PLDN Chapter 28

> Chapter 28: Evil-Chara Strikes Back. Asriel Rises to a New Level
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## Sub-Entry 271: "Evil-Chara Waits For No Man, Beast, or Traitor":

I suppose in a way I'm overstepping my bounds by writing a log entry of my own in the Commander's absence.  But with Octopus Protocol in effect, we've all had to branch out beyond the scope of UCIAT's aims and continuing mission.

That said...my ancestors give me strength for what I am about to speak of.

Make no mistake, I, nor any of the other UCIAT underestimated Chara back then and we were most certainly not about to start now.  But what we promise doesn't always measure up to what the enemy has in store for us.  If anything...Chara's wrath was exactly what we all expected it to be.  And we most certainly were advised by the Commander that if he returned, he would most likely be far more powerful than any of us could imagine; though in what way was up to Madam Fate to decide and for Chaopolis to facilitate.

What we did underestimate in the end...was the depth of his impatience.  Normally that should work as a fairly obvious weakness; one easily exploited.  But even those of us who live, breathe, and embody patience...we're still dealing with its polar opposite.  A polar opposite in equal or greater magnetude.  Proof that even Chaopolis can weaponize something so detrimental.

Despite how quickly Adonis had retreated, according to the Commander's future report, he reminded us that his failed protogee was once a member of S.T.C.  Thus he was a master of space, dimension.....and time.  Meaning, that the portal that Chara had taken after ensuring Adonis' escape landed him in Miranda City with a very generous time buffer before the Commander and Asriel would get the mess in S.T.C. Headquarters cleaned up, squared away and be able to open a gate back home.

Was it a fluke that he discovered our dimension's new coordinates in the Axis of Reality?  Or something else?

I could think of two possibilities: the first was that the only possible person who facilitated our realm's move was double-dealing and selling us out as Sally would put it.  I could not and would not believe that was the case, nor would the Commander.

The second was...Chara had a way of looking over KOMMAND's shoulder...into the Commander's tech...or he had just plain tagged our entire reality withe equivalent of a GPS that let him find us no matter where we hid.

But back on topic.   Our plight...

It of course started with a rematch against Lupe and Team Acorn...

Lupe looked in horror as Shi-Shi, the tiger twins, and a pair of bears went flying from the first strike, leaving trails of blood.

"...Ecotropia's Mercy...!"

"Sorry.  All out of mercy."  Chara licked the blade.

Lupe quickly raised her Druid Staff and called out "ELEMENT: EARTH!" and summoned a sizeable stone wall between the attacker and her wounded animals.  She quickly got to work healing them as best she could, dressing their wounds to stop the bleeding before calling for other animal and plant help to get them to the medical center as soon as possible.

The barricade didn't last, as impossible as it seemed.  What had Chara done to be granted this ability?!  It was like he was beyond super strong.  Every deflect of attacks seemed to amplify the force Lupe's elements and crossbow bolts were fired off at.

"I must summon more help."

"Bring as many of you losers as you like...I'm going to tear each and every one of you into shredded mountds of fleshy, furry pulp!

Team Acorn was on speed dial.   Lupe put in the call but would struggle to delay them until their arrival.

Lupe scattered entire bags worth of Scorch Plant seeds and gave them a jolt of her staff to insta-grow them into vicious, metal-eating flowers.  At first it seemed like they were successful at feeding upon their target...until the black flames consumed them.

"Kills weeds DEAD."  Chara taunted as the last of them flaked away into ash.

"No!"  Lupe was completely horrified by the effortless murder of her plants.

Armies of giant, toothy pirahna plants errupted from the ground and sunk their fangs into Chara, attempting to sub him, which prompted him to get more violent.

Team Acorn arrived on scene  to find the Nature Center in shambles and Lupe on her last legs before Chara dealt what was almost a finishing blow.

"Knock-knock!  Who's there?  Fist.  Fist who?"

\*PUNCH\*

Chara's head whiplash-ed as Sally's knuckles cracked into his forehead before crumpling to the ground.

"I'm...so...glad...you came...my friend."  Lupe passed out in Sally's arms.

"Hey.  Take a powder in the pits.  We'll take the next laps."  Sally gingerly carried Lupe over to a spot out of the way as Honey and Willie came sailling in with weapons hot.

At that moment Chara's eyes snapped open and he suddenly and incredibly unnaturally got to his feet without bending any joints.  Like a plank of wood suddenly uprighting itself.  And with both fists, he ended up slugging both girls in the stomach, causing them to recoil from a combined shockwave.

"Ughl...

"Urk..."

"Girls!"  Sally gasped.  "Okay...I guess you get one bit of payback for the crushing defeat we handed you last time."  Sally tightned her fists and accessed her W.I.S.P. module, selecting the TURBO W.I.S.P. and quickly mowing Chara down, choke-slamming him into the ground.

"Stay down and this can be over before the checkered flag has a chance to drop."

"Heh...see...why couldn't you just go at me like this the first time?  Instead you had to insult me and handle me with kid gloves.  Don't expet the same thing from me..."  Chara siezed Sally's wrist and gripped down hard with a crack of bones.

"AHHH!!!"  Sally let go and back flipped, clutching her wrist.  Thanks to the Bio-Field, however it wasn't broken but it was hurting.

"How did you...y'now what?  I'll figure it out as I analyze you."

"You can try to to put me under the microscope...I'll be sure to jam that microscope through your eyesocket and through the back of your skull."

"Well...you got the supervillain monologue down pat...I got a feeling you'll back it up.  But don't expect to see the finish line before I do, rookie.  You're still ten racing seasons behind me."

"You and your racing metaphors, Acorn.  Fine then.  I'll use one you'll understand.  When I'm crossing that finish line, you'll be the one looking up at me from the basement."

Sally scowled, knowing the term "basement" in racing meant crashing out of the race.  An ugly term she knew too well from her rookie days.  It wasn't just that Chara had power.  He also knew how to hurt on both a physical, psychological, and emotional level.

"Well then.  Power is one thing.  But..."  Sally accessed her W.I.S.P. module and loaded the LASER W.I.S.P.

Before Chara could retort back, the LASER W.I.S.P. was already in effect. Once energized, the program manefested a zig-zag formation of focusing crystals within a tight narrow area; Sally's molecular form sped up to photonic level and bounced as a cyan laser between those crystals at sub-quantum before she materialized at a safe landing point.  And in doing so her path intersected Chara, piercing him with blue hot thermal energy.

"GAAAAAAH!"  Chara dropped to one knee and clutched the wound on the left side of his abdomen.

"Grrrraaaaargh!!!"  He energized the Real Knife with black flames before scraping over the front and the back of the wound, cauterizing it.

"So you do know how to survive..."  Sally  braced for a second attack as Honey and Wille joined her.

"For that...your pain is going to be levels beyond excruciating..."  Chara held up the Real Knife as it expanded--metal scales actually flaking out of it and interlocking over the blade until it had grown into easily a giant claymore blade.

"Whoah."

"Big whoah."

"DIE."

"I got this!  I'll just reflect his attack back at him!"   Honey selected the Iota stats of the Tengu Suit;  The silvery heavy plates, paneling, shields, and guards "hexagonized" into place as well as RHN-Iota's overall rhino armor appearance and horned helmet.  At the cost of speed, it became a nearly indestructible tank with icy stats.

"RIGHT.  BACK.  AT.  YOU!!!"  Honey braced as the blast impacted...

## Sub-Entry 272: "Tougher than the Toughies and Smarter Than the Smarties...":

"...no way!!!"  Honey gasped as she watched the icy, mirror-finished metal shell of the Iota mode Tengu Suit crack and shatter; completely crumbling away.  The blast hadn't reflected at all.  In fact it had completely consumed her armor plates and such and disassembled it at a nanotomic level.

"That's impossible!"

Sally narrowed her eyes.

"Toss the playbook and the rules out...this one's not playing by OGPX regulations."

"Screw the rules...I got POWER!"  Chara punched the ground and sent a shockwave fissured toward Team Acorn, snaring all three.

For a brief moment, the trio were frozen in horror as the shockwave of damage rippled through them, before the backlash overloaded their connections to the Universal Bio-Field for the briefest of moments.

And then all three coughed up a spatter of blood at the same time.

"Did...that...really just happen...?"

"Oh gods...he overloaded the Morphing Grid?"

"Just long enough to cause us internal injuries.  Dammit all..."

"It's not good when the backup needs backup."

"I'll make the call.  You keep him busy."  Willie got to higher ground.

It was inevitable that Violet of all people would get involved.  But what even I could not predict was that KOMMAND, rather future Violet, would send herself a little..."care package".  And if the Commander were here he would face-palm so hard at this moment.

Trust me when I say...I am doing so with the utmost frustration in his steed.

"No.  Way."  Violet grinned before she opened the cockpit and hopped in.  "I am SO the night."

"Willie!"  Sally gasped as Willamina spiraled through the air in an ugly corkscrew before smashing through multiple sturdy obstacles and wiping out in a nasty fashion.

"Concert's over, punk."  Chara slashed against the pavement, sending off sparks and the mother of all air-blade fissures through the street, toward her fallen target.  At that speed and power, it would be like a guillotine's edge!

"I gotcha!"  Honey swooped in before the attack hit and tore a perfect hair-line slice through the building that Willie crashed into.

"Thanks.  That almost gave my callsign a literal interpretation."

"That is one wind you don't want to shear you like a sheep, partner!"

"Once bitten, TWICE SHY!!!"  Chara's next attacks came from using two Real Knives to cause shockwave airblades.

"Whoah!"

"This dude's completely crashed his solid state drive!"

"A plan would really come in handy now, fearless leader!"

"How do you come up with a plan for someone so chaotic, yet adapts so quick to everything you throw at them!  He already tore through three of my plans already."

"To be racing Team Kopy Kat now would be a godsend compared to this."

"Get ready to be mowed down, Team Roadkill--"  Chara started before...!

"Hey.  Do you bleed?

 \*SLAM!!!\*  Chara went flying as Violet plowed through at full tilt, in of all things, the friggin' Batmobile.

"You're gonna."

"What the Heck--!"  Honey gasped.

Sally crossed her arms and sighed, rolling her eyes.  "That can only be Violet."

"You know I really wanted the Tumbler, but I guess the Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice one is just as good."  Violet mused as she opened the wing door.

"That was incredibly reckless, Vi."  Sally mused.  "And Ripper wasn't around to enjoy it."  She mused with a smirk.

\* KABOOM!!! \*

"Well.  That's unexpected."  Violet turned to where Chara bust out of the rubble.  His clothes were ragged and showing signs of wear and tear...but not a scratch on his body.

"Huh.  I knew I should have gotten the extended warranty."

"You're right.  You should have.  Because it just RAN OUT!"  Chara grabbed the front of the vehicle.

"What the pus-bucket--!" Was all that Violet could get out before she found the whole car being hoisted up.

"I'm not seeing this."  Willie gasped.

