Underearth/Book 1/Chapter 30

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The stage itself was dim and dark in color. The background showed the silhouette of a few houses with their lights on. Some stars and a moon hung from the ceiling, glowing ever so slightly. Just ahead, near the end of the stage, was a staircase leading up to a high balcony. As Frisk approached, he heard Mettaton's voice.

"OH? THAT HUMAN..." they said, poking their 'head' out from around a corner up on the balcony. "COULD IT BE...? MY ONE TRUE LOVE?"

*Oh no...* Frisk thought as Mettaton began descending the staircase wearing a bright ice-blue dress as some unseen band played what seemed to be a prelude to some opera piece. Once at the bottom of the staircase, and when the prelude had finished, Mettaton began singing:

Oh my love
Please run away
Monster King
Forbids your stay

Humans must
Live far apart
Even if
It breaks my heart

They'll put you
In the dungeon
It'll suck
And then you'll die a lot

Really sad
You're gonna die
Cry cry cry
So sad it's happening.

"SO SAD." Mettaton then said, without music, at Frisk. "SO SAD THAT YOU ARE GOING TO THE DUNGEON." Mettaton rolled away just a little bit, pulling a remote control out of their dress with a big red button on it. "WELL, TOODLES!" They then pressed the button, and a hole opened up right underneath Frisk, causing him to fall right into the pit.

Falling down, something caused him to slow down exponentially before he hit a very small island beneath.

"OH NO! WHATEVER SHALL I DO?" Mettaton shouted, now hovering some ways above Frisk with rocket propulsion. "MY LOVE HAS BEEN CAST AWAY INTO THE DUNGEON. A DUNGEON WITH A PUZZLE SO DASTARDLY, MY PARAMOUR WILL SURELY PERISH!"

Both Frisk and Mettaton looked off in the only direction that had anything on the same level they were both on.

"O, HEAVENS HAVE MERCY! THE HORRIBLE COLORED TILE MAZE! EACH COLORED TILE HAS ITS OWN SADISTIC FUNCTION. FOR EXAMPLE, A GREEN TILE SOUNDS A NOISE, AND THEN YOU MUST FIGHT A MONSTER. RED TILES WILL... ACTUALLY, WAIT A SECOND. DIDN'T YOU SEE THIS PUZZLE SOMETIME EARLIER?" Frisk nodded at the question. "THAT'S RIGHT. YOU REMEMBER ALL THE RULES, DON'T YOU?" Frisk nodded, but much more slowly before looking at the puzzle and counting on his fingers what he could remember. "GREAT... THEN I WON'T WASTE YOUR TIME REPEATING THEM!!"

Frisk began walking towards the conveyor that led straight into the puzzle before Mettaton suddenly spoke again.

"OH, AND YOU'D BETTER HURRY. BECAUSE IF YOU DON'T GET THROUGH IN 30 SECONDS, YOU'LL BE INCINERATED BY THESE JUTS OF FIRE!!" Mettaton then began laughing maniacally as several nozzles emerged from under the cliff and spewed a bit of fire to show that he wasn't messing around. "MY POOR LOVE! I'M SO FILLED WITH GRIEF, I CAN'T STOP LAUGHING! GOOD LUCK DARLING!"

Music similar to the version played during Mettaton's opera began playing as Frisk passed over the conveyer and entered the puzzle, trying to figure each piece out as Mettaton sang again.

Oh my love
Has fallen down
Now in tears
We all will drown

Colored tiles
Make them a fool
If only they
Still knew the rules

Well that was
A sorry try
Now let's watch
Them fry

Frisk was about a quarter-way across the maze when they all went grey, and Mettaton came flying overhead.

"OOOOH, I'M SO SORRY! LOOKS LIKE YOU'RE OUT OF TIME!!!" they said viciously. "HERE COMES THE FLAMES, DARLING!" The nozzles approached, spewing fire at him. "THEY'RE CLOSING IN!" Inching closer, Frisk could now feel the heat of the flames intensely. "GETTING! CLOSER! OH MY!" They got even closer to the point that all Frisk could see was fire.

"ALPHYS!!!" Frisk screamed out in desperation. "HELP!!!!"

"ANY MINUTE NOW!!!" Mettaton continued in their taunting way.

