I walked through the heavy metal doors that opened up automatically. In front of me was a dark room, only illuminated by a screen close to me, as i walked closer to it, i saw that i was on it, but it was in real time. I moved my hand and it showed me moving it on screen, i moved to the left and right, and the camera just followed me.
"Well, that's not creepy at all." I kept walking forward, when suddenly the lights turned on, a door opened and out walked a yellow, female, dinosaur looking monster in a lab coat. She muttered something under hear breath and suddenly looked at me, then began flipping out.
"O-oh my god, i d-didn't expect you here so soon, i haven't showered, i'm barely dressed, the lab's a mess and and and... umm.. hi."
"Hi... I'm assuming you're Alphys."
"Y-yeah, that's me, Alphys, the royal scientist for king Asgore. I'm sorry for freaking out, i just didn't expect you here so soon."
"Uh huh. Also, why do you have cameras following me?"
"Oh, that. You've got the wrong idea. See, I have cameras all over the underground to make sure nothing bad happens, and then I saw you leave the ruins and just had to keep track and study you. I have to say, you are the most amazing human I've ever seen!"
"Thanks. Well, good to know i don't have a stalker... i think. Anyway, Undyne also told me to say hi to you." I saw that she blushed a little bit and i had a small idea, but i wasn't gonna say it out loud.
"W-well, I guess you're heading off through hotland now, I can help you. I have knowledge of every place in the underground, i can lead you straight to Asgore's castle."
"Cool, good to know i'm getting more people on my side."
"There's uh- just a tiny issue."
"What is it?"
"A long time ago, i made a robot named Mettaton. His original function was to be an entertainer, you know, like a T.V star, but recently i decided to make him umm more useful."
"Let me guess, you made improvements to him that would allow him to go toe to toe against humans huh?"
"Y-yeah... that's pretty much it. But when i saw you coming i thought to myself "I just have to remove those features." and then i saw you effortlessly taking on papyrus and i even knew that you were holding back against Undyne, but still having the time of your life, so i decided to... maybe... keep them?"
"Really? You made improvements to a robot that allowed him to fight humans, which, from what i can tell are hella more powerful than monsters, only to decide to remove them after seeing me, but then double back on your decision?"
"y-yes...?" I crossed my arms and looked at her with a stern face.
"That, is the most. AMAZING THING EVER!" She looked up with a shocked look.
"Wait, so you're not mad at me for that?"
"Of course not, I've been itching for a good fight since i stepped out of the ruins, Undyne was alright, but i need more."
"W-well, i don't know if we'll even run into him at all, but just so you know, he won't fight right away, he wants to entertain his viewers first."
"No problem, i'll play along. Hope that we-" Suddenly there was a booming noise coming from the wall.
"D-did you hear something?"
"Yeah, i did." The booming noise got louder and louder and faster.
"Oh no." The wall to our left shattered and where once was wall, there now stood a box robot with arms, a microphone and on a wheel.
"Ohhhh yesss. Welcome, beauties... to today's quiz show!" Disco balls came from the ceiling and confetti fell everywhere. I already knew i liked this guy. "Oh yes! I can tell this is gonna be a great show! Everyone give a big hand to our wonderful contestant!" Canned cheers and applause were emitted from.. somewhere, as well as more confetti falling on me. He then began to talk to me. "Never played before, gorgeous? Not a problem, it's simple really, answer correctly... OR YOU DIE!" The basic thing happened when initiating a battle, my soul levitated in front of my chest, but Mettaton still had his showman routine going, along with a screen behind him that showed the questions with multiple choice answers.
"Let's start with an easy one shall we? What is the prize for answering correctly?" There were 4 options, money, new car, mercy or more questions, i was about to select mercy, but i saw Alphys out of the corner of my eye making, what looked like a D with her hands, it was then i realized that she was giving me the answer. I selected D which was, More Questions.
"Right! Sounds like you get it!" More confetti and a victory tune sounded. I decided that i would only look at Alphys for necessary help. The next question came up.
"What is the King's full name?" Lord Fluffybuns, Fuzzy Pushover, Asgore Dreemurr, Dr. Friendship. This was an easy one, i picked the only one with Asgore in it.
