Iffy awakens to see Compa still asleep. Iffy was about to wake her when she heard Frisk talking on a phone, "Sans, she has the determination trait. Yes, the one with a blue jacket, her name is Iffy, you know. I think Iffy and Compa could free us. The girl with the pink hair has a different trait. Sans, this is no time for jokes. Yes, yes, I know the two are very "Compa-atable" even in "Iffy" relationships. Compa does have the soul of kindness which worries me because Undyne and Asgore might be too much for her. If only she knew Asgore's decision it might tear her apart."

Iffy grips her fists and whispers to herself, "Again, with these traits, what the deal with all this secrecy."

Frisk pinches her nose, "Sans, This is serious. They can get themselves killed, and just because one has the determination trait, if she is not careful with her save file, she could lose Compa forever."

Iffy marches out and points her weapon at Frisk, "Ok, you sleazeball bitch! What the hell is going on here?"

A mysterious figure drops behind Iffy, who bears a red cloak and seems to be the same age as Frisk, who had on a strange mask, "Make one move to hurt her, and I will gut you like a fish!"

Frisk pleads, "Easy Scarlet, easy." Frisk walks up to the weird figure, "You don't need to resort to violence."

Scarlet sighs beneath her mask, "I will stick around to make sure your safety is not compromised. I don't want to see you hurt."

Frisk sighs, and spoke to the phone, "I will have to call you back, keep Papy busy, ok." She hangs up her phone and with a pitiful smile says, "I bet you have a lot of questions."

Iffy glares at Frisk, "Ok, you can first tell me who the hell is this."

Frisk laughs, "Her name is Scarlet, she is my overly protective girlfriend. She used to be called Red until that little doll body started to give out."

Iffy asks, "Ok, second tell me what you are doing. Third, what the hell is up with these traits that you mention? Last, do you have any affiliation with Flowey or Asgore?"

Scarlet turns to Frisk as she back off Iffy, "She no friend of Flowey I will say that!"

Frisk calmly tells Iffy, "Look we are all friends here. We are talking about the upcoming trials you will face. Asgore is a threat, and he will be one of your biggest challenges, but so will Undyne the captain of the royal guard. However, they are nowhere near as dangerous as Flowey the Flower. We noticed he has been following you."

Iffy takes a deep breath, "Ok, so you are friends, right? So why the secrets?"

Scarlet spoke for Frisk, "It is because of your lvl. It is unknown."

Iffy tilts her head as she raises an eyebrow, "I am high lvl, that should be a good thing."

"No!" Frisk shouts "No! Lvl means something else down here. Iffy LVL means Level of Violence and the capability to do harm. I cannot see your Level of violence and that by itself is very concerning. At least your friend is LVL 1."

Iffy looks away with a slightly nervous chuckle, "Ok, that makes sense why you are weary of me. If I had to gauge everyone's Level of Violence in Gamindustri, well there would be very few LVL 1. However, if you went through what we went through with the deity of sin, well you would have to make some tough decisions. Neptune's antics also did not help."

Frisk sighs, "Go wake up your friend Compa."

Scarlet hugs Frisk, "I must head into town, I need to do some things. Are you sure you be alright?"

Frisk giggles, "I will be fine." Scarlet nods and then jumps to the trees and disappears.

Iffy nods still weary of Frisk, but also understands them. She goes into the tent and shakes Compa, "Compa! Wakey! Wakey!"

"Five more minutes," Compa groaned.

Suddenly they heard barking outside which woke up Compa. Iffy looks outside to see Frisk petting a bipedal dog in armor. Its neck keeps getting longer and longer. "Can we not have the weirdness for one day?"

Compa walks out of the tent to see Frisk petting a dog in armor, "Oh gosh! That is super cute! Even his tail is wagging so fast!" Compa squeals at the adorable sight.

Frisk giggles, "You guys go ahead. I got this guy!"

Iffy grabs Compa's wrist, "Come on, Compa, no need to get distracted by the silly doggy." Iffy had to drag Compa away from the utterly adorable sight, "I swear adorable animals are your weakness." They walk across a bridge and into a clearing seeing two giant heavily armed and armored dogs with giant axes, "Okay. Now that's mildly intimidating."

"What's that smell!?" Both dogs said in unison, one male and the other female.

The female dog spoke, "If you're that smell."

"Then identify your smelf!" The male dog said. Both armored dogs run around sniffing the air, then they trace the smell to Iffy and Compa, "There is the smell again! The smell makes me want to eliminate!"

"Eliminate you!" the female dog continued.

Compa and Iffy hearts glow in their respective colors. Iffy sighs, "At least this time we get a warning."