"Man, that would have been so great to be in my movie prop collection..."  Violet growled as she hastily climbed out and fired up her jetpack moments before the car was literally heaved and thrown several city blocks down...before exploding.

"Man...now I'm gonna be sued by the Wayne Enterprises.  That just sucks."  Violet drew the Thunder Spear moments before a True Knife embedded into the left "wing" of her kimono's sleeve.

"Whoah!  A bit of warning there, pip-squeak!"  That insult immediately earned another knife which stuck throught he other sleeve's "wing".

"I'm gonna send you the bill from my tailor you little sh--"  This time Violet had to practically backflip in the air to prevent a knife from landing straight into her tongue.

"Rude!"

"Vi, no joke.  He's gotten a heck of a lot more powerful than we last fought him."

"And his aim's gotten better."  Violet quipped.

"Well. I hope his love of chocolate hasnt' diminished...because it's time to dish up...THE CANDY."  Violet whipped out an ARC Systems UCIAT issue Reaper shotgun, cocked and fired...!

"Holy--!"

"Did he just sidestep a shotgun bullet?"

"How's he doing that?!"  Willie followed up as Vi continued to pepper Chara with ammo.

"Ooooh, I can't wait to chew the fat over what deal he made with Adonis..."  Violet tossed away the empty weapon.

"Hey.  Tokugawa."  Chara beckoned.  "EFF ADONIS!"

"...too many wrong things I could say to that."  Violet whipped out her Neodymium-Glass Laser rifle.

"I'm guessing that whatever power he's got, he didn't exactly ask permission."  Willie clutched her arm.

"Yeah..."  Honey rubbed her kneecap.  "When opportunity comes along, you just TAKE IT.  TAKE IT TAKE IT TAKE IT TAKE IT TAKE IT!!!"

"Nice troll, Honey."  Violet gave a thumbs-up before doing an Aeleron Roll to avoid another knife.

But as the battle waged on, Chara's power seemed to continuously grow.  And more and more of us joined the fray.  But on that note, the more and more of us that joined, the more and more of us slowly but surely fell.

Even those of us who had won against him previously worked up the courage to face him.

"En guarde, you--"

\*SHATTER\*

"....eh-heh-heh-heh......monsieur...there is being a ter-ree-ble mistake 'ere no?"  Antoine backed away as the shards of his sword were now on the ground.

"GYAAAAAAH!  Antoine dodged slice after slice after slice before racing up the traffic light pole, across its wire and just hung from the from stoplight signal.

"ENOUGH."

It was at that time I made my ninja appearance.

"Arcade's number two.  This will be a pleasure to finally wipe that non-challant deadpan off your face."

"You cannot seem to help but betray your ignorance at every turn."

"You pride yourself as being the master.  I will take that title for my own by killing you."

"You?  A master?  Only of evil.  Your hate is your greatest weakness."

"And your fear of your own power is yours.  But someone who doesn't fear power doesn't have that weakness."

"No. Because they're hampered by their own overconfidence."

I dodged as the True Knife took flight, the weapon missing completely.  I retaliated with kunai.  Yes, a distraction but I had to analyze his fighting prowess...and his mysterious new power.

Chara grabbed it in midair...and managed to crush and mangle it into an unrecognizable shape with his bare hand.   So.  His power wasn't exhaggerated.

"Does THIS look overconfident to you?"

"So it would seem you finally learned a spark of integrity.  But you corrupt it with your intentions."

"I don't cling to such virtues.  They only hold back potential.  Heroes all the time are limited by what they can't do...while someone who isn't so sentimental is unbound."

"Spoken like an impatient, spoiled brat."  Bunnie launched into a five-way combo of air, water, metal, fire, and earth bending techniques like she had done at the Elemental Gates.

Chara managed to completely dodge them all.

"Hmm?  Curious.  I wouldn't have pegged someone with the foresight to anticipate attacks like that...not when they do not have a grip on their own impatience."

"Impatience gave me power.  Impatience is why I'm here kicking your butts instead of being couped up by Adonis like a bird in a cage, learning lessons that don't even benefit me but fill my head with more of his dumb pop culture references.  I should be learning the art of war by Tsun Zu; something that could augment my strategy, not cracking jokes about whether Wolverine or Freddy Krueger is the superior slasher!"

"Does it annoy you that you share so much in common with your enemies?"

"I know that wasn't a dis against me, Bunnie."  Violet groaned where she had landed in a heap.

"You bet it p\*\*\*es me off, Rabbotou.  What villain wants to EVER be like what they're fighting?!"

"And yet...you have nothing holding you back from doing exactly that.  Being exactly like the Commander, like Violet, even a little like myself."

"Shut up!"  Chara's black bolts came in waves.  Admittedly, I was struggling to keep up.  His accuracy was...uncanny.  It almost seemed impossible how close he was coming...and getting closer--

"UNGH!"  It would seem too close.  That felt like a rib injury...possibly lacerated my liver.  My nanites should be able to take care of it...but to any other person...that could probably have become fatal if it had done enough damage.

From a slight of hand while back-flipped I dialed in all six of my "folding" origami avatars--the lion, the water dragon, the monkey, the bear, the sea turtle, and the squid.  Or as I knew them, Shi-Shi, Ryuu, Saru, Kuma, Kame, and Ika-chan.    I had them scatter in all directions and converge on Chara simultaneously.

Chara immediately counterattacked Shi-Shi (whom Lupe had named her alpha lion after), then went for Kuma and Saru.  All three taken out in short order.  He had a little more trouble with Ryuu once it wrapped aroud him but quickly speared it through the eyes as it opened its mouth to attack.  At the last moment, Chara smashed Kame to the ground.

Ika-chan squirted Chara in the face with its ink attack before he could recover and I thought I might have an opportunity to take him down.  But to my horror, as soon as Ika swooped in to use Squid Freezing...

\*SLASH\*

All six had been de-digitized into binary and latent mojikara.

That made me narrow my eyes.  How did Chara see that attack coming with his eyes covered by ink...?

No.  It couldn't be that obvious...  I had to test my theory.  But for that I'd have to take a risk.

## Sub-Entry 273: "Chara's Price for Power":

I narrowed my eyes as I stared down my opponent.

My Sixth Sense was usually never wrong.  Time to test that.  If I was wrong, it would be a fatal error on my part.  But if I was right...

I was a powerful telepath, but to say I grossly lacked telekinetic skills was understating.  I'd often described my abilities as taking a viera's psi abilities and reversing the stats.  Viera were often incredibly telekinetic.  But the shere scope of my telepathy and clarovoyance dwarfed them by leaps and bounds.

Not to say...that when Violet stressed me out enough, I couldn't discipline her from a distance.  On rare occasions, I could reward her tomfoolery with a psi-thwap.  And it looked like this might be the chance to use it in a practical setting.

I focused...and gave my opponent a long range thwap on the ear--

"GRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGHH!!!"  Chara spun-slashed with an intense fury.  Granted the reaction was expected on an opponent none of us had managed to land a debilitating hit; his rage pretty much saying it all.

But what it really told me was something that my friends had either been unable to pick up on...or were unable to convey to me.

"So that is it."   I spoke directly into Chara's mind.  It was easy enough to penetrate what psychic defenses he had.

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!  WHERE ARE YOU?!"

"I knew it.  You cannot see."  Another telepathic message.

"You think I can't find a way around this?!

Chara suddenly jumped as Chameleon emptied the clips of his weapons.

"You certainly understand a Septus' method of revenge."  Chameleon growled.

"Salty that I finally showed the great and mighty bounty hunter a new trick?"

"I'd almost be impressed if you weren't such a pain in the scales."  That was about the time a True Knife hurtled through the air.  The grip smacked Chameleon right in the snout.

"...not even using a deadly attack on me..."  Chameleon rubbed his aching nostril area.  "That's just INSULTING."

"If I don't crack your ego down a few notches, you won't learn anything, septic."

"That's Septus."  Chameleon pushed himself up before Chara jumped and curb-stomped him into the pavement.

"I.  Don't.  Care."

Finally I managed to score a direct hit Neon Bubble.

I was at the point I was using my D-Chip weapons.  From dangerous to lethal force was authorized by this point.  Never escalate a battle unless your forced to.  Even I was familiar with Zordon's Ranger Code.

The splash damage was horrific but the flash itsself was wasted; effectively cutting its effectiveness drastically.  As a weapon made to blind as well as cause repeated photon splash damage...Chara was taking the blasts pretty effectively.  I deduced he'd figure out exactly which direction they were coming from so I followed up with a weapon that wouldn't be so easy to figure out.

"Appreciate the save, Bunnie.  Not so happy about owing a debt, thought."

"Forget the debt.  Let's just get out of this alive."

"A novel idea.  Put it in a book and you'll make millions."

"You've been getting dry humor from Vi again."

"Ouch!" Vi complained.

"Bad move, Rabbotou.  You gave away your position--"

It was that time that I had used the D-Chip known as Crossfire Ray! Four cylindrical units deployed from the sides of my arm cannon and encircled the target in an "X" formation, first overlapping a red, four-triangle targeting reticule over the epicenter, then all four cylinder cannons each fired a potent laser dead-center into the target in a 4-way, converging "cross-fire".

That, Chara had no defense over.  And while it wasn't instantly lethal, it would cause serious injury...at least I thought it would.  But from what I was beginning to understand about his power...he wasn't just super strong...he was surviving otherwise bone-breaking, crushing attacks and attacks which should have left him bleeding to death.  The exchange of giving up your sight for super powers?  He was fooling himself if he believed it was equivalent.

I immediately followed up with Echo Barrage.  Asriel once compared it to "Wall of Sound", an attack used by his friend Ben Tenneyson while in the form of "Ultimate Echo-Echo".  I described it this way:  Square-shaped tiles actually separated from my arm cannon itself, flew off and clustered around the target in a spherical formation. Each tile contains a powerful loudspeaker!

As it activated, the target is bombarded from all sides with a cage of intense soundwaves!  At roughly 100 kilohertz--said to be beyond human and most animal hearing--pumped at 300 decibles...it would be MORE than a little annoying to Chara's superhearing.

The scream he let out was an unearthly wail as he clutched his ears in pain and huddled down into a ball, trying to bear it.  At some point I even noticed a small trickle of blood between his fingers where he held on.

"You...you...you......YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOU!!!!!!"  Chara rose up, True Knives in hands as a ball of black light exploded from him and then...momentary blackness.

The next thing I knew...the devastation through the city was horrific...and the injuries to my friends was just as nightmarish.  How Chameleon was still standing was a miracle.  But how my cybermorphed form was staying in one piece?  That was an act of Lady Destiny.

"You son of a--!"  Honey got up and charged Chara.

"Honey, wait!"  Sally protested.

While my memories are...fuzzy at best over what happened next...I distinctly remember Volt and Asriel arriving next.

## Sub-Entry 274: "Chara and Asriel Meet Again":

It's about this time that I took over logging this mission from the Major.  And I thank her, retroactively for providing me with plenty of clues to work with after the battle was over.