"Correct! What a terrific answer! But enough about you, let's talk about me! What are robots made of?" Hopes & Dreams, Metal & Magic, Snips & Snails, Sugar & Spice.
"The first question was harder than these." I Chose option B, Metal and Magic.
"Too easy for you huh? Well then, let's give you another easy one." Suddenly, a bunch of text appeared on the screen, something about trains and when they intersect, so i decided to look at Alphys because i wasn't gonna bother to read it and chose answer D, which was correct. "Wonderful, I'm astounded folks! Now don't 'count' on your victory. How many flies are in this jar?" A picture of a jar with multiple flies just flying everywhere appeared, it made me feel so dumb to glance at Alphys again who was making an A shape with her hands, so i chose A and of course it was right.
"Correct! You're so lucky today! Now, let's play a memory game. What monster is this?" A picture of a froggit came up on screen.
"Wow, this is too easy." I chose A, but out of the corner of my eye Alphys was frantically waving no and then facepalmed. I looked up and realized I made a horrible choice and that i was tricked, since the picture expanded into Mettaton wearing a Froggit shirt.
"Ooohhh, too bad hotshot, looks like your luck didn't save you in this question." I was suddenly met with an electric shock, my ki shielded me for the most part, but it still felt like a really bad static shock.
"OW! Come on, you tricked me!"
"Ah ah ah, we're not finished yet though; you still have more questions."
"Fine."
"Now, let's see if you can get this one." The screen showed the question, "would you smooch a ghost?" and every answer was "heck yeah!" so i went with it. "Great answer, i love it! Now then, how many letters are in the name Mettaton?"
"That's not so ba-"
"nnnnnnnnnnnnn..."
"What?! Seriously?!" I looked at Alphys who had a C formed, so i chose C.
"Of course that was easy for you! Now then, let's bring out the big guns."
"I'm ready."
"In the dating simulator game 'Mew Mew Kissy Cutie' what is Mew Mew's favorite food?"
"Oh, I know, I know this one! It's snail ice cream!" Mettaton and I both looked at Alphys's outburst, but she kept going. "In the fourth chapter everyone goes to the beach! And she buys ice cream for all of her friends! But it's snail flavor and she's the only one who wants it! It's one of my favorite parts of the game because it's actually a very powerful message about, friendship.. and.. and..."
"Wow, i didn't expect her to stop."
"Alphys, Alphys, Alphys. You aren't helping our contestant are you? OOOHHHH you should have told me! I'll ask a question, you'll be sure to know the answer to." Alphys was frantically shaking her head no and sweating as well, while hiding her face in fear. "Who does Dr. Alphys have a crush on?" There were another 4 answers, but they were intriguing, Undyne, Asgore, Don't know, or me. I knew the answer anyway from when I told her that Undyne said hi. I chose Undyne. Alphys hid her face behind her hands and blushed furiously.
"See Alphys? I told you it was obvious. Even the human figured it out. Yes, she scrawls her name in the margins of her notes. She names programming variables after her, she even writes stories of them together, living a domestic life. Probability of crush, 101 percent, with a 1 percent margin of error. Anyway, with the good doctor helping you, this show has no more dramatic tension to it now does it? But! This was merely the pilot, next time there will be more. More drama, more romance, and more bloodshed!"
"Just try to accomplish that last one, i dare you."
"Feisty, I like you, but I'm afraid it must wait until next time darling. Tataaaa." He retracted his arms and wheel and became a rocket that flew up through the roof of the lab. I looked at Alphys and she just looked back.
"Well, um.. that was certainly.. interesting."
"You're telling me. Is he always like this?"
"This is him on a mild day."
"Wow, don't think i want to see him all out. Anyway, I'm off, can't progress just sitting here all day."
"W-Wait! Let m-me give you my phone number. That way i can call you or you can call me if you need any help.. heheh."
"Oh, uh, sure. Here- ah man, it's dead. Haven't charged it since I fell down here, and that was yesterday, it's probably been quite a few hours since I left the ruins. What time is it anyway?"
