Underearth/Book 5/Chapter 8

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"Ahuhuhuhu..." a sinister voice echoed throughout the Home Memorial Hall as Frisk walked inside.

"You're crazy, walking in here, Frisk." Chara said, seeing a number of face-sized spiders crawling out of the way.

"Relax, would you? I got it covered." Frisk whispered, his eyes glowing ivory.

As Frisk continued along, small strands of silk started appearing just over the bubble shield around him. Upon reaching about the half-way mark, a feminine voice pierced the darkness.

"Ahuhuhuhu..." it said. "you're a magician. Will you use that great power that is barred from us to kill us all?"

Frisk stopped walking. "No. Why would I?"

"It's quite simple. Humans hate spiders."

"What makes you think that? I mean, I don't."

"Oh?" a giant web slowly lowered itself from the ceiling. "And how can I be sure of that?" a slender, six-armed Human-like Monster said.

Frisk pulled off the bag on his back and pulled the spider donut from it.

"I got this from the nest in the Citadel. If you want to verify that I'm not lying, I can wait here."

Muffet, the Monster on the web, stood there, contemplating what he said.

"Fine." she eventually said. "Wait there."

Muffet leaned over to a nearby spider and whispered something to it. A few minutes later, a spider crawled to the web and handed Muffet a piece of paper.

"Oh, I see." she said, handing the paper back to the spider, who disappeared from the web soon after. "Your story checks out. Sorry for all the trouble~. Ahuhuhu~. You can go now."

Frisk made his way towards the exit, but stopped just before crossing the threshold.

"Is something wrong?" Muffet asked.

"Before I leave, I'd like to make a donation real quick."

"A donation! But of course, deary~."

Frisk reached into the pockets and pulled out his coin purse. Carefully picking out 1000G, he handed the coins to a spider that had come to collect. Once obtained, the spider took the money to Muffet.

"Thank you so much~! Au revoir!" the web retracted back upwards, out of sight.

With that out of the way, Frisk stashed the coin purse back into the pockets and continued forward.

Ahead, past the last remnants of the Home Memorial Hall, Frisk encountered Mettaton again, who acted out a wonderful singing performance before opening a trap door beneath Frisk, sending them down into a puzzle which, which Chara's help, Frisk managed to complete.

"CONGRATULATIONS!" Metatton said as Frisk stepped from the last tile. "YOU MADE IT THROUGH THE PUZZLE!!! AND NOW, WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, THE FLAMES WILL BE DEACTIVATED!"

With the single press of a button, the nozzles surrounding the pathway disappeared back under the cliff.

"NO! MORE! FIRE!"

Frisk collapsed onto the metal pathway, exhausted from the rush.

"... BUT IT'S AS THE PHRASE GOES. 'OUT OF THE FIRE, AND INTO THE FRYING PAN.'"

Frisk lifted his head. "I, uh, think you got it backwards—"

"THAT'S RIGHT, DARLING!" Mettaton continued, ignoring him. "EVEN IF YOU MANAGE TO BEAT THE HEAT, YOU'LL NEVER BE ABLE TO WITHSTAND MY HOT METAL BODY! PREPARE YOURSELF FOR MY—"

Frisk's phone began ringing. Answering itself a few seconds later, Alphys's voice came through the speaker.

"Watch out!! I'll save you!!" she said. "Flames, deactivate!! ... huh?"

"THE HUMAN FINISHED THE PUZZLE. I ALREADY TURNED OFF THE FLAMES. IN FACT, I WAS ABOUT TO FIGHT THE HUMAN."

"Wh-wh-what? *Th-that puzzle?* I mean, uhh..."

*Wow, you really trusted that I'd manage to complete this without your help, huh.*

"Great job!" she said after a few seconds. "We've got him on the ropes, now!"

"ON THE ROPES? HA! I ONLY DEACTIVATED THE FLAME KNOWING THAT ALPHYS WOULD HAVE ANYWAY. NOW, WHERE WERE WE? OH YES. I WAS GOING TO ERADICATE YOU!"

Just as Mettaton finished, the dress they were wearing flew off as they flew down and landed just in front of Frisk.

Without missing a beat, Frisk brought up one of his hands and let loose a great plume of flame which engulfed Mettaton.

"OH! OOOH! OOOOOOOH! YOU'VE DEFEATED ME!! HOW CAN THIS BE, YOU WERE STRONGER THAN I THOUGHT, ETC." Mettaton rolled away, the flames still gnawing at their metal body.

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

"Yeah, thanks."

Alphys went silent for a bit.

"Umm, h-hey, this might sound strange but... c-can I tell you something?"

"Sure."

"B-before I met you, I d-didn't really... I didn't really like myself very much. For a long time, I f-felt like a total screw-up. L-like I couldn't do a-anything w-without... W-without ending up letting everyone down."