"...oh no."  My jaw dropped as Honey went flying past us and crashed into a wall.

The town was ablaze with destruction and sirens and chaos.

"ARCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADE!!!"

Asriel and I turned to face...!

"Oh great..."  I murmured.

"You again?"

"Round two begins now..." Evil-Chara gripped the True Knife; now absolutely OVERFLOWING with evil blacklight energy.

"Sparks...you might have a little trouble with this punk, this time..."  Chameleon ejected the clips from his guns.  "I'm out of ammo."

"Now...I think it's time you two got to see a Continue screen..."

For Chara to hint at the power that he once wielded....that Frisk and Asriel now wield...I could tell he was prepared to deal a lot of both physical and verbel low blows.

"Volt...this artifact.  We can't let it fall into evil's hands.  Can you keep him busy while I get this to the main lab's high security vault?"

"I think that's a smart move, Azzy.  Better make it fast.  I know I can survive him but...I'm worried he might actually be able to incapacitate me.  Then he'll come for you and won't care who gets in his way."

"I'll be fine.  And I know you will be, too."

"Alright...I'll lead off with my Terminator pitch. Get going as fast as you can and don't look back."

"Good luck, best friend."

"What are you idiots planning--"

"LIGHTSTORM RAVAGE!"

"Oh SH--"

I let fly with my biggest, tower of power attack, filling the square with light and lightning as Asriel speed off on the NX Hoverboard at FULL tilt.

"I...WON'T...BE...DENIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIED!!!"  Chara's black aura grew bigger and bigger, threatening the swallow up the light, eventually stopping at becoming equal to my own attack and just the two canceling each other out.

By the time the dust settled, Asriel was gone.

"Where is he?!"

I instead beckoned Chara to "come at me, bro."

"GRAAAAAAAAAAARGGGGGGH!!!!"  And woe be is me, he came at me, bro.

Admittedly, he wasn't that fast but a single block left my arms stinging.  What did Adonis do to give him this impossible strength?!

If anything my shocks were just making him madder and only buying me split seconds of extra time against him.

"Have you even given any thought what you'll even do if by some twist of Fate, you get your hands on Azzy?  You say you don't care about him but you need him.  How can you possibly need him?"

"You KNOW that, Arcade!"

"Yeah.  I know that you intended to fuse his soul with yours to break the barrier and slaughter all humans.  Erase that world.  Then what?"

"What do you think?"

"I think you'll spread like a virus and find the next world and do the same.  Again and again."

"And that's your business, isn't it?"

"You bet your a\*\*\* it's my business when a punk intends mass genocide for his world...,his galaxy...his universe.  News flash...your universe is in our multiverse.  You made this UltraVerse business."

"Then you're standing in my way."

"I know what you do with people who are in your way...no matter which iteration you are.  And you know you're not the original, don't you?"

"Damn that Adonis for scrambling my mind..."

"And he told you NOT to trust him.  But you still went with it.  Just like Flowey--"

A slash across my muzzle.  Oww.  That didn't just sting...it reeked of pure darkness.

A static crackle across my face and my healing factor thanks to Destiny's Contract did the rest.  Was I really refering to the Genie's Lamp and Pandora's Box so bluntly now?

"...I touched a nerve again."  I said with a smirk meant to taunt.

It was risky provking him like this.  Best case scenario it's a psychological distraction I can take advantage of.  Worst case scenario, I make him madder and basically backed him into a corner.  He had nothing to lose, really.  That made him all the more dangerous.

"That weed...that abomination...you have no right to keep throwing him back in my face."

"Yes.  How do you REALLY feel about him?  I mean...you KNOW who he is...was."

Another of his shockwave airblades.  That one almost shaved the fur off my tail.

"Is this your way of saying you hate Asriel as much as you hate Flowey?"

"You don't want to push me, Arcade.  You don't want this."

"That almost sounded like a warning.  I didn't know you cared."

"Shut up, you smarta--"

"N-S TACKLE!"  I unleashed a favorite magnetic attack.

I split into two silhouette copies of myself--one neon blue and one neon red! They teleported to each side of Chara and smashed into him from both sides with simultaneous shoulder tackles! The opposing polarities attracted each other, increasing the crushing physical and magnetic damage of the bipolar tackle!

Chara made the mistake of turning to face one of them.  Thus my magnetic avatar forms crushed him from front to back, effectively knocking all the wind out of his lungs, threatning to crush his rib cage.  By all accounts it probably should have...but they stayed intact.

Did the superhuman strenghth come with superhuman endureance and durability?

I could tell he was getting hurt and feeling pain.  But none of the injuries was proving as serious as they looked.  The onslaught wasn't as long and one-sided as the last time...but by all accounts, he shouldn't be standing.

"...I...won't let that stop me!"  Chara stabbed a blade up through my maw.  Asside from the horrid imagery and the INCREDIBLE pain...I wasn't going to be talking for a few minutes.

I yanked it out and let the blood splash out.  Sure enough my wounds closed up and healed but it was more an injury to my ego than my physical being.

Did I say a few minutes?  It healed up faster than I thought.  And it couldn't have been more perfectly timed.

"If only that could shut you up for good..."  Chara seethed.

"Good idea."  I said before I targeted a thunder punch for his throat.  He clutched his neck and coughed for a good solid bit while I attempted to subdue him with magnetic plates like I had done to open the doors to the RUINS before.

"Making a joke about feeling boxed in is pretty derivative...but it works."

The hate in his eyes was crippling.  Honestly crippling.  How did a human being end up this twisted?  What must've been done to him to produce someone so...evil?

Come on, Asriel...where were you?  What was keeping you?

Our battle kept escalating, the two of us actually blasting us through buildings and causing serious damage and panic.  We'd taken this from the outside of Lupe's nature preserve all the way to the commercial district of Miranda City...how did we even do that?!  Granted Team Acorn had covered most of the distance...but I took up the other majority.  How long until her highness took notice?

I thought I could keep this up indefinitely and it almost seemed like I was going to until I got knocked down and Chara pounced on me and just kept wailing away with punch after punch after punch to the face and head.  Yeah.  He was reading into my worries and trying to K.O. me just like I thought he might do.

"Sorry...Azzy...I might not be able...to keep my eyes...open much longer..."

WHAAACK!!!

It's all going dark...

"Stop."

Asriel?

Chara tossed me aside.  "You finally show up, coward."

"I don't make personal appearances on your whims.  And don't come at me with this "I'm Chara" garbage.  You're a fanatic that won't leave us alone.  Fighting you is a last resort.  While I hope there's a way to do this...I'm not a naive fool.  I'm not optimistic to a fault.  I know we're going to do this...aren't we?"

"Ever the Boy Scout."

"Batman quote."  Asriel shook his head.  "You're comparing me to Superman.  I'm flattered and little surprised.  I'm not oblivious to how little you respect me.  You just obsess about me for some reason.

You want me for a defunct purpose.  Even though you can't get what you want even if you get me, you're still going through with it.  Why?  Revenge?"

"Fringe benefits are hard to pass up...but you wouldn't understand.  You never understood...even when you said you understood me better than anyone else.  That doesn't mean you completely understood me."

"Your creepiness just gets worse and worse."

"Funny you should describe me as creepy...don't you even remember this?"  Chara made..that face.

"........."  Asriel was frozen in fear for a moment. "...wow...you must've spent hours rehearsing that.  It's the most convincing impression of Chara's scary face I've ever seen.  You did your research.  So congrats.  Hail 2 U."

"Did...you just make a...!"

"JoJo reference?  Totally."  Asriel smirked.

"You..you shouldn't be bouncing back from something so traumatic...what happened to you...why...why did you grow a spine?"

Asriel sighed.  "I feel so bad for you right now.  He drilled everything about Chara into you and twisted it.  It's stirring up so many memories...but at the same time, you're spitting on every single one of them.  It's hurtful and it needs to stop.  Not for my sake but yours.

It's going to break your mind if you keep believing something that isn't true."

What would I do if Asriel ever learned the horrible truth?  Things like this just made me feel dirtier and dirtier.  For the greater good...that's what I told myself.  For...the...greater...good.

"Nnnnnnnnngh!!!"  Chara tightned his fist and drew back and slugged.

But Asriel didn't dodge.  He just took it on the face.  He stood his ground.  While it made his head almost whiplash...he didn't budge from his spot.  He just stood there with Chara's knuckles in his furry cheek.

"...!"

"Are you done yet?"  Asriel said, a little muffled and mumbled from the blow.

"You gave up your sight for power.  You couldn't even stand looking at me that you came in literally blind.  I know you've been using echo-location and your other senses to compensate.  But even that goes so far, doesn't it?  You're still working with a handycap.

So yeah.  I feel terrible that I let a blind person land a punch on me out of pity.  It's a grey area what would have been more compassionate...that...or just taking advantage of your lack of vision.  Which action makes me garbage...and which makes me worse than garbage?"

"You...didn't even dodge that?!"  Such a move took Chara so completely off guard.

"I won't shed tears for you.  You don't deserve them."  Without warning Asriel shoved a Taiyoudama into Chara's chest and let it explode outward.  "Just so you know...you attacked first.  This is self-defense.  But I suppose that's a matter of perspective.  I am incredibly sorry for this."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"  Chara flew backward...but remained otherwise okay save for burned clothes.

"Stay down.  That was a Toriel level love tap.  Yeah...before you ask?  I still remember my birth mom.  Don't you look me in the eyes and tell me how much you remember her.  Because you don't.  It's all just propoganda that Chaopolis imprinted upon you."

"Why....why are you so...stubborn?!  Stop it...stop it...JUST STOP IT!  STOP IT AND LET ME--"

"Let you what?"

"Let...me...win--"  Chara's eyes widened.  Then he screamed grabbing his temples, realizing what he just said.

"There's the rub.  It hurts us both, doesn't it?  It doesn't have to.  You can surrrender.  You can leave in peace.   You can turn against him...it's what you should want not...this.   I was the one who was the crybaby.  I was the one who couldn't stand losing to Chara all the time.  Chara never through a hissy fit like this.  You're fake with fake memories and a fake purpose given to you by Chaopolis.  Just let it go.  This ambition of yours...it's not worth it and he's not going to make it worth it."

"I suffered too much, too long!  I'm not going to wait another moment!"  Chara said, his eyes practically flaring up with that dark evil aura.

"I'm stronger than you.  I can take more punishment than you can.  Even if you're not a monster any more...I can still turn you to DUST!  I'm not going to wait another moment!  I'm going to do it NOW!!!"

Chara's blacklight aura flared up far bigger and nastrier than ever.  The black flames...they threatened to ignite the very atmosphere...

"You shouldn't be in such a hurry to get an impossible job done.  You know...a superhero I admire once taught me that it is possible to win a race...by slowing down."

"What superhero said that?"

"Her name...is Sally Acorn.  I think you met her.  But while she passed on the advice...it wasn't from her that I learned the virtue of patience from..."