As the flames got ever-closer, Frisk was sweating more than down on the first level of Mount Hot. Just then, a ringing sound broke through the flames.

"Watch out!! I'll save you!!" came the voice of Alphys as the fires extinguished and the nozzles lowered out of sight.

"OH NO!!! HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN??? FOILED AGAIN BY THE BRILLIANT DOCTOR ALPHYS!!"

"That's right!" Alphys said, "Come on, Mettaton, give up already! You'll never be able to defeat us... Not as long as we work together! Your puzzle's over... Now go home and leave us alone!"

"PUZZLE? OVER?" Mettaton questioned, "ALPHYS, DARLING, WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT...? DID YOU FORGET WHAT THE GREEN TILES DO? THEY MAKE A SOUND, THEN YOU HAVE TO FIGHT A MONSTER." Frisk backed up a little when he heard that. "WELL, DARLING... THAT MONSTER... IS ME!!"

Just as Mettaton finished, the dress they were wearing flew off as they flew down and landed just in front of Frisk. "THIS IS IT, DARLING! SAY GOODBYE!"

"H-hey!!" Alphys spoke up again, "Th-this seems bad, but don't worry!! Th-there's one last thing I installed on your phone...! Look for something called 'Yellow'."

Frisk pulled out his phone and quickly found an app simply called 'Yellow'. After opening the app, he could feel something within him being pulled to the phone.

"Now press the button!!!" she shouted.

Frisk pressed a yellow button in the middle of the screen and a yellow bolt shot out of the top of the phone. Frisk then pointed the top of the phone at Mettaton and pressed it as many times as he could. Each time he pressed the button, he could feel himself getting more and more tired. Eventually he could no longer continue standing and collapsed to the ground.

"OOOH! OOOOOOOH!" Mettaton started. "YOU'VE DEFEATED ME!! HOW CAN THIS BE, YOU WERE STRONGER THAN I THOUGHT, ETC." Mettaton then rolled off towards a staircase far to Frisk's right, just at the end of the now grey tiled puzzle.

"L-looks like you beat him!" Alphys said. "Y-you did a really great job out there."

"All thanks to you, Alphys." Frisk responded.

"What? Oh no, I mean... You were the one doing everything cool! I just wrote some silly programs for your phone." Alphys then went silent for a little bit. "umm, h-hey, this might sound strange but... c-can I tell you something?"

"Sure, tell away."

"B-before I met you, I d-didn't really... I didn't really like myself very much. For a long time, I f-felt like a total screw-up. L-like I couldn't do a-anything w-without... W-without ending up letting everyone down. B-but...! Guiding you has made me feel... A lot better about myself. So... thanks for letting me help you."

Frisk remained silent, listening intently to her entire spiel. When she finished, they both remained silent for a while. Eventually, Alphys spoke up again.

"Uhhh, anyway, we're almost to the CORE. It's just past the MTT Resort. Come on! Let's finish this!"

Frisk stored the phone in his pocket and followed after Mettaton up the stairs.

At the summit of the staircase, Frisk once again found the Nice-Cream Vender he last saw in the Waterfall Caves.

"Oh, hey again, how's business?" Frisk asked.

"Well, I thought for sure if I went to Hotland, I'd sell some Nice Creams. But nobody wants them. Everyone's just eating Starfaits and Glamburgers. So!!! I'm having a going out of business sale. Would you like some Nice Cream...?"

"Sorry, still don't have any money." Frisk responded.

"Well then... Tell your friends... Life... is suffering."

Frisk proceeded to back away from the Nice-Cream Vender and head down the pathway on his right. Down the pathway, Frisk found the other elevator, reading 'R3'. Next to the elevator, he found the same small flame that he last saw on the floor below. As he got near, the flame once again talked to him.

"Hey, hey! Did you remember my name?"

"Yup." Frisk said, blatantly lying, as he'd forgotten it with everything that had happened. Turns out it didn't matter, as the flame fully believed him.

"Wh- WHAT!?" the flame shouted. "You REMEBER!? How could I be so easily defeateeeeeeeeed!?"

Frisk backed away from the little flame and went back down the path to the Nice-Cream Vender. Next to the Nice-Cream Vender was a set of stairs that led ever higher. Frisk approached the stairs and headed upward toward the summit of Mount Hot.