"Oh, it's about 4 in the afternoon. Here, let me charge it, I have... Woah! What model of phone is this? the humans haven't dropped anything like this so far down here, the closest is this one." She pulled out a Code Foundation smartphone from 2 generations ago, or rather, her own version of it.
"Alphys, I'm assuming you reverse engineered that type of phone, but it's been outdated for about 3 years now, mine is 2 models after it. But don't worry, it still is compatible with your charger."
"Wow, do you uh, do you mind if i scan it real quick and find out how to make one?"
"As long as you don't break it."
"Don't worry. I have a T.V on the second floor, you can sit down and watch that for a bit if you want, while you wait."
"Sure, I'll do it. You got anything to eat?"
"There's packets of instant noodles in the fridge, help yourself." She said this as she was working at her computer, scanning my phone while charging it too.
2 hours, 4 episodes of Sword Art Online and 3 packs of noodles later, she finally gave me my phone back after tinkering with it as well.
"Here you go, it's fully charged, and I added some modifications to it as well. I signed you up for the Undernet, which is the underground's biggest social media site, i even added Undyne, Papyrus and myself as your friends. I also added Undyne and myself in your contacts, plus, you have a keychain now."
"Cool, always needed one. Anyway, I'm gonna get going."
"Alright, just call if you need my help."
"Got it." I walked out the back door into Hotland. I flared my ki up again to protect myself from the extreme heat that emanated from the lava below. I walked the path and up the escalator that brought me to another winding escalator which brought me to a path of pipes, i walked across and walked to a ledge that had 2 pillars individual from each other, separated by a gap too far for any normal human to jump. But i'm not a normal human; I simply hopped across them like it was a 2 inch gap with no difficulty. I kept walking and jumped across another gap, when i heard my phone go off, i looked at it and saw that Alphys was posting like crazy on her page, but they were good things about me though, so i just liked a few and carried on. There were a few more gaps down the road, but they weren't anything special. Suddenly, I was face to face with a hall of blue laser screens, I could get past them, but I would be moderately injured afterwards, even with my ki protection and i really didn't want to waste any more food. But as luck would have it, my phone began to ring.
"Ello?"
"H-hey, it's Alphys, I see you're at the laser hall. Don't worry, i'll fix it." Suddenly, the lasers turned off.
"Cool, thanks."
"No problem, you should be just fine now." Just as she said that though, the lasers turned back on and after about 3 seconds, they turned back off again.
"Well, I should be fine as long as i make it to the other side before they turn on again."
"I-i'm sorry, i thought that they were turned off for good, oh no, i messed up bad."
"It's fine Alphys, I've got this, I'll call when I need your help again alright?"
"A-a-alright." She hung up and at that moment, the lasers turned off once more; i took the opportunity and flew to the other side, but as luck would have it, the moment i reached the final laser, they turned on again and I didn't have enough time to fully shield myself, so it basically seared my arm.
"Agh! Dammit! Son of a bitch!" I held my arm, then looked at it, which i immediately regretted. The burn was pretty bad, it was enough to see seared muscle and some white from my wrist. I took a senzu out from my pouch, since i knew monster food wouldn't cut it this time, I ate it and almost instantly felt better. I looked at my arm and saw that it began to heal instantly, which was actually a pretty cool process. I saw the old, burnt muscle decaying and the new muscle growing back and placing itself in the correct position, then I saw the skin growing together, almost like a liquid and within a few seconds, my arm was good as new, with a minor scar from where the sear used to be. I walked on until there was a 3 split in the path, forward was a big stone door and to the left were two enteranceways; my phone rang again.
"It's Alphys again.. umm y-you're gonna n-need to solve the puzzles on the left and right in order to open the door to progress."
"Oooorrrr I could just blast the door to pieces and move forward."
"N-n-no! Don't do that! Those doors are old and important and they're also really really expensive. Just, can you please solve the puzzle without breaking anything?"
"I only promise to try." With that, I hung up and jumped to the right first in order to go through one gateway and see that the puzzle was just shooting a target; I didn't even need the turret for this, I just blasted away the blocks that were in the way and shot at the generator, which charged it up. I went out and went to the left in order to do the same, but there was a blue laser blocking my way, so I called Alphys.