Sally looked up from where she had landed...with the most painful of sincere smiles and a thumbs up.

"What are you talking about?!"

Asriel looked off into the distance at Lupe's Nature preserve...in flames and the animals fleeing in panic.

"Your first victim in this rampage."

"So what...you saying that if you can't save the people you care about...that you'll be damn sure you'll avenge them?"

Asriel shook his head.  "Not so much.  But...you do need to be stopped.  Whatever it takes.  No...that's not the right phrase..."  Asriel closed his eyes.  "No matter HOW LONG it takes."

And with that he opened his eyes.

## Sub-Entry 275: "The Vice of Hastiness vs. the Virtue of Patience":

Chara stepped back when he saw it.

Asriel's eyes had flared up a brilliant neon cyan.  That sky blue color I knew so well.

"Asriel...!"  I looked up at him...and how amazingly cool he looked in the moment.

"So...what's it going to be this time...?"  I pushed myself up into a sit, collapsing against a piece of rubble.

"I'm not going to be sucker-punched by a pizza cutter again!"  Chara charged and thrust the knife...only to meet air.

Asriel had put his hands in his pockets, closed his eyes and barely pivoted on his heal to dodge the blow like water.

Another miss...and another...and another.  Asriel really looked like he was taking his time.  He was drawing this out.  Chara was moving so much faster with so much more power...yet it was like Asriel was seeing into the future and just dancing around it.

"STAND!  STILL!  YOU STUPID GOAT!"

"Nah.  Don't feel like it."  He kept his eyes closed, actually jumping backward, kicking his sandals off in midair and landing with a single toe on top of a leaf floating in the fountain.  That was a move that seemed like something Bunnie would do...but I also knew that he probably got it from that one scene in that Gundam series...  I really hope he wasn't going to make a Shining Finger reference.

"Where did you--"  Chara tripped and fell into the fountain, the wave actually pushing away the leaf with Asriel still on it.  Somehow he maintained his balance.  Impossibly so, before backflipping off and onto the other side of the fountain.

"You're probably wondering what powers I suddenly gained at this point.  You're probably wondering when your lack of sight stopped being an advantage and started becoming a liability?  I could answer those questions but you wouldn't like what I'd have to say."

"You're stalling, Asriel!  Just die already!"

"No intention of doing that.  You're really getting hot under the collar."

"You better believe I'm getting pissed off!  You're being an idiot!  I'm going to bring you back home one way or another."

"Where is home, No-Name?  Where is it?"

"No-Name?!  I have a name!  It's--"

"Not Chara.  Just save it.  I already went up against true evil. True chaos.  The true embodiment of everything I stand against.  You're not even his shade by comparison.  Just a bully that is so obsessed with a plan that won't work, you're going to try it anyway."

"Why can't I get you to understand?"

"For the same reason I can't get you to understand.  We just cannot communicate."

"Communicate?!  What does that even have to do with anything?"

"You know I've had a talk with sensei about a lost member of the Kuchiki clan and his deteriorating relationship with his own Zanpukutou, "Muramasa".  It's rather disheartening what happens when you lose the ability to communicate with others.  You can't een see that.  I'm extending my hand and you're smacking it away.  You're right.  Maybe I am still a Boy Scout, even though I hung up my uniform a long time ago.  I still do a good turn daily."

"You can't stop me and you can't slow me down!  I'll keep coming back at you over and over."

"Don't be too sure."  Asriel opened his eyes and took his hands out of his pockets, before taking off his jacket, showing off that "Yume wa eiendesu/Dreams Are Forever" shirt with both the Rabbotou Dojo logo and the Delta Rune married into an epic design.

He hacked and cracked before taking a deep breath and putting his hand out...and wrapping his fingers around it as it formed.

I saw it but I didn't quite believe what I was seeing.

"It's a......a giant watering can?"

Sure enough.  A solid cyan blue watering can made of the same energy that the giant neon green pizza cutter.

"What...do you think...you're going to do with that?!?"

Asriel shrugged.  "Don't really know.  But I'm going to take my sweet time figuring it out."  He said with a calmness and a weird empathy that while...on paper sounded like Sally......hearing and seeing it felt so much more like Lupe.

"What is it with you MOCKING ME--"  Chara's blade stabbed forth and stopped the moment it touched the watering can, which Asriel took his time raising and holding out like a shield.

The backlash of energy from Chara's weapon striking it just TORE through every inch of him.  But the watering can didn't even vibrate.  It didn't reverberate...it showed no signs that even an atom of it had any added motion or momentum.  It was honestly an object at rest staying at rest.

Asriel barely moved it around, catching each of Chara's moves.  He wasn't even using it offensively.

"Fight BACK!  FIGHT BACK!  FIGHT BACK, DAMMIT!"

Asriel just flashed a warm smile.

"Say something!  Do something!  Just...!  JUST...!  JUST...!  GRAAAARGH!!!  Chara's strikes kept getting more random and more frenzied...and speedier and built up more and more power with each strike.  And each deflection just returned that much more backlash, staggering him backward further and further until Chara had to run back at Asriel just to make another strike.

"You should really stop getting so worked up.  You're overheating.  You keep this up and you'll pass out.  Take a moment to catch your breath.  Stop and...smell the roses."  Asriel actually reached down and plucked a flower from a smashed pot among the rubble and sniffed it.

"STOP CARING ABOUT ME!  I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOU!  I'll OVERHEAT IF I WANT TO!  I'LL BURN UP IN MY OWN HATRED IF I WANT TO!  YOU CAN'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!"

Asriel casually laid the rose down on the edge of the fountain.

"You know...I'm going to take another page out of some pop culture and follow some advice from a hero.  You know...heroes stick their noses into things they don't have to.  They meddle when they're not obligated to.  Maybe I'm wrong to give help to someone who doesn't want it.

I suppose this is a learning experience for both of us.  If I'm wrong...then I guess I'm wrong and it's my mistake to make.  I'll pay for it.  And you'll probably win this.

But if I'm right and I can stop you?  Then at least you won't hurt anyone anymore.  Including yourself."

Asriel slowly walked backward, gripping the watering can...before pointing its spout straight up.  And with that a pillar of water shot straight out of it...up and up and up and up into the sky.

It wasn't any water like I had seen.  It was...clear...but at the same time I saw a neon cyan sheen to it.

"What are you--"  Chara started before it started raining down.  Everywhere.  Not just in the immediate area but over the entire path we had traveled.  Even Lupe's Nature Preserve.  And as it did...something was happening.

It was like...the injuries were healing.  It was like life itself was being supercharged.

The fires went out but the damage to the area remained.  It was like it was only affecting living things.

The Major reverted out of her nanomorphed form.  "It...canceled my Cybermorph?  It should have been too dangerous to try that with tmy injuries.  But...?"  Bunnie wiggled her fingers and looked her hands over.  "I'm somehow healed?"

Honestly...I would have thought the kindness virtue would have been the healing one.  But the patience virtue?  In Asriel's Undertale it was manifested as a toy knife and a faded ribbon.

But what DID make sense was what Asriel had said.  That he learned patience from Lupe.  And a watering can made more sense than anything.

"Your attack...is RAIN?!?"  Chara picked up the Real Knife and began to attack...that was when I noticed...it wasn't healing him.  In fact...if my eyes were playing tricks on me...his movements had become a lot slower...and lacked a lot of punch.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!?"  Chara tried swinging a fist which Asriel barely had to step back to avoid.

"Haste is defined as speed beyond one's control.  I suppose you could say...I've lowered your speed to something you can control.  And yet you are not in control.  It's kind of...dark when I put it that way.  But it was the only way you'd learn the consequences of being impatient."

"I will not accept this!"  Chara manefested swarms of the Real Knife...but no sooner had they manifested, their black flames extinguished.  And from there, Asriel barely had to swing the watering can to deflect them all.

I got to my feet as Chara began to sway.

Maybe the rain wasn't just slowing him down...maybe it was actually sapping his strength, too.

"You...I hate you so much..."  Chara staggered over, almost drunkenly as he about collapsed into Asriel's arms but continued to swing and stab at him.

A grab of his wrist and the knife was wrenched free and dropped.

"Let me see if I can summarize your philosophy, No-Name:  Here in this dojo mercy does not exist.  Mercy is for the weak.  A man confronts you on the street.  And he is your enemy.  And the enemy deserves...nooooo mercy..."  Asriel's look turned to a scowl as he balled up his fist and drew back.

What was this sudden heel-turn?

"Azzy...!"

"Do it."  Chara said with a grin.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!"  Asriel yelled as he drew back and thrust...then stopped just before making contact with his nose.

"..."

"Boop."  He said as he gave a silly closed-eyes grin and booped the snoot.  With that Chara passed out.

"Whoah...you had me worried for a moment, Azzy."

"Surprise is a valuable tool in a ninja toolkit."  He said as let Chara down gently.

"I guess maybe I did learn something from Chara all those years ago.  How to be a little devious.  But you know I'd never do something so merciless." Asriel shrugged.

"When they say patience is a virtue..."  I started.

"I know."  Asriel said slipping his sandals on.

"Well.  Let's not make the same mistake as last time.  Let's get him--"  I turned in time to see the Cyber Gate close.

I scoffed.  "Are you KIDDING ME?!"  I frowned.

"It's okay.  We'll get him next time.  And if we don't, we'll try and we'll try and we'll try and we'll try until his luck runs out.  After all, wars weren't won in a day."

"Wow, and I thought my patience was something else."

Asriel picked up the watering can again.  A few moments later it dissolved and his eyes faded back to their normal copper red default.

"But I guess even you have your limits on patience, huh?"

"Let's not keep Queen Brooke waiting.  We've...got a lot of explaining to do.  And a call to make to the E.R.R.O.R. team..."

Right again, Goat Son.  Right again.

## Sub-Entry 276:  "Another Aftermath":

And so...

"I'll do you a solid, Volt.  I'll speak to Lady Brooke.  She'll be less likely to give me the third degree than you."

"Thanks for the reassureance."  I said, sticking my tongue out.  "In all seriousness...it's probably for the best.  I feel like...I'm getting too many favors from her."

"Which frees up time for you to check on the...thing."

"Oh yeah.  You put it in...that place?"

"You know how to unlock it."

"Alright.  I'm on my way.  I should start running tests on it.  Hopefully I can do so without blowing up the lab."

"Oh, you."  Asriel said with a sweatdrop.

"I'll take care of everyone still wounded and get Vi to call in the E.R.R.O.R. team.  If I get done soon enough I'll join you, Asriel-kun.  To smooth over things with Lady Brooke."

"I could use the extra luck and backup."  Bunnie headed off.

"...so..."

"No.  I don't think we need to tell Chara about this.  She's got her hands full trying to become a full-fledged Soul Reaper."

A momentary pause.  "I...never asked her how...she managed to escape our world when it..."

Asriel was hitting upon one of the "plotholes" in my cover story that I had been spinning for seven years now.  This could easily lead to him putting things together.  He already had a mountain of clues as it was.

