Halt, Intruder!
Text Version
"This is not good." Papyrus looked down at the boy, eating his burger. "Undyne says we don't have to catch humans, but the king says we do." He put his bony hand on Frisk's head. "And this human seems to have shrunk from last time. His clothes don't even fit."
"Yeah. He must have shopped at a half-off sale."
"This is serious, Sans," his brother criticized him. "Mm. What do we do?"
"Eat?"
"No, I mean, the human. I, I don't want to put it through dangerous puzzles."
"Then, don't."
"But, the king says we still have to go after them! Eventually, Undyne will …"
"Chill, bro. No problem." Sans looked down at the boy. He wanted to have a little time to just relax before he had to deal with what was coming. "You done yet?"
The kid still had more than half of his sandwich. "Fffffrrrrisssk? Need Fffffrrrrisssk."
"Who's Fffffrrrrisssk?" Papyrus asked his brother.
"Beats me. Hey, are we off-duty for the whole day? I could get some rest."
"No. No, we are not!" Papyrus left his burger and chair. "We shouldn't be late. We must watch out for humans! Or, uh, other humans? Maybe? Intruders, we shall watch for intruders."
"Uh, okay, cool. I'll be right there." Sans looked down at the boy. "So, what's your real name?"
"Ffffrrrisssk."
"So, you are looking for Frisk, and your name is Frisk too? Heh, cool." He popped his last bit of burger in his mouth. "Come on. I'm taking you to a special knock-knock door."
"But? Ffffrrrrissskyyyy." Frisk's sad eyes were beginning to water. "Momma is Fffrrisky."
Sans choked on his burger slightly as he reached for his catsup. Oh, yeah. His mom was inside that thing too? "Well, Frisky's not here anymore. You're on your own."
"Is!" Frisk started to cry and grabbed onto Sans clothes again. "Is, Sans, is!"
This kid was really emotional. It wasn't half as composed as it used to be. As he looked around he saw others looking at him, including Grillby. "We need to go."
"Momma!" Frisk kept rubbing his eyes. Sans tried to lure him out, but it wasn't working. "Is, Is, Is, IS, IS!!" Picking him up, he had no choice but to carry him out. Yeah, he really missed that composure now. But, well, at least it wouldn't be resetting time and screwing his life up anymore.
And that was worth the price of a little bit of babysitting.
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Text Version:
The kid pouted on his shoulder most of the way through the snow. When he reached Toriel's door, he didn't even need to knock. She probably already heard the blubbering. "Knock-knock?"
"Who's there?" There wasn't as much enthusiasm in her voice.
"Orange."
"Orange who?"
"Orange you looking for some company?"
" . . ."
Sans tried to pull Frisk away from himself, but he wouldn't let go. "Come on. It's Toriel. You remember her, don't you?" Frisk just shook his head and still didn't let go.
"No. I told the human if it left, it could not come back. Staying here, it would lose its light."
No. That's not the answer Sans wanted to hear. She was supposed to take Frisk, and he was supposed to be back at his post to get some much deserved rest. To enjoy the ending to all the mind-numbing resetting. "Knock-knock?"
"No."
"Pull."
"No."
"Pullease take it? It's kind of changed." Sans tried to pull it off again. "If it gets into an encounter, it's dead this time."
"No, I will have faith in the child. You should too."
"He's shrunk though. He got smaller."
"Humans don't do that."
"Okay, well, it's a different human?" He waited for the voice but it didn't return. She wouldn't believe that, she knew all the humans that fell. They had to go through the ruins to ever come out. "Geez, no." This. This wasn't a good time. Dang. "What am I supposed to do with you now?"
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"Hoi, I'm Temmie, and dis is my friend-!"
"Now is not the time to mess with me," Frisky said as the Temmie's backed away from her. She felt around her shoulders. The air was getting colder. She was getting closer. When she had come to, she realized she was finally by herself. Except that her tremendously difficult opponent was gone. And so was her six year old son. In fact, she wasn't even in Judgment Hall, the blast hurling her to the castle.
As she moved back to Judgment Hall, she sorted through the body parts of those that didn't teleport right. They . . . didn't all match. Considering there were seven Frisks, from the sum of body parts, it looked like at least two more had escaped.
Frisky didn't know why her boy was missing, but she had to assume Sans the Skeleton took him. Frisk would be almost immobile, infantile after so long of being together. No matter how angry Sans was, she had to believe Sans knew Frisk couldn't hurt anyone and just took him to safety. It was bad enough to be stuck in the Underground. It was bad enough sharing a body and switching consciousness between several people. She had to believe that, really had to because . . .
