Chapter 23: Ambush From Below
My mind was starting to run wild.
As we passed the statue once more, I knew that we were approaching the Waterfall ridge. This was where I first met Gaster, when we were kids...
It was not a good first impression, but it brought back a lot of memories.
I've been through so much, two different families, not even counting my abusive bio-father on the surface (I hoped he was dead at this point). Looking back, I don't know how I made it through all that.
I found out where Frisk got her umbrella. There was a whole can of them, sitting out in the open, next to a sign that read "Please take one".
I sighed. "One for each of us, I hope you're okay with that." And I grabbed an umbrella, and handed it to Frisk, the still excited Toby brushing up against the kid as she opened it up, then grabbed another for myself.
I knew what the idea here was. The Waterfall ridge was always constantly raining. I never knew why, but maybe some monster wished to witness rain, which he couldn't see, hear, or feel down here. Or it was a mistake. All I knew was that it was very wet. ...But nice to hear as someone from the Surface, who missed actual rain.
The rain came on pretty quickly. Puddles that had gathered for a long time littered the ground.
I began to become lost in thought. Perhaps now is the chance to see Gaster? The way to his home was close...
"Yo, you guys got umbrellas?"
And there he was, the Monster Kid.
"Awesome!" He said, and then he dived from the one dry alcove he was huddled up in, and right by me and under my umbrella. "Let's go!"
"Uh... well..."
"Come on! Undyne's gotta be ahead!" he cried.
Sigh. "Fine..."
Well, I guess I couldn't see Gaster now. I knew he wouldn't want to deal with some random kid, and bringing him along just seemed inappropriate.
So, me with the Monster Kid under one umbrella, and Frisk and Toby under the other, we began to walk down the ridge, seeing our reflections in the puddles before they rippled from our footsteps.
"Man... Undyne is so cool. She beats up bad guys and NEVER loses," the Monster Kid began to ramble. "If I was a human, I would wet the bed every night... Knowing she was gonna beat me up! Ha ha."
Trust me, kid, Undyne is the last thing that would get me to wet the bed, I thought.
We passed by a waterway, a single Echo Flower sitting on a small piece of land, sticking out of the shadows. The Monster Kid stopped to look at it, letting himself get drenched by the rain, as I didn't notice as I kept walking.
Once I did notice, I looked back, and called out, "Uh, Kid? You okay?"
"Oh, yeah," he said, turning back. As he caught up, he began to speak again, "so, one time, we had a school project where we had to take care of a flower."
"Uh huh," I sounded.
"The king, we had to call him 'Mr. Dreemur', volunteered to donate his own flowers. He ended up coming to school and teaching the class about responsibility and stuff."
Yeah... that sounded like something he'd do, I thought. If only he'd take responsibility for what he did to me.
As the Monster Kid got back under my umbrella, he continued, "that got me thinking... YO! How COOL would it be if UNDYNE came to school!? She could beat up ALL the teachers!"
The sudden loud energy seemed to distress Frisk, and she began to walk a bit further away from us. I couldn't blame her, and I still had to deal with him by myself. Honestly, did he talk about anything other than Undyne!? I already didn't like her, and this was starting to get on my nerves.
I looked back at the flower behind us for myself. I wondered if I should go see Gaster anyways...
"Um, maybe she wouldn't beat up the teachers..." the Monster Kid said, interrupting my thoughts. "She's too cool to ever hurt an innocent person!"
"Uh, yeah... sure," I replied. I wondered how true that was.
Eventually, we walked through a cavern passage, and we made our way to a cliffside, overlooking the deeper marshes that weren't easy to get to. Few people lived down there. The ceiling above was sparkling with glowing stones, shining like stars.
And in the far distance... the castle. Home of the King.
I knew that place. I used to live there.
Asgore was there...
If only Undyne was the only thing I had to worry about.
Going through another cavern passage, entering the last leg of the rainy area. There was another can to drop the umbrellas.
And in front of us was a steep ledge. One we had to get over...
"Yo, this ledge is way too steep..." the Monster Kid noted.
"Yeah," I replied. The kids weren't tall enough to climb up, and I was barely tall enough to reach the edge.
Still, that was no trouble for me. "Watch this."
I put my umbrella in the can and used my Blue Soul magic to effortlessly jump up the cliff.
"Woah! That's cool, yo!" the Monster Kid.
"Okay, I'll cast the spell on you guys, and you can jump up," I said.