The more Evil-Chara kept attacking us, the more hints that Adonis dropped, and the more AU's we visited, the closer to the truth he'd eventually get.  I was trying to extinguish a burning rope as I was climbing it...metaphorically speaking.

I worried that it wasn't a matter of if it was inevitable...but when the reveal would be.  And I was worried where it would come from--me...or my enemies?

For a few weeks, we toiled to put the town back together and for Lupe's plants and animals to recover.

"Man, we sure got sucker-punched."

"It's not like we went in overconfident.  Volt warned us to be on our highest guard even if we did have one victory over him under our belts."

"Sure as heck wasn't enough."

"Who could have predicted he'd come at us with super powers and enhanced echo-location, Honey?"

"Yeah...and none of us were lucky enough to pass that info along when it counted.  He just knocked each of us down like dominos before we could talk.  Shows that he's not just brute force, a bad attitude, and a nasty temper.  Brat can think when he's in a pinch."

"And yet, the mean teen is STILL ruled by his pride and those anti-virtues."

Team Acorn didn't have much else to say beyond that.

Lupe pondered Asriel's new ability and its very behavior.  While she was a little confused by its apparent slow-down effect, its ability to both dispurse life energy and drain it seemed to make perfect sense to her.

And then there was the fact it was a watering can, which made her smile a little.  The smallest of comforts that her abilities were being passed on in an unexpected form.

Not to mention its surprising defensive capability which mirrored her own; those protective spirits that were in her corner when she realized the legend of the Rite of Passage for Warrior Druids; the test of the Knife, the Rock, and the Arrow.

So what about the two of us?

I headed to the lab as previously stated.

I knew we had to conduct tests on the soul artifact...that was what I was calling it, tentatively until Asriel and I could think of a better name...ahem...  I knew we had to run tests on it...but...

"My mind's all frazzled.  After that long ordeal we went through...I don't know if I can focus."

I went through the security checks and made my way around the various sub-labs until I came to the high security vault.

"Dr. Lynx?"

"I was expecting you."

"So...you've already begun analyzing?"

"Begun.  But made little headway.  It would appear this item may require testing analyses that do not exist yet.  So far all the basic tests for physical and chemical properties have been inconclusive."

"Why am I not surprised that it's nothing in the known periodic table?"  I folded my arms.   "How do you recommend we go about this?"

"Systematically."

"Of course.  Occam's Razor it is."

"RIght now, it's late and I have other projects in the works so..."

"Yeah.  Let's get it locked down."  I looked at the green crystal heart.  It was like a Chaos Emerald in the shape of an Undertale human's soul.  But...something was giving me a vibe I couldnt' explain.  It wasn't setting off any red flags or giving me bad gut feelings...but something about it compelled me to want to take it a lot more serious than we were handling it at the moment.

I think Nikita was right, though.  I was feeling brain-fried and exhausted.  With both Adonis and Evil-Chara kicked to the curb for a time, we might have a short reprieve to take our time with our analysis.

Also...I'd have to consider a point when we'd have to go back to Violet's sub-lab and check on his new powers.  But that could wait, too.

Violet would tell me that we should analyze them when he's unlocked more of these abilities.  Where two virtues had, in her words, been upgraded from Chaos Emeralds to Super/Hyper Emeralds...five more remained.  Yeah...she had to draw comparison to that.  The third adventure of that guy's counterpart--

"And Knuckles, too!"  Violet would later joke. interrupting me as I thought aloud.  Which of course would get her thwapped by Bunnie and Sally at the same time.

I wonder...did Ecotropia have echidnas in the before times?  If so...they were never recorded in Vorostov's or Kaeleron's history.

I digress...

"Hmm."  I looked at the six other empty sockets in the holding framework Nikita had constructed behind the vault door.  The green heart-soul crystal...thing fit in the first socket.  I was willing to bet--as sure as Asriel had seven virtues in his soul with five more to "enhance"--there were six more of these crystals out there.

But what purpose did they serve?  This much worried me.  Plus I was going to have to put up with Violet making Infinity Stone jokes.

Meanwhile...

Asriel kneeled down formally, pulling one arm behind his back and the other across his chest; nearly resembling the salute of the Scouts from that Attack on Titan anime that he and Violet started watching recently.

"...I can't apologize enough for--"

"That will be quite enough of that.  You need not apologize for anything, Asriel."

First name basis.  He was really moving up in the world if Brooke was addressing him so informally.

"I just feel guilty.  No-Name keeps attackng our city because of me.  Because he's obsessed with me.  I never did anything to him...I never even met him until--"

"Enough.  You punish yourself unnecessarily.  Do not accept responsibility for what is beyond your control.  You're dealing with him in a responsible manner, and that's all can be expected of you."  Brooke rose from the throne.

"When I granted you your adoption and ciitzenship, I did not do so on a whim.  I gave considerable thought to what legal matters would have to be...overlooked.  I saw in you great potential and the makings of a fine young man.  A credit to your species--both past and present.  I was not wrong.  You have grown into someone truly remarkable."

"Th-thank-you."

"As for your foe.  They have made themselves an enemy of the kingdom and the world itself.  Any further intrusions on our soil, I expect you and your friends, family, and other allies to bring them to justice by any means necessary.  You have time and time again proven your loyalty to Miranda and I expect you will continue to serve as you have in the past."

"I will, Lady Brooke."

"You do not like fighting; and that is admirable.  I see within you the virtues of kindness, patience, integrity, bravery, justice, perserverance and that amazing determination.  Stay true to that always.  But know that if Dr. Arcade's enemies return to our land; you will not hesitate.  If you must face an enemy, face them with conviction and defeat them.  As a last resort, defeat them with extreme prejudice."

"A very last resort.  I...don't believe in taking a life."

"Noble.  But even your sensei has done so in order to save a life or many lives."

"I know.  I don't think any less of her for what's she's done.  And I hope it won't come to that for me any time soon."

"Good.  This chat with you was long overdue.  I wanted to gauge your progress from the last seven years.  And you did not disappoint.  Rise now, Asriel Dreemurr-Arcade.  Rise and serve the common good and do what you must to live in peace but never lower your guard as this Crossover War continues."

"Understood."  Asriel got to his feet and bowed again.

"I must return to the others and help pitch in with any messes we still have to clean up."

"Do you plan to visit your sister in the hereafter?"

"Not just yet.  Only when absolutely necessary.  Besides showing Chara that I've grown up and independant, I don't need to pester her with ever single facet of my life."

"I see.  But do not withhold information from her unnecessarily."

"I know.  I've already learned my lesson with family secrets."

Asriel turned and walked out as the guards escorted him.  "There is one more thing, though."

"Hmm?"  Brooke arched an eyebrow.

"Do you think...even No-Name has the capacity for redemption?"

"As with your sister...redemption is a choice.  Personally...I don't see light in the depths of his soul.  Only darkness and anger."

"I suppose...I can't blame my nature for turning to that giddy optimism, huh?"

"That optimism of yours is a treasure.  Cherish it and never let it diminish."

Asriel side-smirked and gave a thumbs-up before heading out.

## Sub-Entry 277: "Another Reckoning Denied.  Evil-Chara's Resolve Intensifies":

"...I don't want to hear it!"

"Pre-emptive, my dear apprentice."

"Don't look down upon me like some kind of Jedi Padawan."

"You already made a mistake.  Yes, Jedi have Padawans...but Sith have Appretices.  What you seem to have overlooked is that there can only be an Apprentice and a Master.  You seem to have confused which of the two you think you are."

"Will you quit with the Far-Far-Away references?!  Just get to the point, old man!"

"Your cruety and hastiness have blossomed into the vices of chaos rather well.  But you know what is next, don't you?"

"What...the opposite of integrity?  Deception?  Basically you want me to become a liar?"

"I never said that...although..."

"No.  I get it.  What you're really hinting at...is that I get Asriel to go against his nature.  Convince him that I'm not wrong.  Like what I should have been able to do from the start.  If that WEED had only listened to me like he should have..."

Adonis grinned from the shadows.

"What?  Does my loathing of that traitor amuse you THAT much?!?"

"Sometimes what isn't asked of you own provides for me of Fate's own accord.  The best things in life truly are free."  Adonis tented his hands.

"You're twisted, old geezer.  And I still haven't forgiven you for this!"  Chara pointed to his glazed-over eyes.

"There's moments when even chaos has its balance...just before everything goes off kilter again."

"You're talking about entropy."  Chara crossed his arms.

"Now you're learning."

"But you're not teaching."  Chara narrowed his eyes.  "Don't misunderstand.  My rage toward you isn't any less after--"

"Being defeated yet again?"

Chara tightened his grip around the True/Real Knife.  "Don't test me...."  He growled.

"I'm not incapable of learning.  Since the Weapon X Berserker Barrage method isn't getting me anywhere, maybe it's time to try it as Eric Magnus Lensher would."

"See?  You CAN make good use of pop culture references, if you only figure out how to APPLY THEM."

"And yet, that's still just your and Arcade's weird nerdy quirks at work."

Another dark grin.

"But for him it seems to almost be a compulsive habit he can't break.  You on the other hand...just do it to be a troll; because you LIKE the annoyance it causes."  Chara seemed to get unusually calm at that moment.  "One might think...you have something in common with the annoying white rabbit in the kimono."

The briefest of subdued scoffs...immediately followed up with a forced chuckle.

"You know something, don't you?"

"Shhhhh, Chara dear.  Spoilers.  Think of this as a no-warp zone run of the plumber brothers' adventures in a certain fungi-filled kingdom..."

"For someone who just had me wallow in the vice of impatience...you sure are dragging this Crossover War out."

"Is it not only right I get my money's worth?"

"Says the crazy scientist who wants his face on a dollar bill.  This war isn't even costing you one red cent.  The best things in life really ARE free, aren't they?"

"Now you're appreciating my dark humor...heheheheheheh."

"Well.  I'm guessing you're going to ground me again--"

And with that came the electrocution out of nowhere.

"GAAAAAAAAAH!!!!"

Chara panted a bit.  "...you really are an a--"

Another spasm-inducing shock accompanied by Chara's wails of pain.

"Daddy's making a withdrawl from the entertainment bank, Cee-Cee.  And you will provide."

"You know I'm not going to wait around forever just for you to give me permission to seek them out again..."  Chara growled...then grinned darkly.  "Besides...you're curious to know HOW I cracked KOMMAND'S relocation so easily."

Oh yeah.  That got Adonis' attention.

"Now I have something YOU want...but uh...quid pro ro, as they say."

"Hmm.  And I thought a lawyer's tactics would be wasted on you.  You're learning, my apprentice.  Perhaps too well for your own good."

"Would you risk damaging a precious resource?"

Adonis was silent for a moment.  "What say we flip to decide if I will...?"  He held up a coin.

"Good heads....you live.  Bad heads...you die."

"Can't resist going Harvey Dent on me, now.  Arcade's right.  You really don't have an identy.  You're just a patchwork of villain cliches--"

\*ZAAAAAAAAAAAARK\*

"...one with his finger on the button at all times.  Be mindful what you say.  It could be your last.  For real this time."

