Ghost Buddy

Summary: In your defense, the scary movies you used to watch made it seem like possession was much easier.

Disclaimer: Undertale belongs to Toby Fox

Music began pumping out of the robot's speakers, and the quiz show began.

"We'll start with an easy one! What's your reward for getting the questions right:

A - Mercy

B - More Questions

C - Murder

D - A Puppy"

Frisk hesitated at the, "puppy," answer, but you looked over and saw Alphys making a letter B with her hands.

"Alphys is signaling you the answers," You advised, "don't stare at her, it will be too obvious. Pick B."

Frisk didn't acknowledge you, but listened and picked B.

"There you go darling, you're getting the hang of this!" Mettaton whirred with excitement. "Here's your prize: What is the king's full name?

A - Lord Fluffybuns

B - Fuzzy Pushover

C - Asgore Dreemurr

D - W.D. Gaster"

You did a double take at the last name and the buttons in front of Frisk read, "D) Dr. Friendship." But who was Gaster? It sounded familiar. But you saw Alphys signaling for C, so you whispered that to Frisk.

"Marvelous, what a terrific answer for the smart little human!" Mettaton mused.

"What's going on right now?!" Frisk yelled in confusion.

"Ah ha ha, screaming is against the rules, "Mettaton objected, "Enough about you, let's talk about me. What are robots made of?

A - Hopes & Dreams

B - Metal & Magic

C - Snips & Snails

D - Sugar & Spice"

You didn't even need to tell Frisk that Alphy was signaling , "B," to them as they hit the B button displayed in front of them.

"Well this is just too easy for you, dearie!" Mettaton sounded absolutely enthused with how the quiz show was going. You floated a bit closer.

"I don't think any attacks would hurt that metal body, seems pretty sturdy," you advised Frisk, "not that you're one for violence anyway."

"Here's another easy one for you," Mettaton began, but then rattled off a complicated math problem about trains, and gave four numerical answers that were only slightly different. You snickered at the deer-in-the-headlights face Frisk made and looked at Alphys to see her signaling, "D."

"It's D," you told Frisk, who hit that answer with a noticeable look of relief on their face.

"Wonderful! I'm astounded, folks!" Mettaton cried, "but don't count on your victory yet! How many flies are in this jar?"

Mettaton held out a tiny jar brimming with little insects. Frisk squinted at the jar, and you looked at Alphys and saw she was making an, "A," with her hands. Frisk hit the response as soon as you told them.

"My goodness darling, aren't you just the luckiest little child today!" Mettaton replied, a bit of frustration breaking through in his robotic voice.

"Let's play a memory game! What monster is this?!" Mettaton showed a picture of half of a Froggit's face on his screen:

A - Froggit

B - Whimsun

C - Moldsmal

D - Mettaton

Frisk immediately started to go for the, "A," prompt, but you saw Alphy signaling to them for D. "Alphys is saying D, Frisk."

Frisk tried to be smooth by pulling their hand back and rubbing their chin before hitting D.

"Well I'm so flattered you remembered my favorite shirt, beauty!" Mettaton snipped, pulling back the view on the screen to reveal an old picture of himself wearing a Froggit shirt. Frisk just chuckled nervously.

Mettaton pointed at Frisk dramatically and said, "But can you get this one?! Would you smooch a ghost?"

All the answers popped as, "heck yeah."

The slow smile spread across Frisk's face. They turned slightly and looked at you, and wriggled their eye brows to you. You turned red. Frisk winked, making your blush worse, before slamming one of the buttons and saying, "I'd love to!" Aphys gave them an…interesting look.

You covered your face in embarrassment. Frisk REALLY knew how to fluster you. "Frisk…" you groaned. They were just ecstatic.

"Great answer! I love it!" Mettaton shouted, excitedly. "Here's a simple one: How many letters are in Metattonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn…"

The robot kept droning on the n, making Frisk and yourself think he had glitched out, until you saw Alphy signaling, "C," for Frisk. You told Frisk and they picked the correct choice.

"Well of course that was easy for you!" Mettaton shouted, but you could tell they were getting a little frustrated with Frisk's lucky streak. "Time to break out the big guns! In the dating simulation game Mew Mew Kissy Cutie, what is Mew Mew's favorite food?"