The male dog growled at the girls, "Don't touch my hot dog!"

The female dog says, "he means me."

Compa giggled, "Hot dog! That is funny!"

Iffy reads their collars, "Dogamy? And Dogeressa." She sarcastically claps, "Oh, how original!"

One the dog grabs Iffy and throws her down on the ground causing mud to splat on her and Compa, "Don't you dare make fun of us!" Dogamy demanded.

Iffy groans as she gets up, "Ok, I probably asked for that." Iffy pulled out her weapons and was ready to fight.

Both dogs sniff Iffy, and the mud on Iffy makes them sniff again, "What smells like a…"

Dogeressa finishes her husband's sentence, "Are you actually a little puppy?"

Iffy shouts, "What the hell? Why am I a little puppy!?"

Dogamy sniffs Compa, who is giggling and laughing at the dogs, "There is another puppy!"

Dogeressa jumps for joy, "Ohhh, my two little puppies!"

Iffy was baffled, "Are these guys blind or just that stupid?"

Compa pets Dogamy, "Awwwww, good boy, who's a good boy!"

Dogeressa begs, "Well, don't leave me out!"

Iffy laughed to herself at how ridiculous this is getting, "Why are these situations getting more bonkers as we push forward," She walked up to Dogeressa, "Blind or not, stupid or not, I have to admit this is adorable as hell," Iffy smiles, "oh this one such a good girl isn't she?"

Dogeressa wags her tail happily, "A dog that pets other dogs, amazing!"

The couple dogs stared at each other, and they said in unison, "Dogs that can pet other dogs, A new world has opened for us. Thanks, weird puppies!" The dog monster couple skips off happily ending the battle sequence.

Compa and Iffy stared at each other for a moment. Compa starts laughing and prompts Iffy to laugh along with her. The two girls laughed their hearts out and high-fived each other. Compa covers with hand blushing staring at Iffy, who is laughing while hiding her face with her hands as she blushed. The two girls eventually calmed down, and Iffy spoke up, "Let us get going."

As soon as Papyrus was in sight, Compa cheerfully shouted, "Hi Papyrus!"

Iffy smiles, "Seems the dogs got her into a very good mood."

Papyrus shouts in disbelief, "What!? How did you avoid my trap? And more importantly, is there any left for me?"

"We left it," Iffy said.

"We ate it," Compa said.

Iffy looked at Compa while raising an eyebrow, "Huh, you ate it, Compa?"

"I thought you did. It was gone when I woke up in the middle of the night." Compa replied.

Papyrus beams a big smile, "Really! Wowie! No one ever enjoyed my cooking before. Well then, fret not humans! I, Master Chef Papyrus, will make you all the pasta you could ever want!"

Iffy frantically waves her arms, "No! No! You're good! We have our own cook at the surface."

Papyrus raises his eyelid, "Is that so? Then, I, Master Chef Papyrus, will challenge your chef to a cookoff!" Papyrus cackles as he runs off ahead.

Iffy spoke as she was solving the simple puzzle, "Turn all the X's to zeroes, simple enough."

Compa raised an eyebrow as Papyrus left. She makes a smile, "You are so on, Papyrus."

"Got it!" Iffy yelled, and the path forward opened.

The girls proceed Forward to find Papyrus waiting by a tree. He decided to walk with them to the next puzzle, "My brother started a sock collection. How saddening, sometimes, I wonder what he would do without such a cool guy taking care of him?"

Compa grins, "That is really sweet of you."

Iffy blinks, "And slightly random."

Papyrus walks with them to the next puzzle, "Humans! How do I say this? You were taking a long time to arrive!"

Iffy scratches her head, "Do you ever sleep?"

Papyrus spoke in a matter-of-fact tone, "I do sleep! I sleep 2-4 hours a day!"

Compa sighs, "That cannot be healthy."

Papyrus continues. "Ahem, anyways, I decided to improve this puzzle by arranging the snow to look more like my face. Unfortunately, the snow froze the ground, and now the solution is completely different! As usual, my lazy brother is nowhere around!"

Compa giggles cheerfully, "Wait, you tried to make a puzzle shaped like your face? That is super cool!"

Iffy rolls her eyes as she chuckles silently to herself, "Good grief. Nep would love this dolt."

Papyrus sighs, "I suppose what I am saying is, worry not human. I, The Great Papyrus, will solve this conundrum, then we can both proceed! Meanwhile, feel free to try the puzzle yourself. I will try not to give away the answer."

Iffy attempts the puzzle a couple of times before walking up to Papyrus and asking, "Ok, Papyrus, how about a hint?"