"Don't forget...Arcade and I both know that soft-spot of yours."

"Kick it at your own risk.  I'm sure the Weed would like company."

Chara grit his teeth.  "You would turn this into an impasse just to test each others' wills."

Chara shakily got to his feet.  "That tender spot isn't even your real Achilles Heel.  But mark my words...if I don't know what it is, I'm sure Arcade does.  And sooner or later...Asriel will know, too."

"They...like you...should bear this in mind: think VERRRRY carefully before you try to exploit that as a psychological weakness..."

That was understating it.  That was like betting how long you could hold a hand full of lit M-80's and toss them away before they blowy our hand off.

Adonis pulled back into the shadows with a disturbing grin.  One that Chara had never seen before.  And quite frankly...this was a wild card even he wasn't going to risk playing.  Not until he knew more.

"Defy Chaopolis only if you wish to make the gamble."

"...Russian Roulette to see if I'm still entertaining to you...or my time is up.  Right?"

"You need not ask what you know the answer to.  Best start preparing for the next rematch, Apprentice..."

"I don't want to hear it."

Adonis grinned again.

"Oh no.  You don't get to tell me to choose my words carefully.  I know you're not subtly incinuating what the next thing I have to give up for power is...!  I haven't agreed to anything...!"

"Spoilsport.  When chaos becomes prediable, that's when I start being a little less...amused."  Adonis narrowed his eyes.

"So.  What am I going to get in exchange?"

"And that, my dear Chara, is the surprise that makes it amusing again."  Adonis' grin returned followed by maniacal laughter.

"Damn it all..."  Chara cursed before being escorted back to his cell.

"But one thing is certain in all this..."  Chara grumbled as his eyesight began to return as his super power started fading.

"I won't let you savor this victory, Asriel Dreemurr.  I will make you eat those smug words of yours.  You're just like the rest of them.  You keep understimating my convictions...you keep insulting me with your mercy.  You keep showing mercy...and you'll never see the betrayal kill coming.  You naive little goat...I WILL win against you!"

Chara grimmaced as the door slammed shut and locked.

"I won't slow down for the likes of you.  If you think you have me figured out...then just you wait.  You will know what I feel or you will die beneath my heel.  It's up to you."  Chara scowled at the dartboard with Asriel's face.

"Walk away from Arcade...or walk to your doom.  That's the choice.  And no matter which you choose...your soul will be mine.  And then...then we can make the human race extinct.  No...that's not enough anymore..."

Chara grabbed hold of the globe that had been left on his desk; a globe he had fashioned from collecting snipits of information about his home world.

"When I get what I want...whether you like or not, "partner"...we're going to erase this damn Undertale...one AU at a time.

I am STILL the demon that comes when you call its name.  It doesn't matter when...it doesn't matter where.  I will take all your hopes.  I will take all your dreams.  I will become your living nightmare.  I am your Angel of Death.  I am  your genocide.  I am Chara Dreemurr.  The one.  True.  Name..."

## Sub-Entry 278: "Into the Kingdom of Darkness":

I was at that moment when I realized I probably shouldn't have worked myself to the point of falling asleep at my workbench again.

And in doing so...I dropped my guard yet again.

The darkness...I remember the darkness.

There was...

A fall.  Had I fallen? Where had I fallen from?  It was coming back to me...I wasn't the only one who had fallen.

There was a place...a place in darkness...they had gone inside to...what was it they were sent to retrieve?

I heard it.  Movement.  Footsteps leading away from me.

"Wait..."

Wake up, Arcade.  Wake up.

My vision started to clear as I saw my Bracer.  The SPECTRE function was still on.

"Wait...!"  I saw them moving away from me.  It was hard to see them in the...darkness...why was there so much darkness...where even was this?!

Get up, Arcade.  Get up.

"Huh...okay...feels like soil...ground of some kind...pathway's kind of narrow and unpredictable..."

Hold on.  Okay, the person ahead of me, I was starting to remember...but also remembered there was someone else who had fallen with...him...her...them.  Huh...non-binary teen?  This was familiar.

I tried catching up.  That was when I noticed I didn't recognize what they were waring.

"Armor?"

Metallic boots and platemail over a body suit...a reddish...maybe magenta scarf or cloak?

But the weird thing was the skin color.  It didn't...look flesh tone.  Maybe it was just the weird twilight of this unknown place, but it was reminding me of the blue-ish complexions of the Edison Family...yeah, Dr. Fred and Nurse Edna and Weird Ed and even Dead Cousin Ted.  Yeah...I was getting weird Maniac Mansion flashbacks.

That was when they stopped before...a familiar glint of light.  It was...like a SAVE MARKER from Undertale.  This couldn't be coincidence.

I got closer and hovered behind as the H.U.D. appeared.

"At times you can see it flickering.  The light only you can see."  I recited almost by dictation.  It was like I was channeling something that was going through their mind.  "By second nature, you reach out and..."

I saw the window.  "Kris LV 1 0:00.  Save.  Return."

"LV?  LOVE?  Level of Violence?"  I pondered.  "Well, they already have a SAVE FILE."  I pondered with a shug.  "I gues they're going to make progress--"

I heard the sound...but what I saw completely threw me for a loop.  The name...it didn't read "Kris".  No...it read:  Chara.  LV 1  18:56.  ??????  File saved.

"What the...!"  It immediately occurred to me...if this WASN'T a mistake or a glitch...something just overwritten.  Wait a minute...Kris.  Yeah, I recognize that name but...if their SAVE FILE name was no longer Kris...

Was this a clue?  If...this wasn't Kris...who WAS this in control?  Any why was the location listed as sextuple question marks?  Where WERE we?

Relax, Arcade.  Maybe you're just overthinking this.

Slowly it was coming back to me.  DeltaRune.  That was the compound word or phrase that kept coming back to me.  I was starting to remember Toriel and Alphys and other familiar faces and mention of Asriel.  Yet I still didn't know how this related to my mission.

"This is a dream...isn't it?  I muttered to myself.  So far no indication "Kris"...if that was who they still were...and if not...whoever I was following showed no signs that they had Frisk's extra sensory perception so...they likely didn't know about my existence.

The path continued uneventfully until we came across some lone island to the left.  It was then I noticed how colorless everything else was.  The islands themselves only had one feature--a weird plant on each of them, resembling a lollypop of sort...no...more like a lightbulk on a stalk...a bubble plant?

The moment Kris/Chara walked past, the bubbleplants started bobbing back and forth like a dog wagging its tail.  As we passed mountain-sides, I noticed that the landscape was full of holes...but not normal holes.  It was like swiss cheese...with something inky dribbling out of some of them.  An Egyptian-like eye marked the wall as we went past.

And still...the silence in this place.  Only the human's footsteps echoing broke that very silence up.

A slide down a slope and the pat continued.

To the right, on an island I saw what looked like a mound of dust...with a yawning mouth...and it was moving like it was snoring...little wisps of dust drifting out of it.

Eventually the human noticed something glowing in a hole and reached in and grabbed it without hesitation.  Apparently they acquired the "Glow Shard".  Whatever that was.

For all this time it had been smooth sailing.  But then...

"Whoah!"  I instinctively braced as a new crop of "bubble plants"--these tinted red--started attacking us, throwing spread shots of what looked like Pac-Man pellets.

Naturally the shots passed through me but I noticed they caused injury to Kris...Chara...whoever.  Thus forcing them to dodge the next volleys.  I noticed their soul had become visible.  Red.  Determination.  Yeah...too much famliar...and not ENOUGH familiar.  What a dichotomy!

Another SAVE MARKER.

"You bathed your body in the light.  A powered shines within you, breaking through the darkness.  They pain you had melted away... (HP fully restored.)"

That's odd...was I the one narrating?  It almost seemed like I was.

It was at this point the SAVE MARKER's location read: "EYE PUZZLE".

The writing on the wall read: "In this land, only eyes blinded by darknesss can see the way..."

Huh.

I noticed the eye patterns on the wall...and the switches inside the holes...and the weird LED patterns under each eye.

The human fiddled around with them.  I noticed, the pattern of the eyes changed, each eye randomly turning into empty sockets.  But the moment all three of them went empty...or in this case...blind...

My ear twitched as what seemed to be ice blocks appeared and bridged the gap between land masses.

Another slide down a slope.  As soon as the human touched one of the snoring piles by accident, it collapsed upon itself.

"Wait!  Who goes there!"  I saw a black silhouette...briefly ahead.  It outdistanced us before I could blink.

With each dust pile the human collapsed, I started to relax until the last one revealed--

"H-hey!" B...back off!"  Come any closer and I'll...!"

Wait a minute...I know that voice.  And while the light was dim, the person hiding underneath the dust pile...

"Suzie."  Yup.  Purple dino punk.  I'd recognize those spikey bracelets and leather jacket anywhere.  I crossed my arms, momentarily amused by how scared out of her wits she was.  WHich didn't last.

"....K.....Kris!?  Phew..."  Okay we were going with Kris for simplicity's sake.  But I still had my concerns over that...SAVE DATA...

"Hey!  Don't scare me like that, dumbass!  Unless you WANT to get clocked in the face, heh.  ....anyway, enough screwing around.  We gotta find a way outta here."

I crossed my arms.  "Lead the way, oh brave one."  I said with the utmost sarcasm, not expecting a reply or acknowlegement.  This must be why Violet finds trolling people online so enjoyable even when they've long since put her on ignore.

"Um....where is "here" anyway...?"

A brilliant question.

"It doesn't matter!  You got us into this mess, YOU get us out!"

Hey, now...  I narrowed my eyes.

"Lead the way, Kris."

And we were off.

"Oh my god!  NEVERMIND.  You walk way to slow."

There's just no pleasing this monster.

It was only a short ways down before what was an otherwise uneventful stroll through this unknown place when Madam Fate through us a curveball.

"Hey, Kris!  There's someone up there, waving at us.  Any idea what they want?"

I looked up at the silhouette on top of the pillar.  It was too dark to make out the features but the basic shape looked kinda familiar-ish...save for the part of the head that curved up into a point.  I'd seen that shape before, but where--

"Oh crap!   Get back!"  I saw what appeared to be a pair of spades like on a deck of cards materialize...and then shoot downward in criss-crossing paths!

"R...Run, Kris!"  Suzie hollered in a clear panic.  That was when it became a rainstorm of falling spade projectiles.  It was a long run of start and stops for Kris to avoid them.  Suzie had long since outdistanced them.  It soon escalated into a slide down a giant slow while more spades came in every which way, criss-crossing in cross-hatch.

Finally we reached the bottom.

"Don't know what I'm panicked about.  They can't seem to touch me while I'm in Spectre Mode."  Still...I wondered if I could maintain this form indefinitely...or even if I should?

Actually...that was kind of a reverse question.  By all accounts I SHOULDN'T be interferring and just observing.  Standard STC proceedure, after all.  But when did I do ANYTHING standard?