What was embarrassing was that you knew the answer to that because of how much anime had washed up into the dump, and you and Asriel had watched all of it, but thankfully, Alphys embarrassed herself more by answering the question before Mettaton could even display the answers. Alphys rattled off the plot of the game faster than you could even comprehend before halting at the looks Frisk and Mettaton were giving her.

"Uh…" Alphys stammered, "n-nevermind."

"Why Alphys darling, if you're going to insist on helping our guest, why didn't you just say so?!" There was passive-aggressive tones dripping from the robot's voice as they asked, "Human, who does Dr. Alphys have a crush on?:

A - Undyne

B - Asgore

C - The human

D - I don't know."

You looked over at Alphy' work station and noticed a home made Undyne action figure and a picture of the two of them together. "I'm going to go out on a limb," You advised your partner, "and guess Undyne."

Frisk frowned though and looked at the look of pure embarrassment on Alphys' face, Mettaton clearly delighting in it. "I don't want to embarrass her like that on TV, Chara," they whispered to you.

Boldly, Frisk declared, "I mean, obviously it's me." Frisk followed it up with the double-finger-gun point at Alphys and a wink. The doctor just gave them an appalled look back.

You laughed and shook your head, "Frisk, you're too much sometimes."

"Oh how bold!" Mettaton cackled with glee, "I'm going to have to say that's wrong, but…I will say that she does watch you on that screen all the time, taking notes on your fights and experiences. And is that not infatuation in some form or other?" Mettaton let out a computerized sigh, "Well darling, if Alphys is helping you, there's no tension! Until next time, stay tuned!"

The robot's wheel retracted into their body, and was replaced by an exhaust pipe, blasting the creature away and out of the roof.

A moment of awkward silence passed before Alphys looked to Frisk and said, "Well, that was certainly something."

Frisk laughed. "Yeah, I've never been on TV before."

"Or probably been against a killer robot." You pointed out, and they stifled a laugh.

"Hey, so why don't you give me your phone number and I'll call you to help you out around Hotland? I'm sure Mettaton laid all kinds of traps for you."

Frisk nodded and handed their phone to the dinosaur. She gasped, "Oh my God this thing looks ancient. Give me a second."

She took the phone to the workbench and began to work on it. Frisk explored the lab while she did so. They giggled and whispered to you, "Hey Chara, check out what she has in the, 'human history,' section of her bookshelf."

You floated over and laughed. "Those are comics! I used to read those when they'd wash up here."

Frisk eyed you curiously. "Not…before you came here?"

Your face faltered for a minute. "N-no. I didn't do a lot of reading before I fell down here."

Frisk nodded, understandingly, and decided not to press the issue, causing you to sigh in relief. But you knew you couldn't keep dodging your past forever. You followed as Frisk took a peek inside the refrigerator of the good doctor. Frisk grabbed a weird package of something and held it up to you. "Babe, what's this say?" They asked.

You raised an eyebrow at the new pet name and blushed, but replied, "Instant Noodles. Not sure why they're in a fridge though. Bit odd." You gave a fake gasp as Frisk snuck the pack into their pocket, "Why Frisk! You devil! You're stealing food!"

Frisk held a finger up to their lips and shushed you. "She has a million of these and I feel like I haven't eaten in forever."

You chuckled, and saw Alphys approaching. You made a head gesture to Frisk to let them know.

"Alright, so, here's the new phone!" The doctor handed it to Frisk, bursting with excitement. "It's got a keychain, texting, and all sorts of apps. And I signed you upfor the Undernet, the Underground's premier social networking site!"

"Neat," Frisk smiled politely, but you could tell they weren't really too concerned with any of that.

"O-okay, well I'll call you when you get to something really difficult in Hotland."

Frisk nodded. For some reason, this made Alphys nervous, and she muttered, "I uh…I have to go use the bathroom. B-bye!"

"Wait!" Frisk called. Alphys stopped and turned, and Frisk continued, "Theoretically, could I smooch a ghost?"

You blushed as Alphys stuttered a nervous answer, "That's a uh, good question Frisk. I'm not sure."

"But can you look into it?" Frisk asked, dead serious.

Alphys scratched the side of her head, "Well, okay Frisk, I'll see if I can find the time to look into the topic." She turned and went back to the bathroom.

