Welcome back.
"So, he didn't know how the laser worked?" Azalea asks me once we're out on the road.
"I don't think he did, he got pretty darn angry whenever it didn't hurt me," I reply.
"Where could he have gotten a magic laser?"
"Well, I think these guys said that it was stolen from a testing zone or something, right?"
"Right," Astigmatism responds. "The government was testing those lasers as weapons in a top-secret testing facility that even we don't know the location of. One of them went unaccounted for a few months ago. We suspected the cult had something to do with it, but we always hoped we were wrong. If they find out for sure that magic and monsters exist, they might come looking for Ebott City, and I don't need to mention what they could do if they had access to such resources."
The DT Extraction Machine springs to my mind. "Yeah, that could be pretty bad," I reply. "By the way, do you guys always stuff yourselves in the trunk when you travel together?"
"Well, we always keep Reaper Bird back there, since he tends to draw a lot of unwanted attention otherwise, but usually we can get away with putting Whimsalot and Final in the back seat."
"Anyways, do you think Richards played Undertale?" Azalea asks me.
"Well, he didn't understand how blue and orange lasers work, or where magic comes from, so I'm guessing he didn't," I answer. "But then why the heck is he in a cult that follows Chara if he doesn't know them like everyone else does?"
"What does it matter?" Astigmatism asks. "We got him, we can quit trying to decode his motives and stuff now."
"Are you two hungry?" Knight Knight asks me and Azalea. "I could make a stop at our apartment and get you something to eat if you feel like that would help."
"Actually yeah, I'd like that," I reply. "How about you, Azalea?"
"That sounds good to me," she answers.
We sit around quietly for the next several minutes, while Knight Knight drives us down the freeway back into Smithplain. I've never been able to really fall asleep in a car, but Azalea seems like she's starting to fall asleep on me, though I'm not complaining. Eventually we get off the freeway and pull into the Shadow Guard's apartment, and Knight Knight leads me and Azalea out of the car and to their door.
"So...what kinds of food do you got?" I ask while Knight Knight unlocks the door.
"We should have a few spider donuts left, if you'd like those," she replies.
Generally, anything with spiders in it has never sounded all that good to me, but if the Shadow Guard was willing to bring some here with them, they must be alright, so I accept the offer. Knight Knight leads me and Azalea over to their small kitchen, where a box containing three small, dark purple donuts is sitting on the counter. I take one from the box...feels like a regular donut so far.
I take a small bite. It's slightly tougher than I'm used to donuts being, and it has a slight bitter, meaty accent to it, but other than that, it tastes like a donut. Except now it's dissolving in my mouth almost as fast as cotton candy, and I'm getting a sudden yet brief rush of energy. Forgot that monster food worked differently, but that definitely doesn't make it any less awesome. I'm about to eat the rest of the donut, but it looks like Azalea hasn't started on hers yet.
"Come on, it's actually not bad," I tell her. "Plus it's magical, so it feels really cool to eat."
Azalea slowly takes a tiny bite, and then to my delight, appears to lose any doubt she had in spider donuts. We then eat the rest of the donuts in about twenty seconds, and then it almost feels like we haven't eaten them at all.
"Well, my head feels better, but I'm still hungry," Azalea comments.
"Apologies, I forgot that magical food has less Calories than physical food," Knight Knight says. "Hopefully Astigmatism won't mind if you have some of his meat."
We grab a few pieces of beef jerky out of a bag on the counter, which are pretty tasty. Not very filling, but I don't feel like it's worth taking anything else at this point, so now we're ready to leave.
"Wait," Knight Knight says when we get to the door. "It's not safe. Let me go first."
Knight Knight grabs her cloak off the wall, puts it on, and draws her Good Morningstar while Azalea and I stand aside. She opens the door slowly and looks outside. I put my hand on my watch. Then I put Azalea's hand on my watch. We stand quietly...until we hear a small tink sound. When we peek through the blinds on the window, we see...the same freaking kid that tried to kill us that one night!
This kid is just throwing knives at Knight Knight, who is blocking all of them. But when one of the knives grazes her arm, I turn on my watch, run outside, and just blast him in the face repeatedly until he falls down and drops all his knives. When he tries to get up, I run up to him, grab him, and pin him against the wall. I've darn well had enough of this insanity.
"Dude! The heck are you trying to kill us for?" I yell at him.
"None of your business!" he yells at me. He seems to be about ten or eleven years old.
"Buddy, if someone is going to die, they need to be given a reason," I tell him, looking him straight in the eyes. "And it had better be a good freaking reason."
"Let me go! I need kills!" the kid shouts.
"How can you expect me to let you go if you're just going to try to kill me?" I ask. "Look, I don't want to hurt you, I just want to know why you attacked my friend."
"He's big and tough. That kill is gonna be worth a lot of XP."
"Who told you about EXP?"