A short ways later, we reached a...town it looked like.  But the buildings...black as sackcloth being nothing more than inkly black shape with neon blue doors, windows, and outlines.  And weirder still...they leaned.  SHARPLY leaned.  Like arrows pointing at the path ahead.

"Oh.  You're not dead.  Sweet.  Got any idea what this place is...?  ....me neither.  Wonder if there's anyone in that building up there...?"

I rubbed my chin.  "It looks like it's a shop, but the door's locked tight and there's no one inside..."

We all proceeded up the path, finding nothing else until we got to another SAVE MARKER.

"In front of you, a castle looms beneath the empty town.  A black geyser emerges from it, piercing endlessly into the sky.  The power of this place shines within you."

Huh.  CASTLE TOWN.  Descriptive.

The three of us proceeded into the castle, up the staircase.

"A castle...?  Why the Hell is there a castle inside a supply closet...?"

Oh yeah...the chalk.  How'd we forget about that?  Wait...we?  I wasn't exactly part of this excursion...yet I was...

Why was I here?  What does this all mean?

That was when I heard the voice...and it sounded...oddly familiar...

"Welcome, Heroes...!"

"Who's there?"

"Do not be alarmed... I am not your enemy. Please come forward, both of you..."

I looked ahead at where a shadowy, cloaked figure stood before a...Delta Rune etched into the floor.

I didn't notice the weird delay in that familiar SAVE MARKER sound I had come to know.

No.  Not a delay.  An echo.  The castle was so capacitous, the sound was just now bouncing back from the walls.

We approached...

"Wait...River Person?"  I mistook them for said monster at first but...no...something was telling me it wasn't them.

"Welcome.  I am the Prince of this Kingdom...  The Kingdom of Darkness."

My eyes went wide at the mention of a prince.  I felt my heart jump into my throat as I was getting a really uneasy vibe...yet something was nagging me that everything was going to be okay at the same time.  This dichotomy was even stranger than the last one.

"Kris... Suzie... there is a LEGEND in this land.  A LEGEND that one day, two HEROES of LIGHT will arrive, and fulfill the ancient prophecy, fortold by time and space."

"Oh great...a Prophecy..."  I rubbed my temples then sighed.

That was when I noticed it was getting harder to stay focused.  It was almost like...the electricity...or the light itself in me was draining out faster than I could regenerate it.

"What the..."

"Please, Heroes...listen to my tale..."

As he said this...his words were...trailing off.  I saw a prompt before Kris and their soul hovering between two words--LISTEN and NO.

Before I could see what Kris decided--

"Dad!  Wake up!"

I awoke to find my twin daughter, Penelope and Stephanie in the room.  Penny was shaking my shoulder gently.

"Huh...wha...?"

"You fell asleep working again."  Stephie scolded.

"Oooooh, mom's gonna lock you out of the shop and hide the keys if she finds out!"  Penny jabbed.

"Okay, okay!  I get it.  No more burning the candle at both ends.  Just take me to Asriel and we'll call it even."

"What are we going to do with you?"

I shrugged.

It seemed my DeltaRune dream was on pause again.  What was the end game to this?  How did it connect to Undertale?  Why was there so much familiar...and so much unfamiliar at the same time?  What was the lesson I was being taught?

And...going along with this...did my actions have any consequences?  Did my choices in this dream...matter at all?

I guess this is a question for another day.

## Sub-Entry 279: "Gotta Get Back in Time to Keep a Promise":

Keeping promises; some are easier to keep than others.  Some as easy as breathing.  Some downright impossible.

"...keep the change."

For a time-traveller...the list of the easier ones can sometimes be larger than the harder ones.  But that's not set in stone.  After all...wasn't it Zordon of Eltar that decreed in the first law of Power Rangers: Never use your powers for personal gain.  To which I counter with...what about using your powers for someone ELSE'S personal game.  Yup...weaksauce excuse but...if we don't take care of the small stuff every so often, it will eventually compound into not-so-small stuff.

Call me a hypocrite if you must, but NEVER, EVER accuse me of being a bad big brother to Gadget.

"You ready, Goat Son?"

"Yeah.  Any time you are.  By the way...you do know that this isn't the only stop on our list?"

"Yeah.  We have two birthdays to make up for."

Sally's wasn't as pressing...but I don't just put my family's well-being over my own.  I value my whole team's list of "small stuff".

Honestly, I'd been accused of overlooking a bigger picture many years back during the occupation of Miranda City when war came to our soil and we were forced out and driven to Westhaven.  Despite all the priority that came with survival and starting over and things like recovering those who we thought were lost...I still fought tooth and nail to celebrate birthdays and holidays of those who still treasured that one inch of themselves that reminded them what it was we were even fighting to protect; the ability to even have this small things at all.

Well...I'd told those around me to move on when moments passed me by.  I have a feeling someone else gave this same advice, in some...marvelous universe.  Something like a birthday or an anniversary comes and goes and if you miss out on it, you miss out.  Some people move on.  But for people like me...for people like us......yeah, y'now.  I'm better off not saying it.  Someone else probably said it better.

So yeah.  I'm willingly taking taking irresponsible actions with my own time tech for something anyone else not only would consider insignificant...they SHOULD consider it insignificant.  My family.  My friends.  My choice.  I'll accept the consequences if any. I'm flawed and I know it.  Those flaws are what save me as much as they doom me.  I wouldn't have it any other way.

"So.  You got Sally that thing, huh?"

"Globetrotting around the world to find a piece of a kingdom that doesn't exist.  That takes a special kind of consideration toward your fellow hybrid.  I have to say...your contribution is no slouch, either, Volt."

"Yeah...a little surprised you didn't consider it a little petty.  But the moments like this which can prove there's justice in the world."  I shrugged.  "She can hang it next to the framed newspaper clipping of the Kopy Kats' racing sponser being indicted on criminal charges and the video clip that got leaked exposing their huge lip-sync scandal."

Asriel shook his head.  "Why do adults go about telling us to be the bigger man or woman when it comes to such things but still enjoy a bit of pleasure with their own instances of the tables turning or the sandal being on the other foot?"

"Azzy, that's a flaw of all intelligent life.  Sometimes we just can't stow our pride and smugness.  Live and learn, eh?"

"I guess I have to accept the gray areas even if I really do want to keep it in black and white.  So...you gonna say something about that giddy optimism of mine?"

"No need.  You did it for me."  I said as I noogied Asriel.

"Hey!  Watch the horns!  I expect knuckles to the skull from Sally but not from you!"

"Savage burned me again.  However will I live it down?"  I let him go and grinned.

We piled into the Delorean with our gifts and such.

"So...this is...kinda the first time you've let me experience time-travel for myself."

"Yeah."

"I feel like...you're trusting me with something from that box of secrets you've still kept locked up after all this time."

"I've already built trust with you, best friend.  Maintaining it means I part with one skeleton in my closet at a time until the day times when you know everything I've kept from you...for the greater good."

"If I could, I'd pat you on the back but...Deloreans are kinda cramped spaces, y'know?"

"You're doing that Naruto thing again.  I'm going to smack Violet up-side the head for getting you hooked on anime tropes, cliches, and catchphrases."

"Gonna punish Aunt Vi for it, eh?  Is that a promise that I can say that I..."

"Azzy!"  I scolded.

"...believe it?"

"Shame on you."  I grumbled.

"Worth it."  He said with a smile.  His sense of humor is starting to warp the longer he's around certain members of our extended family.

"Keep talking.  You're only adding to her punishment."  I narrowed my eyes.

"Okay, okay.  I'll behave to keep her out of hot water.  I acknowledge that Aunt Vi isn't the best person in the world, but you can't pick your family--adopted, extended, or otherwise.  Besides...we can save the jabbing for Movie Night, right?"

I begrudgingly agreed.

"And we can both agree not to hold back about Al Dente."

That on the other hand made me smile.

I switched the time circuits on.

"Seatbelts."  I reminded.

"Already done."

"Okay.  Headin' out to the outskirts to get some runway."

"Check."

Once there...

"You already know this but when this baby hits 88 MPH--"

"Let's not pay into my swear jar."

And so...

Back to March 3rd of this year.

"...if your brother could be here, he would.  You know that, right?"

"I know.  It's just...I always miss him when he's gone."

"Yeah...you're not even thinking about your birthday."

"...wait, that's today?"

Mitzi laughed in response...then turned serious.  "You're serious.  You forgot your own birthday was today?"

"Uh...oops?"  Gadget shrugged.

"Everyone!  Outside!  The Commander's time vehicle has--"

Asriel and I entered with gifts in hand.

"Hey, little sister.  Who's your Superman?"  I grinned, borrowing a quote from Billy Idol's White Wedding.

"Volt!!!"  Gadget tacklehugged me.

"Commander...did you just time-travel back to--"

"Shhhhh.  Let's not put this on my STC permanent record, shall we?"

"Happy birthday, little sister...er...retroactively, I guess."

And of course Azzy and I presented the grape birthday cake and ice cream.

"So...you had me whip this up in the future and brought it back to now.  Only you, Commander."  Mitzi put her hands on her hips.

"Commander."  Bunnie said, arms crossed.

"I know.  I'm glossing over a bit of an abuse of power and technology.  But...even you have to admit it's for a good cause.  Take care of the little stuff so it won't haunt you later.  Just think of it as...eliminating regret and one less thing for me to worry and bellyache about."

"Why do I even consider arguing with you?"  Bunnie shook her head.  "Very well then..."

"You time-traveled just to remember my birthday!  You're the best big brother ever!  Thank you so much, Volt!"  Gadget couldn't stop hugging me before planting a big wet kiss on my nose.

"Awww...it weren't nuthin', lil' lady!"  I did with my best John Wayne impression.

And so afterwards...

"You gotta get going?"

"Yup.  Let's just say yours isn't the only birthday I'm remembering."

"And let me guess."  Rotor scratched a tusk.  "You can't say from exactly WHEN you came back from or to when you're going to next?"

"You'll find out."  I said with a wink.

And thus...

Back to April 25th of this year.

"...you know I wouldn't have thought to come here if I didn't find this in my pocket."  Sally looked at the note.  "Rock-Afire Pizzaria at noon.  Be there."

"You know, thinking back...remember what the Commander--"

The flash of light and the explosions as the Delorean re-integrated interrupted.

"...said."

"Told you'd find out."  I said as I entered the door of Rock-Afire Pizzaria while Asriel carried the Blueberry Fudgecake birthday cake.

"Commander...at least you kept it small and understated...right?"

Bunnie smirked.

"You knew."  Sally turned to her old friend.

"If I said anything it wouldn't have happened."

"Nice reference."  Asriel complimented.

"Hmm?"

"Azzy!"  I scolded.  "Don't spoil.  Wait until after the weekend.  Preferably a WHOLE week."

"Ooops.  Guess we can't exactly censor it out like a TV interview?"