Frisk just looked at you, winked, and said, "Soon." You hid your face in your hands again.

Frisk chuckled and left the lab. They took out the instant noodles and began eating them dry, chipping them away in chunks. "I thought I was the only one who did that!" You told them, smirking, "they taste better dry."

Frisk just smiled at you and mused, "We're just meant to be, Chara."

Your face burned into another bright red color. Frisk was really on a roll with the flirting. Doing your best to keep your cool, you replied, "You're awfully frisky today."

Frisk snorted in to their noodles and covered their mouth to hold in their giggle-fit. "Oh my God."

You smiled, feeling good to at least have fired something back.

Frisk's new phone dinged loudly. They pulled it out and clicked it a few times, furrowing their brow together. You floated over and read the things Alphys was posting about Frisk on the Undernet. "I don't think Alphys realized I can see the things she's posting about me. "

Frisk stepped onto one of the conveyor belts of Hotland and nearly fell over as they zoomed away. "Careful," you cautioned, floating alongside them, "they're faster than they look."

As soon as Frisk stumbled off the belt, they had a battle encounter with a Vulkin.

"As yes," you reminisced, "Vulkin's try to be really helpful, but they tend to be more of a pain when they do it. Really nice though."

Frisk nodded and danced around the fire attacks. "You're doing a great job! Keep it up!

The Vulkin gave a whopping cheer and ran off to tell its friends. Frisk rolled up their sleeves as they kept going down the path through Hotland. The phone in Frisk's pocket would make a, "ding," noise every couple of seconds.

"Are ALL of those Alphys?" You asked, a bit annoyed.

Frisk went over some of the steam vents, and checked their phone. They laughed and showed you the screen so you could read them, "She wants to call me to tell me how to get over the steam vents, but she's really nervous about it? She must be shy. Poor girl."

As if on cue, the phone rang. Frisk answered, "Hello?"

"H-hey to get over the g-gaps you j-just need to – oh, this is Dr. Alphys, by the way," the nervous doctor said, loudly, through the phone, "j-just use the steam vents."

You rolled your eyes, but Frisk glared at you. "I already figured that one Alphys, but thank you!"

Alphys got embarrassed and hung up. Frisk shot you another look. "Don't be so hard on her Chara. People deal with their emotions in different ways." Their expression softened a bit, and they took on a more teasing tone, "Not everyone just is a grump about them like you."

You had to admit, they had a point. Being shy was probably a better way to deal with your problems than killing yourself and trying to goad your brother into helping you kill your village. You took a deep breath and apologized, "You're right Frisk. I'm sorry."

Frisk beamed. "Aw! You never say that! Good progress, Chara."

You sighed, "Don't rub it in Frisk."

Frisk continued solving puzzles with the help of the royal scientist. To her credit, she did call in with more useful information, explained to Frisk how orange magic and lasers functioned, and disabling a few traps that involved lights and lasers.

After a rather confusing steam vent puzzle, Frisk laughed and ran up to a sentry station, manned, of course, by none other than Sans.

"hey kiddo," Sans called, "want to by a hot dog? only 30g."

Frisk dug in their pocket while nodding, and placed the gold on the table. Sans handed them the hot dog and said, "okay, here's your 'dog. 'dog, yes. apostrophe dog. short for hot dog. wanna 'nother?"

Frisk nodded, and Sans plopped the 'dog on Frisk's head. Frisk giggled and held still. "More!"

This continued until somehow, Frisk had twenty nine hot dogs on their head, perfectly balanced.

"okay kiddo, i'm going to have to stop you there." Sans said, "twenty-nine is the limit. you think i could get a thirtieth one up there? get on going."

Frisk turned to leave, and a mountain of hot dogs came raining down from the sky, causing the monsters around the stand to laugh. Frisk did too, and you smiled at them. They really could win anyone over.

After solving some more steam-vent puzzles and some arcade-style block shooter, you and Frisk wandered into a darkened room. Their phone buzzed, and Frisk answered, "Hey Al."

"Hey Frisk. its pitch dark in there, let me get a light on for you."

Blinding lights kicked on, and you could hear Alphy mutter, "Oh no," into the phone.

"OOOHHHH YES!" Came a robotic voice from in the room.

"Oh crap," you and Frisk muttered at the same time.