"H-hello?"
"I need you to do your hack thing again and turn off this laser that's blocking me."
"Oh, sure, i can do that. No problem. I promise it won't turn on again this time." The laser cut off after a few seconds, but i waited a little longer just to be sure that it wouldn't turn back on, then I went inside, solved the puzzle, came back and just like magic, the door opened and I kept going. I leaped over some more chasms, which makes me wonder who designed this place to make so many chasms, and I ended up in a dark room; once again, my phone rang.
"H-hey, it's kinda dark in there isn't it? D-don't worry, it shows on my screen that there are lights in the room where you are, I'll just turn them on." I heard a keyboard in the background and suddenly the lights came on, to reveal what looked like a kitchen set in front of a camera. "Oh no."
"What, what's so bad about a coo-"
"Oh Yessss."
"And now I see what's so bad about it. Call ya later Alphys, I've got a bot to deal with." I hung up and Mettaton sprung from behind the counter.
"Welcome beauties to the underground's premiere cooking show! Cooking with a killer robot! Preheat your ovens because we have a very special recipie for you today! We're going to be making... A cake! My lovely assistant here will be gathering the ingredients! Everyone give them a big hand!" Mettaton clapped, so did the "audience" and more confetti fell from the cieling; I picked some out of my hair.
"How do you afford this stuff?"
"Darling, I'm the biggest idol in the Underground, I can do what I want. Now then! We're going to need sugar, milk and eggs, go for it sweetheart!" I decided to play along. I turned around and the ingredients were all on the back counter, so i went and grabbed them and brought them over to him.
"Here you go Mettaton."
"Perfect, great job beautiful! We've got all the ingredients we need to make a cake! Wait just a magnificent minute! We're forgetting the most important ingredient!" Suddenly, he brought out a chainsaw, and suddenly, i was quite defensive of myself and got ready to fight if necessary. "A human soul!" He revved up the chainsaw and slowly wal- rolled, towards me, but suddenly a phone rang, and for once, it wasn't mine, it was Mettaton's.
"Hello? This had better be good, I'm kind of in the middle of something here." I could just make out words and Alphys's voice coming from the other end.
"W-wait a second! Couldn't you make a... Couldn't you use a... Couldn't you make a substitution in the recipe?!"
"A substitution? You mean use a different, non-human ingredient?... Why?"
"Ummm, what if... umm... what if someone's uhh... vegan?"
"Vegan."
"Uhh, I mea-"
"That's a brilliant idea Alphys!" Between his shouting and the blaring music that happened, I think I lost some hearing.
"Welp. Didn't need one ear anyway, I can survive with 50% of my hearing intact."
"Actually I happen to have an option right here! MTT Brand Always-convenient-human-soul-flavor-substitute!"
"Yeah, that is convenient."
"You bet. And the can is just over there, on that counter!" I looked to where he was motioning and saw a red can with a soul drawn on it. "Well darling, why don't you go get it?"
"Alright." I walked over to the counter, and just as I was about to grab it, the counter shot up into the sky on a tower of drawers and rest of counter. "HEY! I call blasphemy, how is this fair?"
"Nobody ever said it was. Now then, the show runs on a very strict schedule, if you can't get to the can within the next minute, we'll just have to go back to the original plan. So, better start climbing beautiful!" He rocketed off to the top, which was barely visible. If i had to take a guess, it was about half as tall as Korin's tower.
"Two can play at that game you bucket of bolts." I charged and rocketed upwards, meeting him about halfway.
"What?! How?! This is Alphys's doing isn't it?"
"Nope, this is all bona-fide 100% me."
"Th-that's not fair!"
"Nobody ever said it was." With that, I gave one more push and made it to the top, grabbed the can from the shelf and with a surprising need of a yank, flew back down, did a somersault and threw the can onto the counter with perfect precision. Mettaton then floated over to me with obvious surprise, but then talked.