"So he's still fired?"  Violet popped up behind me.  "Or are we talking about--"

\*THWAP\*

I facepalmed.  "Of course YOU'D catch on to what we're talking about.  You're all going to be the death of me."

"Alright, alright.  It's still my party and I get to decide its flow as the birthday girl."

I handed over the present which Sally wasted no time unwrapping.

"...so...that's it.  That's what you got me..."  SHe looked up, a little misty-eyed.  "Justice."

"Justice for you and all Ecotropians."

I looked at the photo of the Director of Vortex Labs' final moment as he reached the end of his Death Row sentence after spending an uncountable number of years in prison.  The one second before the law enforced a very permanent sentence for all his crimes; for all he's done...for all he WOULD HAVE done if allowed to continue his twisted work, experimenting on and outright killing Ecotropians.  The last guilty party who willingly destroyed the Ecotropian's lives without regret or remorse.  The end of a TRUE horrible beast.  In short?  Closure.

"We can finally let go.  We can finally move on."  Bunnie placed her hand on Sally's shoulder.  In the next moment...Sally's tears fell on the glass of the photo.

"Let the past be what it is...just dust in the wind."  Sally hugged the photo close.

Promises are often hard to keep.  But keeping both of these?  Remastering Miranda's past just for this?  Worth the effort and the resources.  Whatever came of this, I willingly accepted both the consequences and the good that came of it.

## Sub-Entry 280:  "The Radical Squadron of Mega Kat City":

"Volt, I thought you said we were headed to the world of the "Wildcats".

"That was just a cover to through Violet off."

"But...!"

"Well it IS a world of cats, isn't it?  Things can get a little wild around here from time to time.  So technically I didn't lie."

"I guess you're right.  I was kinda hoping to see another world from the mind of Stan the man.  I mean...I still have the autographed photo Aunt Vi got me that reads "Excelsior!" on it."

"Yeah...we all can't thank him enough."

A moment of silence and reflection.

"But hey!  It's not all bad.  We both get to try out the new disguises."

I pointed to where I had modded my own bracer with a Unitrix core.  We'd both loaded the DNA archetypes of this world.

"I guess you're right.  I mean...maybe this Mega Kat City will be just as cool.  And hey.  These new transformations remind me a lot of Karate Cat's world."

"That's the spirit, Azzy."

We continued, melting into the crowd of citizens.

"Level with me, Volt.  You know thise world and have been here before, right?"

"Well, in a manner of speaking, an iteration of it."

"I knew it.  This world's another AU of one of the Prime Universes you explore and index in the STC master history archive."

"Now you're getting it."

Asriel scratched one of his cat ears.

"So...when you said that this world inspired some of Gadget's makeshift weaponry?"

"Yeah.  The GTX-200 battle gauntlet originally came from the minds of a pair of former Enforcers."

"Law enforcement?"

"Pretty much.  Militarized.  Authorized to pilot fighter jets.  Y'know.  Just your typical off-world military police."

"That doesn't offer any negative connotations..."

"You're developing a real sarcastic side, lately."  I arched an eyebrow.  I was...actually worried that somehow Flowey was finding his way into Asriel in some form.

"I know, I know.  But you know what I mean."

I looked off at the billlboard advertising basically a recruitment for the Enforcers.  "In this case, your skepticism is warrented."

"So...on a scale of how well they can do their jobs?"

"...I find myself wondering how quickly they'd let Antoine in the door."

".........ouch."

"Let's hope we don't run into Commander Feral."

"Commander Feral?  Sounds like a supervillan name."

"No.  Think more like angrier alternate Videoland Simon Belmont."

"Ooooooh.  THAT guy...well, that speaks volumes.  But now that I consider myself warned...all we have to do is stay out of trouble.  That shouldn't be too hard for us, right?"

One hour later...

"....Volt?"

"Yeah, Azzy?"

"We really--"

"Suck at this job."

Asriel rubbed his temples.  "We had one job while we were enjoying our down time."

"Asriel?  Do remember to duck..."

"Of course."  Asriel ducked down as the shot went over his head.

"We should probably go faster."  I urged as Asriel sped up the NX Kart.

"I think we better catch up to the Cyclotron while we still can and keep THIS out of their claws."

"GET BACK HERE!!!"

"WE STOLE THAT UNFAIR AND UNSQUARE!"

"I guess the lesson to be learned is be careful about crossing paths with the Metallikats?"  I shrugged as we tried to avoid the weapons of Mack and Molly Mange--robot bodies with the personalities of gangsters uploaded to them.

"And if you do, be careful about accosting them of a potentially dangerous energy crystal that Dr. Greenback warned us could blow Mega Kat City off the map."

"And ESPECIALLY don't find out that these aren't the only villains that want to get their hands on it."

"Check and check.  Think Felicia and Jon can keep Pastmaster occupied?"

"About as well as sensei and Violet can deal with Harddrive."

"Whiiiiich leaves Sally and Lupe to deal with Dr. Viper."

"All matters check.  Except..."

\* KABOOM \*

Our kart went flying into the air, spiraling out of control.

"...except for Dark Kat..." Asriel looked up at the giant ship looming overhead.

"You know...we really could use some help with this--"

At the same time...

"Bear witness, Miss Briggs.  You're city will soon be no more."

"You've made the same threat before, Dark Kat.  And every time the Swat Kats stop you."

"The Swat Kats have their hands full with far more on their plate than even than can handle.  The only thing I didn't anticipate was the emergence of two outsiders becoming a thorn in my plan."

"Outsiders with friends!"  Calico Briggs countered.

"What can they possibly do?  This flying fortress is beyond their reach--"

That was when she uncloaked.

"What!  Who...or what are you?"

"Who doesn't matter.  But if you must know what...my species is called "human"."

"A hairless...creature?"

"Whoever you are!  Run!  You can't hope to defeat Dark Kat!"

"On the contrary.  He doesn't know what I can do."  Dr. Callista Brighton mused as she clawed the air and the contrails from her fingers turned into hovering slashes of multi-colored paint.

Each slash turned into a different colored arrow which struck with a different wavelength, causing multiple multi-colored harmonics upon impact with Dark Kat.

"Miss Deputy Mayor?  If you don't mind, I'll be escorting you to safety.  Dr. Brighton to Commander.  Package secure.  Sending your way."

"What do you mean--"

"Roger that, Mom!  I'm switching to the board and expanding it for three people!"

"What are you...?"  Callie Briggs didn't have time to question.

"I apologize in advance."  Callista summoned Psionic Portrait and pushed the deputy major through.

"HEY!  WHOAAAH!"

"Stand by to receive, Azzy--"  At that moment a Psionic Portrait opened up right as we drove under it and Calico Briggs felt out.  "I gotcha."  I caught her.

"Wha...!  Who are you?!"  Calico strugged to maintain her balance.  Not easy to do in pink pumps.

"Friends of T-Bone and Razor.  Speaking of which..."  Asriel clicked on his headset com.

"Asriel to Swat Kats.  The Deputy Mayor is safe and we got the goods.  Dark Kat is all yours."

"Copy that, Prince Dreemurr-Arcade.  We're locked on!"  Came the voice of Chance "T-Bone" Furlong.

The Turbo Kat jet came into view as its occupants prepared its weapons.

"Deploying Scrambler Missiles for the shields and everything else for the knockout punch!"  Jake "Razor" Clawson followed up.

"You're done, Dark Kat!"

"ARGH!  ACCURSED SWAT KATS!  I'LL HAVE MY REVENGE!!!"

And the weapons rained down on Dark Kat's ship.

As the explosions raked the surface, the ship lost altitude as it headed out toward the sea.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

"He's gonna survive this."  I crossed my arms as I watched the ball of light explode from the surface of the water, kicking up a sizeable tidal wave in all directions.  But not big enough to do any real damage to the coast of Mega Kat City.

"And we'll be waiting, right, partner?"

"No two ways about that, Razor."

"Just wait until we catch up to yooze' guys!  We're gonna--"

As we turned the corner, Asriel sent the NX Board skyward in time for the Metallikats to run smack dab into Commander Feral and the entire legion of the Enforcers, armed with copies of Professor Heckle's Neuro Neutralizers.

"You're all under arrest!"

It was at that time, Lupe and Sally tunneled up from the streets before Feral and company.

"I know this is more Sanitation's job, but we brought you some of the city's trash."  Sally mused as she dropped Dr. Viper--wrappped head to toe in Lupe's tangle vines--unceremoniously on the hood of Feral's car.

"RELEASSSSSSSE ME, FOOLS!  I AM DR. VIPER!  THE GREATESSSST BIOCHEMICAL GENIUSSSSS THE WORLD HASSSSS EVER KNOWN!"

"What?!  More vigilantes in my city, poking their noses where they don't belong?!"

It was about that time Bunnie BAMFED into existence with Violet who tossed something into Feral's grasp.

"Here ya go.  One hacker named Harddrive...literally ON a hard drive!"

Feral growled he clutched the computer hardware.  But he didn't have time to protest as both Jon and Felicia came crashing down on his car, caving the roof in.  Slung over Jon's shoulder was a bound and gagged Pastmaster.

"I think he's yours."

"Bye-bye!"  Felicia waved as the two of them dropped off the time-traveling warlock and leaped into the air.

"Ultra Crew Institute Action Team...assemble!"  Asriel hollered out as we dropped off Miss Briggs with the crystal in hand; in time for the Turbo Kat to come down for a brief hover.

T-Bone and Razor gave simultaneous thumbs-ups to us and everyone present before flying off.

"Those hotshot--"  Feral started moments before Anne Gora of Cats Eye News shoved the microphone in his face.

"The Swat Kats have again saved Mega Kat City from Dark Kat and with the help of some mysterious new allies who claim to be from another world.  How do you respond?"

The look of rage on his face was beyond measure.

And so...back at the scrapyard...

"My people will make sure everything's cleaned up around here in cooperation with the city.  Provided Mayor Manx can be convinced to endorse our mutual alliance."

"If he wants another term in office, he'd be a fool to turn it down.  Chance adjusted his cap.

"And don't worry.  Your secret is safe with us."  Asriel nodded before making a shushing gesture to drive his vow of silence home.

"The fewer people who know the better, your highness."  Jake accepted the handshake.

"Just don't call me your highness.  I haven't been a prince for a long time. now."

"Anyway.  We have to go so...if you see Deputy Mayor Briggs, give her our best and let her know she's got an ally elsewhere in the universe."

"Will do."

"C'mon, Azzy."

"This down time off world was just what the doctor needed after such a messed up time against Chaopolis."

"Like Dark Kat, they'll be back, too."

"Yeah.  And we'll be waiting as well."

"Darn right.  Let's go home."

This felt like a nice round-about end to a chapter or two in this tale, but I knew another one would be right around the corner.  For now...I felt we really could finally rest on our laurels.  We'd need to before we'd be any capacity of ready for our next challenges.

This was an end but far from the end. It wasn't just beginning, either.  It had long since begun.  Where we were now?  Even I couldn't estimate.

But the story did in fact go on.

Chapter 29

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