You found yourselves in a large, clean kitchen stage with lights, cameras, and Mettaton approaching with a chef's hat on. Mettaton grabbed Frisk by the hand and dragged them over to the counter.

"Welcome, beauties and gentle-beauties to…COOKING WITH A KILLER ROBOT! Today, my lovely assistant will be…" Mettaton paused and made a dramatic gesture towards Frisk.

"Hi, I'm Fri-" Frisk began but was cut off by Mettaton screeching, "THE HUMAN!" To the camera and continuing.

"Today we will be making a very special cake. If my lovely assistant could, please grab milk, eggs, and sugar from the counter behind me!" Mettaton ordered.

Frisk nodded and grabbed the items as instructed. "Frisk, be careful," you warned them, "I have a really bad feeling about this."

Frisk placed the items on the counter and waved at the camera. You had a feeling they weren't quite grasping the situation.

"Wonderful! You're a natural, darling," Mettaton encouraged, "And now, the last ingredient in our recipe calls for one farm-fresh and organic HUMAN SOUL!"

"What?!" Frisk blurted out, backing away as Mettaton pulled out a chainsaw and began approaching your partner. Fruitlessly, you stood between the two of them, grimacing. Thankfully, the phone rang, this time it was Mettaton's. They pulled out a cell phone similar to Frisk's and answered.

"Kind of in the middle of a thing here," Mettaton answered, impatiently.

You heard Alphys on the other end, "Hey, w-what if there was a substitution in the recipe?"

"What?! Why?" Mettaton questioned.

"What if someone's…v-vegan?"

You looked at the eggs and milk on the table. "Um…"

"Vegan," Mettaton spat angrily.

But before Alphys could answer, Mettaton hung up and enthusiastically yelled, "WHAT A WONDERFUL IDEA! Lucky for all the VEGANS out there, I have a can of MTT Brand Human Soul Flavored Substitute, made with real substitute!"

"What's real substitute?" Frisk asked you, but you shrugged.

"If my lovely assistant could go grab the can on the counter over there, I would love it!" Mettaton hinted aggressively. Frisk walked over to a counter on the far end of the room, but with a rumble, the counter sprang from the floor and rose high above the studio.

"Oooooh tough break darling," Mettaton teased, "If you can't grab that soon, we'll have to go back to the original recipe."

Frisk's phone rang immediately, and they didn't even have to answer before Alphy told them, "There's a feature on your phone that can get you up there! Hit the yellow button for the one-time use jetpack I installed."

"What." You said, flatly, "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard."

Frisk hit the yellow button on the phone though, and the device strapped itself to Frisk's back, sprouted some exhaust pipes, and flew Frisk up to the top of the counter. Frustrated, Mettaton threw the eggs and milk at Frisk, but to no avail. Frisk snatched the can and flew down. The look on their face, both exhilarated from flying and baffled as to what just happened, was priceless.

"Here you go, Mettaton!" Frisk said, cheerfully, before waving at the camera once again.

Mettaton gave an annoyed sigh. "Haven't you ever seen a cooking show? The whole thing was made in advance." They plopped a cake on the table and flew off in a rage.

"Huh," You said, looking at the rectangular shaped hole in the ceiling, "TV in the underground has changed a bit."

You turned to see Frisk eating a handful of cake. "I was still hungry." You snorted with laughter, but Frisk held a handful out to you and offered, "The frosting is chocolate. Want to take control for some?"

You beamed and gratefully shared some cake with Frisk. Once you were both quite satisfied, you continued back through Hotland. "Thanks Frisk," you told them, remembering your manners for once.

"Anything to see that gorgeous face of yours light up," They replied, winking. Your face burned once more.

As they hopped on another of Hotland's elevators, a small fire monster told them to remember the name, "Heats Flamesman." Frisk gave them a thumbs up.

Frisk began to fan themself off, "how much longer to the CORE, Chara?"

You tried your best to remember, despite how long it had been, "I'm going to say half way there. You need to stop and take a break? Don't dehydrate yourself."

Frisk gave you a small smile. "I'm okay, thanks."

"Excuse me!" Called a voice from behind you. You both turned to see the Royal Guards approaching. "We need you to evacuate the area! There have been sightings of a small human with a striped shirt. We're going to need you to come with us," the bunny-eared guard commanded.