"The guy in the red ninja mask said that killing people gives you XP and makes you level up and get stronger. Like in a video game."
Holy crap, I knew Richards was dangerous, but didn't know he would go so far as to manipulate kids and turn them into mindless killers. "Listen, dude, I'm not going to prove that wrong, but do you have any friends or family?"
"No. My parents are dead."
Seriously?! How much do people need to torture some kid? "Well, I've got friends and family, and so does my friend over there. If any of us were to die, it would probably make our friends just as sad as you probably were when your parents died."
"Oh...I didn't think anybody besides the cops cared about what I did."
I loosen my grip on him. "I care at least a little about what everyone does. Life is so much better for everyone when everyone is nice to everyone. So here's the deal: I'm alright with you doing whatever you need to do to survive, just don't hurt anyone."
"Okay. Can I go now?"
I let go of him. "Alright, fine, and you can have your knives back as long as you don't use them to hurt anyone."
The kid runs over to Knight Knight and Azalea, who's checking to make sure Knight Knight is alright, and starts gathering his knives. Once he's got them all, he runs off in the direction opposite of the car.
"That was...impressive," Knight Knight commends me. "You remind me of Frisk."
"Wait, really?" I reply literally immediately.
"I am certain that they would agree with nearly everything you just said."
I want to scream because I'm psyched about being on par with Frisk themself, but I don't because I also care a lot for the safety of monsters. Instead, I sprint back to the car, motioning for Knight Knight and Azalea to follow. I jump in the back seat and wait for the others to get in as well, until they do and we start driving towards our neighborhood.
"So, you like beef jerky?" I ask Astigmatism.
"Well, yeah, I eat it," he replies. "Crazy thing about human food: it can make monsters as much as five times as physically strong. Especially meats."
"It does?" I remark. "Wow...that might actually explain quite a bit."
"How did you know that boy was there outside the apartment?" Azalea asks Knight Knight.
"Monsters become easier to kill when one wants to kill them," she answers. "I noticed this change in myself and acted accordingly."
Now that she mentions this, I think I remember the books in the Snowdin library saying something about that. Maybe I should play Undertale again, it's been forever. "Sorry we keep asking so many questions," I tell the monsters.
"No problem," Madjick says. "Everyone wants to know about us, we're used to it." Seriously, what is it about his voice that messes with people's heads like that?
The rest of the drive goes quietly, until we're almost home, and I realize what's about to happen. When my mom sees me after I haven't contacted her or come home all afternoon and evening, and then finds out that I've gotten myself kidnapped, there's no telling what she'll do to me. Of course she won't beat me or anything, she's a good mom, unlike some I've heard of during my time on the fanbase. But I don't want the next two years of my life to suck just because the last week or so was awesome.
As we're approaching our neighborhood, I ask Knight Knight to park at a nearby church for a minute so I could have a minute alone with Azalea, and then we get out of the car together and head around a corner.
"Is something wrong, X?" she asks me.
"Azalea...we've been gone the whole night so far, and nobody knew where we were. And what's possibly our parents' worst nightmare is about to come true: that we were kidnapped."
Here it comes, the moment that's going to make or break us. I look her in the eyes.
"No matter how this situation affects our lives in the long run...Azalea, I love you, and I'm not going to let us fall apart no matter how many rules we've broken tonight."
Oh crud, I said it. Azalea's eyes get a little watery..."I love you too X...I don't want to ever stop seeing you..."
At this point, we kiss for the second time ever. Honestly, I don't think I could put into words how happy I feel right now. But what I can say is that if I didn't want to go home before, I really don't want to now. But, unfortunately, there's nothing else to do.
As Azalea and I head around the corner, we run right into Knight Knight.
"Whoa dang! Sorry, I...what's going on?" I stammer.
"I'm sorry, I was worried that you were having trouble with something, and I wanted to see if I could help."
"Oh, well, uh, I think we're pretty much good," I say. "Just about to get grounded until I move out for getting kidnapped..."
"Would you like me to talk to your parents?" Knight Knight suggests. "They may be more lenient toward you if they understood why you did it."
"Well, I guess, if you don't mind one or two more people finding out you exist."
Azlaea speaks up. "My mom played Undertale, so she might be happy to see me with you."
"Well, my mom hasn't, so I think it's best that Knight Knight talks to my parents, since she looks the most like a human," I explain. "Azalea, you get Whimsalot or Astigmatism or someone."
"Alright, we will do what we can to make sure you aren't mistreated for the work you've done," Knight Knight says.
We all get back in the car and start driving the next hundred feet to our neighborhood. Having the Shadow Guard on our side when we're in trouble with our parents could have its advantages and disadvantages. I really hope this goes okay.
A quick question for you guys: I know there are already a lot of these, but would you guys like it if I did an Ask for this fanfiction once it's finished? Let me know in a review or a PM or something what you would like about that.
Next chapter, well, you know.