Compa wanders around while Iffy attempts to solve Papyrus' puzzle. She notices a lever behind the trees, "Oh, what is that?"

Papyrus perks up happily, "Oho! Do you wish for The Great Papyrus to give you a hint? Very well, I noticed while you were doing the puzzle what the solution is! The solution is to turn all the X's into zeroes!"

Iffy throws her hands in the air, yelling, "Why gee thanks, captain obvious!"

Papyrus tilts his head, "I think you are confused, human. I am not a captain, because that honor goes to Undyne. I am a royal guardsman in training!"

A curious Compa walks up to the switch and decides to pull it to see what it does, and long behold solves the puzzle Iffy was doing. "Oh, so that is what it's for."

Papyrus throws both his hands in the air, "You solved it! And better yet without looking! My advice helped. It really helped you! Incredible! I am impressed."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Iffy looks behind her to see the puzzle solved, "How in the hell did that happen?"

Papyrus pats Iffy on the head, "You solved it without even looking! Wow, you humans must care a lot about puzzles like I do! Well, I'm sure you'll love the next puzzle then! It might even be too easy for you," Papyrus cackles as he pats Iffy on the back and then walks off ahead laughing to himself.

Compa giggles, "Wow! I solved another one!"

Iffy sighs, "First the electricity maze, and now this?"

Sans walks up to the girls from behind and loudly chuckles, "Good job on solving it so quickly. You didn't even need my help! Which is great cause I love doing nothing."

Iffy slowly turn and glares at Sans, "Well, good for you."

Compa laughs like a schoolgirl, "I wonder what they are going to do next! Oh, will I solve another one! I hope I solve another one!"

Iffy rolls her eyes and grabs Compa's hand, "Come on Compa" The girls went ahead to find Papyrus and Frisk standing near a strange device, "Oh you got to be kidding me."

Papyrus beams in excitement, "Hey, it is the humans. You're going to love this puzzle! It was made by the Great Dr. Alphys. Now normally I usually like to explain my puzzle, but Frisk here is more tech-savvy than me so I will let her explain it."

Frisk clears her throat, "You see these tiles, once Papy throws the switch. They will begin to change color. Each color has a different function. Red tiles you cannot pass, yellow tiles are electric, and needless to say they will electrocute you. Green tiles are alarm tiles that you will have to fight a monster if you step on them. Orange tiles are orange-scented and make you smell delicious. Blue tiles are water tiles, and you can swim through them if you like, but if you smell like oranges that will cause piranhas to bite you. If a blue tile is next to a yellow tile, you will also get shocked. Purple tiles are slippery and smell like lemons which piranhas do not like, and they will make you slide to the next tile. Purple and blue tiles are ok together. Finally, there are the pink tiles which do absolutely nothing, and you can step on them if you wish. That is the explanation for this puzzle."

Compa blinks, "I am somewhat confused."

Iffy sighs, "Oh boy, even that is a bit much for me, ahh hell with it let's see what happens."

Frisk smiles, "Excellent!"

Papyrus cries tears of joy, "I am so proud of you Frisk! You are the best little sister ever!" He hugs Frisk, but then lets go to recollect himself, "Ahem, great, there is one last thing."

Iffy sighs, "Oh, come on!"

Papyrus grins widely, "This puzzle is entirely random" The skeleton points at the device, "When I pull this switch on the device; it will make a puzzle that has never been seen before! Not even I will know the solution!" He pulls the switch as he cackles, "Get ready!"

Compa's head spin seeing all the flashing tiles, and as it goes faster, she made herself dizzy and faints, "So many colors."

Iffy catches Compa and gulps, "Ok, I still got this."

The color stops and it just shows red tiles on the side and with a pink pathway in the middle. Papyrus claps his hands together and then pumps his hands in the air as he spins like a ballerina away from the scene. Frisk follows him saying, "Papy I told you to be careful."

Iffy laughs at this scene "What the hell? Talk about anticlimactic." She facepalms with her laughter.

Compa regains her balance and looks at the tiles, "Is it safe to go through?"

Iffy just picks up Compa like a princess not truly thinking about what she is doing as she walks Compa through the puzzle, then sets her down on the other side, "There now, you don't have to worry about it." She looks away, realizing what she just did.

Compa is beet red until Sans interrupted the moment, "Frisk has been really helpful to Papyrus, and Papyrus has genuinely been taken into being the older brother to Frisk. Have to say Frisk becoming an adopted sister has been the best thing that happened to us, especially to Papyrus. Heh, I just noticed this one few rare times he gives her the spotlight."