Frisk, silently began following them, willing to go along with the charade, but the dragon-guard stopped and looked at your friend more closely. "…hey bro…I think this is the human."

The bunny-guard got all kinds of flustered, "AH! You're right! It is the human, we totally have to kill him. Ugh, if you weren't here I would have messed this all up."

The dragon guard shook his head. "No…you wouldn't have."

The bunny-guard sighed. "Yeah I would. I'm nothing without you."

"…What?"

"I-I mean you're so smart dude! Haha!"

"That's not what you said," Frisk interrupted, "You said you're nothing without your boyfriend."

Dragon-guard looked at bunny-guard, who was flipping out at what Frisk had said. "W-what are you talking about kid?! I never said that. T-this is my bro! N-not like MY bro like that, and we aren't brothers but…"

You shook your head at how flustered he was, "That's really obvious."

Frisk crossed their arms. "I think you should be honest with your feelings."

"What…are they talking about?" Dragon-guard asked, confused.

"I guess it's obvious to everyone but the two of them," you replied.

"Isn't it always?" Frisk whispered to you.

"D-dude I….I…" Bunny-guard was struggling, but looked at Frisk who game them a very supportive thumbs up, "I like, LIKE you dude! I like the way you hold your sword, I like the way your armor looks on you. I just want to be with you all the time."

There was an awkward silence that hung in the air.

"01," the dragon-guard said after a few moments, "you…want to go get some Nice Cream?"

"Haha, yeah dude!" The bunny guard replied, and the two walked off.

"Frisk you must have some sort of cheering-up super power," You laughed, "you manage to make everyone you run into happy."

Frisk looked at you, and to your surprise, they frowned a bit and continued down the road.

"Hey, what's the matter?" You ask, floating after them, "I can't believe that didn't get a flirt or something from you."

Frisk rubbed their arm and glanced at you. "You know how you don't like to talk about your past and get kind of moody about it?" Frisk asked you that with a shaky voice. You hadn't seen them like this since they were back at Home. You nodded. "It's kind of like that. Just bad memories," Frisk gave you a weak smile as you both approached some more block-shooting puzzles.

You nodded as Frisk turned to solve it. "I understand," you assured softly, "well, you don't have to tell me about it. You can if you want, but I know I haven't been exactly open about all my stuff either. You only get one shot with these, by the way," you nodded to the ammo part of the screen.

Frisk gave you their sad smile that made you want to reach out and hug them (where the heck did these feelings even come from), and said, "Thanks, Chara."

The moment the two of you were having was interrupted by the sound of Frisk's phone.

"Hey Alphys!" Frisk sang out, hiding their sadness well. "Hmm? Um yeah, I could be up for watching some anime with you later," Frisk shrugged at you from the unexpected question, and then put the call on speaker phone.

"Oh it's this great show called Mew Mew Kissy Cutie and this girl called Mew Mew controls people by kissing them and…"

Frisk took the call off speaker phone as you laughed, "I've seen that one," you tell them, "it washed down here when I was still alive, I watched it with…"

You froze up and covered your mouth. Frisk finished up the call with Alphys and shook their head. "It's okay, you don't have to tell me. We're both being kind of secretive today."

Frisk solved another block puzzle and you sighed, "I don't LIKE keeping things from you Frisk. I hope you don't think that's what it is."

Frisk gave a melancholic laugh, "I know Chara. Like I said, I'm doing the same thing." They looked around a twisting room with various conveyor belts and steam vents.

"GOOD EVENING BEAUTIES AND GENTLE-BEAUTIES!"

You both groaned. Now was really not the time. Mettaton hovered high above you, and a camera was pointing down at Frisk.

"We're joining our live investigative reporter here on the Hotland path to bring you tonight's exciting news!"

Frisk looked around. "He means me, doesn't he?"

You nodded. "Yup. You're a journalist now. Congratulations."

"Well journalist, better find something to report on!" Mettaton commands.

Frisk put on their game face, waved at the camera (again), and looked around the room. There were some rather odd objects all around the room; a basketball, a glass of water, a book, a video game, but of course Frisk went right for…

"A PUPPY!" Frisk screamed, running over to the small, white dog, petting it.

"Isn't that the puppy who stole Papyrus' special attack?" You wondered.