Frisk looked a little nervous, but once her Soul was blue, and put her umbrella away, she picked up Toby, stepped back, and made a running leap...
And she didn't put enough power in to completely make the jump, and tripped over the edge of the ledge. I caught her, and pulled her up, Toby breaking away and dashing behind us.
"Hey, I got you," I told the girl, as I helped her up. After I dusted Frisk off, and healed any tiny injury she might've gotten, I turned to the Monster Kid.
I didn't want to bring him along, but he was this far in, and...
"Um, I'm not so sure about this," the kid said.
"Huh?"
"I'm... not good at jumping. I mean, I'm still trying not to trip while running," he explained. "Yo, you go on ahead. I'll circle around. Maybe I'll see Undyne from another angle!"
"...Are you sure?" I replied.
"Yo, don't worry about me. I always find a way to get through!" He then started to run off, and indeed, did trip, and then got back up, and continued heading off.
Well, that solved that problem. Still... I couldn't help but be worried. He was still a kid. Maybe I could've just lifted him up, instead of asking him to jump. But too late now...
"Be careful..." I called out, though I wasn't sure if he could still hear me.
The walk onward was slow. I was still very concerned. We came up onto more text on the walls. "The humans, afraid of our power, declared war on us. They attacked suddenly, and without mercy. In the end, it could hardly be called a war. United, the humans were too powerful, and us monsters, too weak. Not a single Soul was taken, and countless monsters were turned to dust..."
Frisk was looking at a random, blank point on the wall. Or maybe she found another one of those stars.
I turned back. I swore I could still hear the sound of the music box from here. It comforted me a little bit.
But not enough, as I was still on edge.
And of course, it didn't help that, going forward, the next area was a bunch of wooden platforms, suspended high above the water. The light shone behind us, as the area was left in darkness, and you could barely see where you were going in the dim light.
Didn't matter if it was above water though, my fear of heights flared up. I remembered hating this place.
Okay, just... don't like down, I thought. Stay away from the edges. Like you did in Hotland.
So I stayed in the dead center of the platform, inching along.
Frisk and Toby were behind me. And the girl seemed on edge too, but... she didn't have the same fear I did, did she?
My thoughts were interrupted when I got a random call.
I picked up, still inching along, my eyes firmly on the ground. "Hello?"
"AH, CHARA, IT IS I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS! I AM CALLING TO INFORM YOU THAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO MEET UNDYNE AGAIN!"
"Papyrus, thanks. Where is she?"
"HM, ACCORDING TO THE CAMERAS... BELOW YOU."
"Below-" before I could continue, and spear shot through the ground.
I stumbled, dropped my phone, and slipped to the edge. As I regained my bearing, I found myself doing the one thing I didn't want to...
Looking down.
And indeed, there she was. Undyne. The armored knight, standing on the water like some kind of deity, looking up back at me with her single, glowing, yellow eye.
It was actually unnerving, enough that I momentarily forgot about my fear, and pushed away from the edge. I grabbed my phone, and said, "YEP! FOUND HER!"
"OH, GOODY. BE CAREFUL TO AVOID HER ATTACKS. WHILE ON THE BRIDGE, SHE MIGHT SUMMON HER SPEARS RIGHT OUT OF THE GROUND," Papyrus replied.
That's when I saw a blue circle appear on the platform, followed by another, and another... Quickly, we were surrounded by circles. And then... spears shot out of them, narrowly missing us.
"Yep! Good to know, gotta go! Bye!" And I hung up.
I quickly put away my phone, as more circles appeared below us.
"GO, GO, GO!" I shouted, and the three of us began to run.
We had to watch the platforms, and be careful to keep an eye to weave the spears that were magically shooting from the ground.
The platforms sprawled out into a maze, and even though they remained flat, it was hard to see where you were going in the darkness.
As we ran, a line of circles appeared between us, and we side-stepped away from each other as the spears shooting out split us apart. More circles appeared behind Frisk and Toby, forcing them to run ahead before we could reconvene. And with that, we were now separated on these maze platforms.
The Spears lightened up as they appeared below us, and I took that as a sign that Undyne was now straining her magic to target both of us. I don't know how she could see us from below, but I figured it might've been sawdust shaking off below from our heavy footsteps from the running.