Compa asks, "Hey Sans, can we have a break somewhere?"

Sans nods, "Well I got a station up ahead, Paps cleared the snow for the next snow-building day which is hey tomorrow."

Iffy raises an eyebrow, "Guess you are not used to the snow aren't you, Compa?"

Compa nervously chuckles, "I just want something to eat."

Iffy nods in agreement, "Yeah, two hours trudging through snow, dealing with Papyrus and a dog couple kinda makes a girl hungry. Plus, we truthfully need to plan on what's next."

Sans cracks a joke, "Guess you are "Iffy" about your next move."

Iffy groans, "Come on, man."

Sans cheekily smiles, "You mean come on "Skeleton" and you don't need," Sans pulls out a jar of jam, "get yourself into a jam."

Compa snickers while Iffy rolls her eyes as she and Compa follow Sans to the guard station, "Are we even close to Snowdin at this point Sans?"

Sans shrugs, "I don't know, anyways here we are! Let me fix you guys some hotdogs for you two, and hehe do you guys like ketchup?" Both girls nod and they proceed to set up a place for them to eat, and to Iffy surprise, Sans was frankly doing something. He was cooking hot dogs for them. Iffy and Compa laughed and told each other funny stories as the food was being prepared.

Meanwhile in Gamindustri! Neptune and flying to Lowwe accompanied by Vert. Neptune is doing spins and tricks as she is flying which prompts Vert to ask, "Is it just me, or is your human side rubbing off on your CPU self?"

Neptune flies backward with her hands behind her head facing Vert, "Guess I am starting to show that side of me here. Win for me, I guess?" In reality, Neptune was simply trying to distract her mind from the thoughts that were echoing in her head. Thoughts of this mysterious villain, thoughts of her friends, and thoughts of the return of the felon by the hand of this mysterious villain. Despite knowing that Iffy and Compa will be alright, she just can't shake the feeling that something is not right.

Vert interrupts Neptune's deep thoughts, "Hey, watch where you are going?"

Neptune snaps out of it and barely avoids hitting a crossing ship before saying in a slightly shaken voice, "Yeah, I should."

Vert notices something is off about Neptune, "You don't seem like yourself."

Neptune replies, "There is… Something I have been trying to figure out. What do you know about the melting face skeleton?"

Vert makes a face of disgust and shock, "A melting face skeleton? That is one morbid definition of a creature if I heard one. You are not binge-watching horror flicks again, are you?"

Neptune sharply says, "No."

Vert was taken aback by such a cold response from her, "Are you okay?"

Neptune ignores the question and spots Lowwe on the horizon "Hey, we are almost at Lowwe. There have got to be answers here. There has to be answers!" Neptune speeds up and shoots straight toward Lowwe's center.

Vert grits her teeth as she accelerates to keep up with Neptune, "This truly must be dire. Something bothering her."

As soon as the CPUs landed, Rom and Ram come rushing towards them. They are frightened, and Ram says, "Bout time you got here! We got a very big problem!"

Neptune blinks, "Wait? What is happening?"

Rom crying out loud, "Mina got very sick; she is in a coma! I am very worried about her. Big sister gone, the weird melting skeleton dude sent her somewhere else through a strange portal!"

Ram adds, "We don't know what to do!"

Vert transformed back and kneeled to the young CPUs, "How about you girls slow down and we head inside to have something sweet as we talk about what is going on."

The twin nod as they practically pull Vert inside the bacillicom. Ram stated, "You have to help us. We…. We don't know what to do, everything has gone so bad."

Neptune looks over her shoulder to see the strange skeleton. A strange Language was implemented into her head "I know your weakness, little goddess, I won't hesitate to break you just as I broke the white one" Cars pass between them and as they did the skeleton vanishes before Neptune's eyes.

Neptune squints at where he was, "Tough talk for someone who just ran away."

Rom asks, "Who are you talking to Ms. Neptune?"

Neptune finally transforms back into her human form, "Ohhh it was some weirdo stalking me is all. Anyways CPU disappearing, and some really fishy things have been happening around Gamindustri! So…" Neptune grabs a random fedora, a trench coat, and a pipe and smiles, "My dear Rom who is not Watson! Detective Neptune is on the case!" With that Neptune begins snooping around the library and police reports in Lowwe.

Rom just follows and wonders to herself, "Who is Watson?"

Authors note: This chapter I wanted more of a bonding chapter and is my attempts to show more of Compa and Iffy bonding a bit more, while keeping the shenanigans happening. Also I am beginning to push the plot in Gamindustri soon and explain what really bothering good old Neptune in the later chapters.