"W-well.. it seems that you've bested me. B-but I'm afraid your efforts were for naught. Haven't you ever seen a cooking show before? I already baked the cake ahead of time. But nontheless, you have some skills darling. Toodles." I walked offstage and in the distance I saw a giant machine in the distance, I decided to text Alphys about it.
'Hey, what's with the giant engine in the lava?'
'Oh, that's the core, it's what powers the entire Underground. See, it converts geothermal energy into magical electricity by a process... umm well, it's where you're going next anyway, so let's keep moving.'
'ok.' I pocketed my phone, but before I kept going, I thought that this might be a good time to save. I concentrated my determination and created another star, I quickly saved and then loaded back to where I once was and kept on going to the elevator. There were only two buttons, L1 and R2, considering the fact that I just got into the elevator that said L2, I went with R2, felt myself going down a little, then stop and the door opened up. I walked to the right, just to see sans's post, which for some goddamn reason still had snow on the top, but I walked over to him.
"Heya kiddo, how's it going?"
"You mean apart from getting my hand lasered off and nearly getting fileted by a killer robot with a chainsaw? It's going pretty good."
"Seems like you've been having one heck of a run. Here, for your troubles, I'll give you a hot dog on the house, just this once." He handed me a hot dog, but instead of meat inside of it, there was the long thing that you find on those plants that grow near ponds.
"Is this a joke?"
"Nah kid, you can actually eat that, haven't you ever heard of a water sausage before?"
"Fine, if you say so. You may be a prankster, but I know you're above poisoning someone."
"That's right. Anyway, it was nice talking to ya kid. Have fun on the rest of your adventure."
"Later Sans." I kept on walking forward until I was in a hall with mobile floors moving forward and backward and the one moving forward had 3 buttons on it to press. My phone rang again, you already know who it was.
"Alright Alphys, what's your advice on this one?"
"W-well, the exit to this room is blocked by an electric force-field. You're gonna have to press all 3 buttons very quickly in order to-"
"Done."
"Wait what?"
"I can fly and move faster than normal comprehension, remember?"
"R-right. Sorry, I forgot."
"It's cool. I'm in the next room now."
"The exit is across the gap. You can easily find your way. Just call when you absolutely need me alright. Or i'll call as well when I know you need me."
"Bye." I hung up, flew over the gap with pillars that had switches and kept going. As I walked down the hall, there was a computerized safe that happened to contain a highly melted wedge of cheese, I looked down and saw a mouse hole and I just kept walking, pitying the poor mouse. I walked into another dark room again and called Alphys.
"D-don't worry, I've got it!" The lights came on and I saw that i was behind a wall of cardboard with mettaton next to an open slot viewing me. "Are you serious?!
"Ohhhh Yessss! Hello beauties! This is Mettaton reporting live from MTT news! An interesting situation has arisen in-"
"Hey, Mettaton, I don't think you're fooling anyone with that duct tape and carboard set you've made."
"My my my, how rude. Couldn't you at least go along with the show for just a little bit longer? Anyway, I was going to give you a dramatic reveal of somehting important. But I think I've changed my mind."
"What was the important thing?"
"Oh, it's not so important now. Just the fact that everything surrounding you is a bomb."
"Wait what?" I looked around and saw there was a basketball, a dog, a glass of water, a book, a present and a video . Every single one of them was a bomb ready to explode.
"Now then darling. If you don't diffuse these bombs within the next 2 minutes, this big bomb will blow you to smithereens. Good luck." The bomb began to count down, but I felt my phone vibrate, I looked at it and saw a text that said 'bomb diffusal app. Use it.'
"Alphys, thank you. I opened the app and began to take out the bombs one by one without any difficulty. Once they were all diffused, I looked at him with a cocky smirk.
"My my. Good job darling. The bomb will no longer explode in 2 minutes... but rather 2 seconds! It's been fun darling!" I created a shield around me and braced for the explosion, but nothing happened. Suddenly, I heard Alphys's voice come from a speaker on Mettaton.
"Nice try, but while you were monologuing, I made some changes."
"Curses! Foiled by the great Dr. Alphys once again! But I won't curse my eight wonderful viewers for tuning in this evening! Until next time darling!" He flew away and my phone rang, I answered.
