bashing his head against the street lamp as he backed up into it. He winced and tears began to bubble up at the corners of his eyes as a small lump began to rise up underneath the brim of his hat. He crouched down and threw his hands around to rub the pulsing spot.
The Froggit stopped as it saw this and turned to the Loox and the Vegetoid.
"Ribbit," it said. "Rib-bit ribbit ribbit."
The Loox turned to the Froggit, the power fading from his eyes and he frowned. "Who cares if the kid's lost. You know what we have to do. This'll be the seventh. That was the deal remember! Seven."
"Ribbit!" snapped the Froggit, shoving the Vegetoid back and squaring off against the Loox. "Ribbit ribbit!"
The Loox scowled and the Vegetoid's fiery eyes blazed green with livid fury.
"Do you really want them finding out we let a kid get out of this side of the city? Do you understand what'll happen if this brat gets away!? Someone will know! Someone will find out and then it'll go back to them and then…"
The Loox breathed in deep through its nose and the Vegetoid stepped forward, gesticulating wildly with his hands and arms, his eyes blazing with a pale blue fire now. He looked scared. The Froggit shook its head.
"Ribbit," the Froggit muttered, still shaking it's head. "Rib-bit."
"You don't wanna get your hands dirty I get it," snapped the Loox, holding his hands up in defense, trying to defuse the situation. "I understand that but you really think letting this kid go is gonna change anything. If it's not us someone else and we'll end up on the chopping block if… if they find out we let this kid live."
The Vegetoid made a small gesture and the Loox nodded in agreement.
"Yeah well we can't rely on that can we. They tell each other everything and if one of them finds out, they both find out and then it's game over for all three of us. The kid's gotta die. And if you don't wanna do it, fine. Just don't stop us from doing our damn jobs."
The Froggit looked like there was more it wanted to say but it kept quiet and bowed its head. The Loox sighed, and turned to face Frisk, who hadn't moved during this whole exchange, still holding the back of his head, sniffling pathetically and curled up on the ground. The Loox sighed again before walking up to Frisk, the power welling up in his eye again.
"Nothing personal kid," the Loox said coolly. "Just one of those lessons you probably didn't learn yet."
Frisk looked up into the face of the Loox, tears dribbling down his cheeks. The Loox didn't even flinch, the power in his eye becoming even greater.
"See the thing about this world kid," the Loox sighed, the red of his eye becoming almost blinding now, sucking up all other light around it. "Well… in this world. It's kill or be killed…"
A bolt of fire appeared from nowhere and struck the Loox in the chest, sending him sprawling. He cried out as he hit the ground, smacking his head against the cobblestones and a brilliant red ring of energy flew into the air and disappeared into the night. The Vegetoid sprang into action, vines flying from his fingertips, launching over Frisk's head to attack something behind him. The same brilliant white fire appeared again, setting fire to the vines before they hit their mark. Someone tall, stepped in front of Frisk, shielding them, blocking out the fight. There were more blasts of fire, cries of pain from the Loox as magic and fire were thrown across from both sides of the cobbled area.
After a few seconds the sounds of magical combat disappeared and there was the sound of crackling flames very close to Frisk. The large figure moved slightly and Frisk could see the Loox and Vegetoid crumbled on the ground together, smoldering slightly. The Froggit looked on before pulling the brim down on his hat, nodding to the figure and turning away.
"Such miserable creatures, torturing such a poor defenseless youth," muttered the monster in front of Frisk as the fire they held disappeared. They turned and knelt down to check over Frisk and he saw their face for the first time. They looked vaguely goat-like, with a short snout, long ears resting on their shoulders, white twisted horns poking out from behind their ears. They were also covered in fluffy white fur and they had deep, soft, caring brown eyes. For some reason Frisk felt very safe when he looked into her eyes.
"Hello young one," the goat-monster said softly, smiling warmly at him. "I am Toriel."