'I will see you soon'
Sans awoke with a start, sitting up quickly, then regretting it as the world spun for a few seconds. After his surroundings stabilized, Sans carefully swung his legs over the side of the bed and hopped off, holding onto the bed just in case. When he was sure he would stay steady, he walked out of the familiar room and easily made his way through the halls and toward the kitchen. He could seriously go for some ketchup right now.
As Sans turned into the kitchen, he was only mildly surprised to find it empty. He glanced around, shrugged, then went for the fridge. He grabbed what he wanted, unscrewed the top and chugged it down. He felt as if he had not eaten in days.
After what he could remember of the last twenty-four hours, he was content with his condiment and quiet.
"What do you mean there's a strange sound?!" Sans winced as the muffled yell of Undyne came from the living room. He could he other muffled voices talking back and forth, all sounding too excited for his liking. After another chug of ketchup, Sans set it down on the table then teleported.
As the living room popped into his vision, Sans realized there was a problem. He looked down at the incoming ground, then landed hard on the wood flooring.
"Sans! Brother, are you-?" Papyrus was the first to state his worry, followed closely by Undyne.
"Where the hell did you come from?! You know what, I have better things to worry about right now. I got a call from the underground guard. There seems to be a problem," Undyne was pacing the floor, with the other occupants in the room watching her with unease.
"Al, have you had any notifications recently from the underground? Specifically Waterfall?" Undyne stopped pacing for a moment to stare at her girlfriend. Alphys stared back at Undyne, then something seemed to click.
"Y-yes, I have, actually. It's…" Alphys searched her pockets for a minute, becoming more flustered by the second.
"Uh, can anyone explain what is going on?" Sans asked, finally standing up from his uncomfortable position on the floor.
"I don't know yet, but whatever is going on, it's freaking the guard out. I can't get a straight answer." Undyne rubbed a hand over her face and finally stopped pacing.
"The lab!" Alphys immediately ran out of the room without another word.
"Okay…" Sans rubbed his arm, trying to lessen the pain from his fall. "How about I go check things out real quick then? I can pop in and out-"
"No. I don't know what's going on down there, and you just woke up from I don't know. I'm not about to put you or anyone else in unnecessary danger," Undyne ordered, then turned around when Alphys came back into the room.
"I-I, um..." Alphys tapped a few commands into her phone then looked up at the other occupants in the room. "My sensors p-picked an anomaly. A-and my cameras i-in Waterfall also caught th-this strange, um, static."
"Static? Well, let's see it then!" Undyne walked over and stared at the phone screen. Sans watched with anticipation, his soul feeling tight. He jumped when a small hand made its way into his own. He stared down at Frisk, who signed one-handed at him. Sans' mind barely comprehended the question, and was pulled away as he heard a familiar buzzing.
"You think it's just faulty audio?" Undyne asked, in response to the video of Waterfall being pulled up.
"N-no. They're all like that. I can't s-seem to get a clear video feed from a-any of them." Alphys tapped away at her phone again, bringing up several pages, each showing a different part of Waterfall. One video failed to show up at all, nothing but black with the occasional glitch.
"Where's that one?" Undyne pointed to the broken video feed.
"U-um… this in the entrance to the m-main caverns."
"Gotcha. Alright, I'm gonna need you to-" Sans did not hear the rest as he let go of Frisk and teleported to Waterfall. He did not end up in Waterfall, however, and made it to the entrance of Hotland.
Sans landed clumsily on the ground, cursed under his breath and dusted himself off. There must be something wrong for his shortcuts to suddenly go haywire.
He looked around, and felt something ominous in the air. Every instinct was telling him to leave immediately. To turn around and never come back. That whatever this was, it was dangerous. But something in the back of his mind also told him to see it. That he knew what this was. That it was familiar. And so, curiosity won over and Sans entered Waterfall.
As soon as he made it inside the damp caves of Waterfall, he could immediately hear a low static bouncing off of the walls. A shiver ran down Sans' spine as he made his way forward. His mind was racing, but no thoughts seemed to hold long enough for him to comprehend. It was frustrating, to say the least. But he knew this from somewhere. He had heard it at the concert, that much he was sure of. But he felt as if he had come into contact with whatever was making that sound before now. Many years before now.
Time seemed to speed up as his surroundings passed by and he was soon at the entrance to the caverns. The buzzing had been increasing in intensity the whole time, but as Sans snapped out of his thoughts, he noticed now that it seemed more like an uneven crackling, like a radio station trying to tune in on a frequency, but the radio is tuned a few numbers above or below the actual station. And Sans could swear he could hear voices coming from it.
Gathering his courage and wondering what the hell he was doing, he continued toward the unknown before him, then jumped a good half foot and activated his magic as a bark sounded behind him.
"Citizen, stop," commanded Lesser Dog. He was running on all fours, and Sans could see Greater Dog jogging awkwardly behind him.
"Sans," Lesser Dog panted, stopping in front of said skeleton, "what are you doing here?" Sans shoved his magic away and shrugged casually.
"Just checking out this weird sound I've been hearing. Wanna come?" He asked, pointing with his thumb over his shoulder. Lesser Dog tilted his head, then scratched behind his ear.