Frisk seemed to be following a specific path. Perhaps she had fully memorized where to go on previous runs? Me, on the other hand, had continuously found myself at dead ends. I didn't trust myself to use my magic to leap from one platform to another, as it was too dark to judge the distance properly. If I missed the jump, I'd fall, which already pricked at my fear of heights, but then that mean I'd fall into the water, and be at Undyne's mercy. Assuming I didn't drown first. I didn't exactly know how to swim, never had a reason to learn.
And eventually, my getting turned around had put me pretty far from Frisk.
I saw her in the distance, at least as well as I could in the dim light. Plus, Toby's barking helped in locating them. They seemed to be dodging spears on a larger platform, looking as if it was closer to the exit.
But for me... it was a large gap between. Turning around would take a while, and Undyne's spears were getting more aggressive in their sprouting from the ground.
With the size of the platform in the distance, even if I used all my power, I'd have lots of room to land on that platform from here, lots of room for error.
Problem was, did I have enough power to cross the gap at minimum? Even with my Blue Soul magic, that was the farthest I've even jumped. Even jumping over Papyrus's giant bone, struggling against the same magic, required less power. This would be pushing myself.
Then I heard a sharp yelp. A spear had tagged Toby. I couldn't see the dog from here, so I couldn't see how badly... but I could see Frisk turning around to get her dog!
Okay, I need to try, I thought to myself. I need to be determined!
I quickly stepped back, to make some running distance, and avoid a spear on my end. More circles appeared behind me. Now or never.
I activated Blue magic on myself, and made the biggest dash I ever had, outpacing the spears behind me, and then I made my jump.
I went higher than I ever thought I would... Higher than I was comfortable with...
As I closed the gap, I saw Frisk, trying to help Toby up. And many circles started to appear around her.
I focused, trying to control my freefall, and...
I grabbed Frisk and Toby, and rolled away with the momentum from my massive jump, just as the spears shot up. We avoided taking damage.
I picked up Toby, grabbed Frisk's hand, pulled her up, and we shot toward the exit. No time to say anything. Large clusters of spears tried to strike us, and we slipped between them, and I zoned in towards the supposed exit.
The last platform was a bridge leading into a dark canyon. I quickly got the three of us running down this bridge.
The spears shooting out of the ground started to die down, and while we weren't out of danger just yet, it was enough that I could calm down, and put my focus on something else. Namely, Toby.
The injury the dog got wasn't serious, but it probably wasn't pleasant either. So, I began to use my healing magic on him. It was a bit difficult, since he was in my arm, and my other hand was still holding Frisk's, but I got it to work, and the wound began to quickly heal.
Then Frisk pulled on my hand, as if she wanted to stop. I looked up, and...
"HOLY-!" I stopped myself. I ALMOST ran off the end of the bridge, where it had collapsed, leaving nothing but the unyielding darkness in front of us. If Frisk hadn't tried to stop me...
My fear of heights took over, and I scrambled away from the edge. Toby was barking in my arms, likely freaking out as much as I was.
All I knew was that we couldn't go this way... but where else could we go. Behind us was...
As we turned around, there she was. Undyne. Walking up to us, before she stopped several feet from us, staring us down.
"H-hello," I squeaked out.
Undyne remained almost unmoving, but her gaze took in the situation we were in. And I barely had the chance to realize she had just figured out her plan of action...
When a single spear shot from the air above, piercing through the platform between us at incredible speeds, I barely noticed it.
Then, from the resulting hold, cracks began to form, as the old bridge began to break apart...
And the platform below us fell. I screamed in terror, Toby howled in distress, and Frisk silently grabbed onto me, tears in her shut eyes, as I stared up at Undyne, as her standing frame shrunk into the distance above us...
Author's Note: So as I mentioned last chapter, there were only two events before a good cliffhanger point. And well, I don't have a lot to say this time.
The walk with Monster Kid was pretty basic, and unchanged. Maybe some... foreshadowing, I mean, been a while since we've seen Gaster, right?
The second Undyne chase has always been my favorite. Attacking from below, walking on the water (supposedly), like she's Jesus (I assume it's some water-based magic, because she is a fish). And then at the end, she finally traps you, and aims to give you a swift end. I'm mean, spoiler alert, you survive, but it's a cool moment.
With that said, nothing much I could do with that in this story, but it's interesting. Intentionally or not, Undyne is testing Chara's fear of heights. She can't even worry about that, because Undyne is so unrelenting, which may be both a positive, and a negative.
Well, that's all I got. I'll be writing more next chapter, hopefully.