Frisk shrugged and continued to pet the dog cheerfully. They turned to Mettaton and shouted, "Can I report on this dog?! It's soo cute!"

Mettaton shrugged. "I can see the headline now! Somewhere, a dog exists. Frankly, I'm blown away."

You glared at the robot, but Frisk rolled their eyes and continued to pet the dog. Suddenly though, a flame ignited on the dog's tail, and it began ticking.

"What?!" You and Frisk shouted at the same time.

"Oh, what a scoop!" Mettaton squealed, "the dogs a bomb! And that basketballs a bomb! And that book! Everything in this room is a bomb! And if you can't detonate these bombs in two minutes, that big bomb over there," Mettaton pointed at what looked like a boiler at the back of the room, "Will take out this whooooole room."

Alphys called Frisk and advised, quickly, "defusing the bombs is easy, there's just a switch on the back!"

Frisk looked down at the dog snoozing beside them, and flicked a small switch on its back. Frisk went running off after the basketball, and defused it. They caught a few of the other rigged items on a few conveyor belts scattered across the room.

Something felt off to you about the whole thing. "I don't think that's how bomb defusing words, but keep going Frisk. Better safe than sorry."

Frisk charged around the room, hitting switches left and right, but couldn't catch the bomb that was…a glass of water.

"That is an extremely agile glass of water," you observe, trying to hide the panic in your voice as Frisk's timer went under thirty seconds.

Alphys called in, and said, as soon as Frisk answered, "I'll trap the water in a magnetic field in the middle of the room!"

As she hung up, you wondered aloud, "Are glasses of water magnetic?" Still, you saw that the water had stopped.

You also looked at the timer and noticed that it was now under ten seconds…but running extremely slow. Something was off. This whole thing was rigged, but somehow it seemed to be in Frisk's favor.

"Frisk!" You shout, dramatically, "Alphys stopped the extremely agile glass of water! Quickly, defuse the extremely agile glass of water."

Frisk probably would have chuckled if they weren't so focused, hitting the switch on the back of the glass.

"Well, well, well darling!" Mettaton shouted, "looks like you managed to defuse all my bombs under three minutes!"

"I thought I only had two…?" Frisk questioned, quietly.

"Something fishy is going on here, and it isn't Undyne." You whisper, "some of these traps are little suspicious."

"So now the bomb will go off in THREE SECONDS!" Mettaton gave an evil laugh.

"WHAT?!" You and Frisk both yelled. Frisk cowered and braced themself, and in a panic you threw yourself over them in a futile effort to shield them.

But no explosion came.

As soon as you realized you were holding on to Frisk, your arms went through them again like they usually would. "Huh?" You wondered.

Frisk looked at Mettaton questioningly. The robot made a sound as if it was clearing its throat, "AHEM!"

Suddenly, as if in response to his noise, his phone rang. "H-Hey! Um…It is I! Doctor Alphys! And I uh…I hacked the bomb! With my hacking skills! To stop you!"

"Curses, foiled again!" Mettaton shouted, but sounded more annoyed than angry or frustrated, and flew off in a huff.

"This doesn't feel right," you quip, "What do you think?"

"I think I liked feeling your body against me," Frisk replied with a wink. You groaned and blushed, but Frisk continued, "No, you're right though. Mettaton definitely said two minutes, and then changed it to three."

"And since when are bombs defused with light switches?" You laugh. "You think Alphys is in on this?"

Frisk shrugged as the two of you walked past a spider bake sale. A spider-girl monster you had never seen before was staring at Frisk intently. Frisk eyed a spider-donut, but backed away as soon as they saw the price tag – 9,999 gold. "Yikes," they muttered, and walked away. The spider-girl stared after them.

"Don't you still have the one from the Ruins?" You asked.

Frisk paused and dug in their pocket, pulling out the Spider Donut, "Ha, yeah," they brushed off some pocket lint and bit half of it off, pocketing the other half for later.

You chuckled, "gross, Frisk."

"Don't worry cutie, I'll brush my teeth before I kiss you."

You wondered how red your face could turn, because Frisk was really pushing those limits today. The two of you got onto the elevator.

"I wonder how it is that you can touch me sometimes." Frisk said, smiling at you hopefully, "because maybe that could help us figure something out."