Sans didn't accept mercy. He wanted to crack them. Viciously. She had no chance against him, but he just took the one thing she couldn't let go of. Mere human or not, she had to find a way to get him to ACT and not FIGHT to get her son back. "Do you have any extra clothes?" She still wasn't as tall as she was in her original form, a couple of inches off, but the program that teleported her there would probably get the data worked out. The fact that she even survived the emergency soul teleporting transfer was enough to not want to complain.
"Temmie has new item!"
"Temmie, I am really not in the mood, unless it's clothes." Then again, maybe the new item was a weapon? No, she had grabbed the knife and the locket. And that was about it. She was actually trying to cover her naked self with echo flowers. Unsuccessfully.
"Temmie has new items!"
"Okay, a quick look." Frisky stepped closer to Temmie and a digital menu opened up. She moved her hands through the options and spotted the new things. "Black box snake. Hoodie." Hm. She needed more info than the menu had. "Can I see the black box snake?"
"Temmie show!" From behind the sale box, Temmie had . . . an MP3 player.
Frisky didn't waste any time and paid for it, grabbing it. MP3 player. She put the small attached ear pod that looked like it survived in her ear and turned it on. She skipped through the first few songs. Son of a bitch. "This was my sisters."
"No, girl never brought it in."
"She wouldn't. She was killed. It's a calling card." Frisky held the MP3 player close. PERSEVERANCE must have survived, and had already reached out for help. She had to hurry, knowing exactly where PERSEVERANCE would strike first. The same place she was heading to. "I'll take the Hoodie too." After she put the blue hoodie over her, she placed the MP3 player in her pocket. She kept her ear pod in as she covered her head. This was ending. Soon. One way or another.
Frisky would never hurt an innocent Monster.
But she had an evil person in her sight, and they had to find out what she could do with her knife.
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"Sans!"
"Huh?" Sans looked over at his brother, Papyrus. "Sup?" He looked around himself. He was at his post. Did it still reset? Then, he felt something over his shoulders and looked over. Frisk was sleeping on his back. He breathed a sigh of relief. No reset.
"You can't work at your post with a human sleeping on you!"
"I didn't have a problem."
"Sans!"
"What?"
"Do something with it."
"Well, what?"
"Mm?" Papyrus tapped his mandible. "Mm."
"Yep." Toriel wasn't going to take it. Eventually the king was going to make Undyne look for it again.
"Well, maybe the other human will take it?" Papyrus said.
Wait, huh? "Another human?" Sans asked. "What other human?"
"Where have you been?" Papyrus groaned. "Have you not been checking the security cameras?" He stomped his foot. "You must be on alert for intruders!"
"I am." Sans pushed himself up slightly. "What other human?"
"A tall one, as tall as me! Why do you think the king wants one so bad? That is why we need to do something with the tiny little human," Papyrus insisted. "I-I think we are about to start hunting humans again soon."
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Frisky unplugged the earpod and turned the music up as loud as she could. She sung along with it in the snow, even dancing. If she could attract PERSEVERANCE to her before she reached Sans, at least she would have peace of mind the Monsters would be okay.
Ugh. Encounter. She saw an alert hit her. Damn. A Gyftrot was confronting her. "Not a good idea." Still, she was forced into the encounter. As had happened many times before, a heart appeared in front of her. Her soul. In her world, fighting happened without anything like signs anymore, but, in the Underground, the signs were a magic courteousy to help Monsters from killing each other accidentally. Any caught who didn't use the buttons right would be punished to death. It was because souls were special. Tender, so easy to break, and there were so few Monsters that survived in the Underground. It also made it easier to see someone's true power to avoid battles someone couldn't win. Plus, GOLD. What they called GOLD was just digital points kept in an account, used instantly across the Underground.
Every Monster also had their interests, problems, or habits blazing against the board. No one chose to tell someone what would end the encounter, it was a subconscious response that the board found inside each opponent. Those options lied in ACT, while ITEM left you time to eat or use something which would make your soul stronger. MERCY was the button Frisky tended to use the most, with FIGHT hardly ever used. As Toriel taught her many times, most Monsters could be reasoned with. "Do we really have to do this?" She pushed ACT and saw UNDECORATE. Coming closer she took something off of it.
After the battle was over, she left again. If she was running into Gyftrot's, she was close.
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"Your sign is spelled wrong."
"Ugh!" One of the librarians looked annoyed at Sans. "We know that."