"Captain says no citizens are to go near the sound until further investigation."
"Last time I checked, I had been part of the guard. I suppose that means I'm not really a citizen," Sans countered, knowing the argument was weak. After all, the guard had been mostly dismantled after the monsters had gone to the surface. Lesser Dog did not think this was a problem, though.
"You are correct," he answered, his tongue now hanging out of his mouth.
"Then how about we go check out the noise so we can report it to the captain?" But Greater Dog was now shaking his head.
"Undyne told us-"
"Yeah yeah, I know what she said. I got a message from her. She says the video feed isn't working in this area, and she wants me to go check it out," Sans lied easily.
Greater and Lesser Dog took in the message, hesitating.
"But, she did not-" Lesser Dog started.
"She would, but the signals down here are really bad right now. Besides, we have no time to wait. Come on," Sans then turned and began walking through the entrance to the main caverns, not waiting for a reply.
After a moment of hesitation, the two guards began to follow the short skeleton.
Once inside the main cave of Waterfall, the noise increased to almost unbearable. Sans glanced back to the guards and frowned when he saw both flinch, their ears dropping close to their heads. A small whine escaped from one of them, but it was quickly drown out by the static.
"Sans, it is not nice in here," Lesser Dog whimpered beside him as they kept moving forward, the light from the entrance of the caverns becoming devoured by almost complete darkness.
"I didn't say it was gonna be a walk in the park," Sans answered, then activated his magic to give them some light.
Two things immediately happened once Sans' magic was glowing bright.
His eye began to burn and yellow and blue magic suddenly flared bright from his eye and beneath his shirt. The light gave all three monsters an unwelcome view of the majority of the cavern, showing them a large, dark hole in the middle, seeming to suck in all light and objects in its general vicinity. The air seemed to change as the group hesitated in their forward march, and Sans sucked in a short breath as his magic flared brighter in response.
"Danger!" Barked Greater Dog, the first to snap out of the awestruck trance. He growled at the ominous void not one hundred feet in front of them, and got down on all fours. "Get away from danger!"
Sans looked in the direction of the hole and saw Shyren, seemingly not of her own conscious choice, moving toward the void. Sans stared for a moment longer, before his mind finally understood what was happening and made to teleport. He was hesitant to use it again considering the past two times, however. Greater Dog was already ahead of him, though, moving first.
"Wait! Don't go near that!" Sans yelled, but in vain.
Lesser Dog barked beside Sans and ran forward as well.
"Damnit!" Sans groaned as his mind raced to figure out what to do. He flinched when pain spiked in his eye and his magic flared once more, causing the cavern to light up in yellow and blue. The scene before him played out before he could come to a decision.
Lesser Dog, the faster of the two guards, reached Shyren first. He barked out an order to her, but she either did not hear or could not react as she simply kept moving toward the hole.
The room seemed to glitch and Sans' magic pulsed with it. He watched in stunned horror as Shyren reached the event horizon of the hole. In a split second decision, he jumped through a shortcut, aiming for Shyren to stop her. To do anything. But, as Sans landed on his back on the opposite end of the cavern, he realized he had made a mistake.
The static in the room seemed to pulse with Sans' magic, and he cried out in frustration and pain as he watched helplessly, from his new angle, as the scene continued to unfold before him.
Lesser Dog ran for Shyren, who had made it to the condensed abyss. She disappeared into it, and Greater Dog barked a command. Lesser Dog ran forward, trying to call to Shyren. When there was no answer, he ran forward into the hole, Greater Dog barking another order.
"Shit! Shit shit shit shit shit," Sans cursed, the sound rousing him out of his stunned silence. He pushed himself up, stumbling against the searing pain in his eye, and ran towards where the two monsters had disappeared into.
The closer he got, the less the world around him seemed coherent and solid. The usually still air of the cavern picked up and was going right to the void. Sans could almost see the thing moving. Growing. It was getting larger, he realized, but the thought was gone in an instant as he reached Greater Dog, who was letting out a low whine. Greater Dog did not seem to acknowledge the other monster.
"Greater Dog! Dammit!" Sans cursed loudly, his voice barely carrying past his mouth. "Greater Dog!" He tried again, grabbing the guard's arm and pulling him down. "Leave! I'll get them!" And with a hard push to the guard toward the entrance of the cavern, Sans turned around, not waiting to see the other monster leave.
The void loomed in front of him, consuming all light and pulsing with a hungry need that Sans vaguely recognized. The static that had become white noise now increased to an almost unbearable screeching, the sound causing his skull to vibrate and his limbs to go numb.
"Hole. E. Crap," Sans managed to say as he stared into the endless black, and his mind went numb. He knew this. It felt so familiar. But how? Before he could think any further, his magic pulsed again, tendrils of magic snaking out from beneath his t-shirt. He watched as they slowly moved toward, then into the void. The room seemed to glitch again.
Instinct took over. Before Sans could stop himself, he ran forward, closing his eyes and moving his arms in front of him to brace himself. He felt no resistance as the world dropped out around him.
Author's notes:
Decided to load the second chapter early because.
Tell me what you guys think so far!
And, I can't remember if I put this down yet, but I do not own Undertale, no matter how cool that would be. Thanks!