You thought. "Well, the first time I was really mad, and the second time just now, I was really worried." You paused and thought back to the Ruins, "But earlier in the Ruins, when I got really upset with you I couldn't interact with anything. But I wasn't really focused on any one particular thing either."

Frisk gave a small, sad laugh, "probably a good thing at the time."

You frowned, "Yeah..."

"How did you do the thing where your eyes got all black and goopy looking?" Frisk asked, and they did so in a way that made it clear they had been wondering for awhile.

You shrugged, "couldn't tell you. The whole ghost thing doesn't exactly come with a manual. You looked really scared when I did it." Now it was your turn to laugh in a melancholic tone, "A mountain full of monsters, and I was the scary thing you found."

Frisk shook their head and went back to their reassuring smile that lit up whatever room they were in, "Hey now, you aren't scary, Chara. I was just taken by surprise with your ghost trick."

"Thanks, Frisk."

By now, you were both wandering down a hallway, and it was getting darker and darker.

"Hey, call the doc and see if she can turn the lights on," you suggest, "last thing you want to do is fall off the path into the lava."

Frisk gave you a concerned glance, "did that happen to you?"

You nodded, "Yeah, most painful RESET I've ever had."

Frisk dug in their pocket, but you both froze as you began hearing whispers from all around you.

"I hear humans hate spiders." One murmured.

"I hear they love to squish them," another tittered.

"I hear that humans like to rip the legs right off them."

You and Frisk glance at each other. "Be careful," you whisper.

However, something catches Frisk's leg and they hit the ground. "Ah!" They yelp, "I'm stuck."

And indeed, you leaned in to see that Frisk was wrapped up in a large, sticky spider web.

"I heard," came the voice the spider-girl, emerging from the shadows, "that they're awfully stingy with their money."

She approached Frisk with an angry look in her eyes. "You think you're too good for our spider-pastries? I think you'd make a fine part of them."

Frisk kept their composure, and you were amazed as they responded. "Not at all, miss. I actually bought a spider donut from the Ruins."

The spider glared. "The name is Muffet, dearie, and how do I know you're telling the truth?"

Frisk wriggled their hand free, and reached into their pocket, pulling out the remaining half of the Spider Donut, "It's pretty tasty!"

Muffet hesitated. "How do I know you didn't steal it? Where's your receipt?"

Frisk began to sweat, nervously, "T-they didn't give me one."

A sinister smile began to curl up Muffet's face. "Ooooooh cupcake!" She sang, "Time to plaaaaaaay."

From behind her, a gigantic cupcake-shaped creature emerged, towering over Frisk. Frisk shook with fear as the monster approached.

Muffet clapped her hands together, but turned around as a small spider tugged on her dress. "Hmm, what's this?"

However, the monster loomed over Frisk, mouth opened as Muffet looked over the paper. You went to step between the monster and Frisk, but Muffet snapped up and scolded, "Cupcake, down boy!"

The cupcake monster whimpered and backed off.

"Lucky you," Muffet sighed, untying Frisk, "the spiders from the Ruins just telegraphed me their sale records. Looks like I got a bit too excited there."

"I-it's okay." Frisk stammered out, but you could see they were a bit freaked out about being nearly eaten by a cupcake.

Frisk briskly walked out of there, you in tow, "Oh my God are you okay?" You asked.

Frisk took a deep sigh. "Spiders scare me, Chara, that was really hard."

You frowned. Asriel had always been a bit squeamish of spiders too, and you weren't overly fond of them yourself. "We're almost to the CORE, Frisk. Hotland's been a bit rough."

"That's okay," Frisk assures you, "I've had great company."

You smile and only get a pink tinge in your cheeks this time. You look up at the building in front of you and furrow your brow. "Hm. This is new."

Frisk looks at the bright, neon sign and tilts their head. "What's it say?"

"It's the MTT Mettaton Megaton Resort," you read, "but it looks like the way is through there. Shall we?"

"heya frisk," a familiar voice came from the side of the entrance. It's Sans, of course, beckoning over the child in the purple sweater. "you got a minute? i want to talk to you. come on, i know a shortcut."

Frisk waved excitedly and ran over. "Sure Sans!"

You both follow Sans down an alley. But at the dead-end, Sans emits an odd noise, teleporting Frisk and himself away. You felt that hazy, sluggish blackness creep over you. "Not again," you muttered before blacking out.