"Good. It should say BABY. Here you go." He tried to hand Frisk over to her.
"Baby? No, no, Librarby! I mean, library! We do not watch anything." She gestured toward Frisk. "It's not a baby either. Actually, what is that thing?"
This was getting difficult. He was going to have to start looking at a Monster family list soon, but there was no guarantee the one chosen wouldn't just eat the defenseless thing.
"I'll take it," Doggo said from the doorway. "Only a matter of time before we get a clear yes about taking care of these humans." He brought out his knife. "I'll hold it until then. Just move over here and bring it to me."
"Uh, no thanks. I'll hold it." Sans lowered Frisk. Okay, this is a small thing. The resets should finally be over. Everything's great. I just need to figure out how not to get the kid killed. No big deal. Hmm.
Well, maybe Papyrus would watch it for awhile. He still really needed some sleep after that battle.
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"Uh, stop right there!" Papyrus announced as a human came across his 'keep humans out' gate. This one was definitely different. He had a blondish sort of hair. All the other features matched up though. He even acted like the other one before it grew small. It preferred to walk and keep its eyes closed. "You cannot enter here."
"Sorry. Please don't hurt me, Sir," it begged. The voice sounded deep. It was an adult human, but shorter than him. Perhaps. Well, he sounded deep like an adult Monster. So, reasoning being what it is? Probably an adult. Different than the one that had showed up on the security cameras. "I don't know anything about fighting or Monsters or anything. Please? Mercy?"
"Hmm." It was a human, which Undyne said they couldn't capture anymore. But, it was still an intruder. Hmm. Papyrus pulled him into an encounter. PAPYRUS: ACT: Talk. "Why have you crossed this border? No one is allowed in!" He had a duty to stop everyone and make sure they were good first beforehand. He might even make them do puzzles to see if they were wonderful enough to come in. Depending on how it completed them, it would show him what they were like. At least, it was probably a him.
PERSEVERANCE: ACT: Talk. "Please don't hurt me, Sir! I don't know where else to go. I just fell through the ruins. This place was in my path. Please let me go?"
Wow, this one was more talkative than the last human. PAPYRUS: ACT: Talk. "Umm. I cannot just allow an intruder into this area! It is a very important area!"
PERSEVERANCE: ACT: Talk. "Sir, I am so sorry for this. I promise, I will go straight through. You can even guide me through. Honestly, I am just looking for my family. They fell before me. And, my boy is so small, he could get hurt out here. Please?"
PAPYRUS: ACT: Talk. "Uhhh?"
PERSEVERANCE: ACT: Talk. "Please, Sir? I am worried about my family. My poor wife must be so scared. I want to protect my family. Don't you understand that?"
Protection. Protection was something Papyrus understood whole-heartedly. Perhaps this was even the human boy's father that he had right now? Should he pull it out from his booth to give him back? PAPYRUS: ACT: Talk. "Uhh . . . o-okay."
"Oh no you don't, PERSEVERANCE, you asshole!"
Papyrus was shocked by the words he heard, but even more shocked by the fact that someone interrupted his encounter. And took a hit. A dreadful hit! "What?!"
"Out, Papyrus!" The injured human pushed him out of the encounter area. She glared at the other human. DETERMINATION: ACT: Talk. "You came all the way back here just to start the murder spree again, PERSEVERANCE? I had a feeling you would start right here."
PERSEVERANCE: ACT: Talk. "Oh, I'm hurt, Frisky. Still calling me by my soldier address for the mission? That you failed, by the way? Anyhow, I was hurled back further, but that wanna be momma goat wasn't there. Looks like she already left to the castle. No big surprise. She would have been a great boost in EXP too, but hell. Papyrus is more than EXP. He's also you know who's 'coolest guy ever', right?" The human opened his eyes at her. Red eyes.
DETERMINATION: ACT: Talk. "No, you cannot do this." Frisky kept her knife close and made extra sure she kept the locket on her. "I won't let you."
PERSEVERANCE: ACT: Talk. "Ooh, so you found those goodies?" PERSEVERANCE laughed. "Yeah. They could save you right now. If you can do it. Can you do it? Can you strike me down without mercy?" He held his own weapon out to her. "Oh, but wait. I probably have some goodies too, don't I?"
Frisky looked over toward Papyrus. She pulled her knife sideways in front of her face. Which weapon did he have? Knowing PERSEVERANCE, he had something up his sleeve.
Before she could steal Frisk back, she had to stop PERSEVERANCE's rage.