"W-wow, those were some nice skills. Granted, you did have my help with the bomb diffusal."
"Yeah, thanks for that. Granted, I could have just surrounded them with a shield and blown them up, but your plan caused less collateral damage."
"We make a good team."
"Yeah, we do. Alright, time to keep moving." I hung up and moved on, after saving once more.
Time skipping Muffet cause it would take too long and this chapter is long enough as it is.
"Well, I'm glad I bought that doughnut back in the ruins, otherwise there would be fried spiders everywhere. Great, where am I now?" I saw a stairwell and a balcony overhead. Suddenly Mettaton came out, wearing a light blue, sparkly dress; i tried my absolute hardest not to laugh, and I gotta say, I'm proud of myself, that is, until he began singing, a small chuckle or two may have escaped me.
"So sad. So sad that you are going into the dungeon. Well, toodles." He pushed a button, a trap door opened under me and I fell, but since I could fly, I just fell for dramatic effect. I was in an underground portion of the stage with a moving floor and... a colored tile maze in front of me.
"Oh no! Whatever shall I do? My love has been cast away into the dungeon. A dungeon with a puzzle so dastardly, my paramour will surely perish! O, heavens have mercy, the horrible colored tile maze! Each tile has it's own sadistic function! For example, the green makes you fight a monster, the orange... wait, didn't we see this before?"
"Well, I don't know about you, but I remember seeing it."
"Great, then you obviously remember the rules and should have no trouble getting past it. But do be warned, if you do not cross in the next 30 seconds, you will be burnt alive by this wall of fire!" A literal firewall appeared behind me once he said that. "Oh, and one more catch darling. You can't fly."
"What?! Why not?"
"We need suspense don't we? What good would it be if I just let you fly over this? Boooooorrrrrriiinnnnggg. Now then, good luck." Suddenly, there was fast paced music in the background, Mettaton singing and a whole lot of me messing up, slipping, falling in water, blasting pirahnas and at times getting shocked; before I knew it, 30 seconds had passed and I wasn't even halfway through the maze.
"All because I decided to obey the rules of not being allowed to fly."
"Ooooohhhhh, i'm so sorry. Looks like you're out of time!" The first wall of fire appeared much closer and a second one appeared on my other side. "Here come the flames darling!"
"Oh yeah, well here come mine!" I flared out my ki as the walls of fire got closer, blowing them away and both figuratively and literally blowing Mettaton away, but he came back. "Your puzzle's over Mettaton, let me through."
"Over? Darling, it's far from over. Don't you remember what the green tiles do? If you land on them, you're supposed to fight a monster, well, you landed on quite a few, and the monster you have to fight. Is me!" He flew down to face me and my soul hovered out again.
"Finally, this is what I've been waiting for. A fight!" I got into a battle stance and charged forward, connecting my fist with the rest of him, but it didn't seem to do much, then he began acting injured.
"Ooooohhhhh, you've defeated me. How can this be? You were stronger than I though, I underestemated you etc. bye darling..." He just rolled offstage.
"Well that was a disappointment." I pulled out my phone. "Yo doc, where to?"
"The resort should be on the other side of that exit. By the way, working with you has made me fell, less like a nobody. Less like a screw up, like how I've always felt before. Thank you, I'm glad we got the chance to work together."
"Same here, you're pretty cool. Now then, you said the core is after the hotel right?"
"Y-yeah, it is."
"That means my Journey's almost over... Actually, what time is it?"
"It's about 8pm."
"I need to go do something first. I'll be back here. I'll call you when I'm ready alright?"
"Alright, I'll be waiting."
"Later doc."
"Bye." I hung up, created another save and began a quick flight to Undyne's house."
A/N: Long one, I know. But, Hotland + Core is the longest segment of the game, sorry. Anyway, Stryker is nearing the end of the underground, what's gonna happen? Will he get out? How will he free the monsters? Will he or will he not burn down Undyne's house while making spaghetti? Find out all these answers and more on the next exciting chapter of Strykertale... whenever I feel like updating it. Bai.