*Yeah, creating those abominations under your lab certainly didn't help with that, I'm sure.*

"B-but...!" Alphys continued. "Guiding you has made me feel... A lot better about myself. So... thanks for letting me help you."

"No problem. Anyway, I'm almost to the CORE. Just past the MTT Resort, yeah?"

"Y-yeah! Come on! Let's finish this!"

Frisk stored the phone back in his pocket and proceeded up the staircase. Ahead, Frisk found the Nice-Cream guy with the two Royal Guards, Linda and Larisa, getting ice cream.

"Oh hey." Frisk said.

"Hello. Sorry to tell you, but these two fellas just bought *all* my ice cream! I've actually sold out of everything!!!"

"Oh, that's fine. At least business is going great, right?"

"For sure!"

Frisk continued past them and up the stairs. Over the horizon of the stairs, the MTT Resort came into view.

"There it is." Frisk said.

"Wow. There was nothing like *this* here when I was down here." Chara said.

Standing out front, Frisk could see Sans and Calibri chatting.

"Hey!" Frisk shouted, running over to the pair.

"Hey kiddo." Sans said.

"What are you two doing here?"

"Oh, you know," Calibri said, "waiting for you to arrive. Sans talked to you a few times before from here, I thought it'd make a good place."

"Ah, alright. You make reservations?"

"What? No, not a chance. Mettaton can do without my cash."

"Really? How bad could it be just to—"

"Very bad. Not only do you have to reserve your seat, like in the fancy restaurants on the surface, you also have to reserve your plate, utensils, and food. The only thing you don't have to reserve is a table."

"You're kidding..."

"I wish I was. I'm gonna love it when Mettaton tries to pull this crap on the Surface only to learn that other places hold better business practices." Calibri held a margin of acid in his voice.

Frisk laughed nervously. "So," he said, "shall we go inside?"

Calibri focused back onto the present. "What? Oh, yeah, sure."

Sans took hold of both Frisk and Calibri. Next thing they knew, they were standing around a table.

"Well, here we are." Sans said.

"Here," Calibri's eyes flashed red as energy flowed out of his hands, moving around the table and forming chairs. "make yourselves comfortable."

"Thanks." Frisk said, sitting down.

"So." Sans said. "Your journey's almost over, huh?"

"Seems that way, doesn't it."

"What do you plan to do?" Calibri asked. "Are you gonna just leave, or will you try and destroy the barrier again?"

"The latter. I'm ready, I'm sure of it. I have everything I had before, and then some." Frisk looked over at Chara, who was floating in the empty space at one end of the table, staring silently at the candle in the center.

"Heheh. I can imagine them now... real stars." Sans lounged on the table.

Frisk looked awe-struck at Sans. "This is the most relaxed I've ever seen you."

Sans sat up, the lights in his empty eye-sockets seizing before slowly expanding again. "R... really?"

"Yeah. It's like I'm looking at somebody completely different, honestly."

Sans looked off to one side.

"He's right." Calibri chimed in. "I haven't seen you this chill in... I don't even know how long. For the first time in, well, forever, it's genuine."

Sans looked down at the table. Looking at him, Frisk noticed that his boney face was turning somewhat red.

"Are you... blushing?" he asked.

Sans didn't answer, but his face turned a bit more noticeably red.

"Don't worry about it." Calibri said. "I think all that pent-up emotion he's kept away for who-knows-how-long has finally caught up with him with this brief drop of facade."

Frisk and Calibri left Sans be while he quickly caught up with himself. Instead, they simply talked.

"So," Frisk said, "what exactly is this place?"

"The Resort? Fancy place retrofitted by Mettaton about a week-and-a-half ago."

"Retrofitted? What was it before?"

"An apartment building. Though before that, it was apparently a military base."

"Apparently? You mean you don't know?"

"Vaguely. I never really looked into it. If it *was* military, it was decommissioned before my time. The only thing regarding this that I know for sure is that it was built in commemoration to the fallen heirs."

Chara perked up at this. "Really?" she asked. Frisk relayed Chara's question.

"Yes. There actually used to be a statue of you and Asriel in the center of the fountain before Mettaton was added around the time she retrofitted the place."

"She?" Frisk said, a bit confused. "You're... still talking about Mettaton, right?"

"Yes."

"I've... always heard Mettaton referred to as 'he'. Why did you use 'she'?"

Calibri sighed. "Gimme a second to think of a way to put this that will make sense to you."

Frisk sat forward, eager for some kind of explanation to this... contradiction.

"Alright, so: ghosts don't have a... 'traditional sex', as us animals (or fauna) would. As you... might know," Calibri hesitated, looking over Frisk and contemplating his age, "Humans (along with every Monster I know of) have two sexes: male and female. Another way to put this would be 'fertilizer' and 'gestator'.

"I... considering your age, I don't know how much you know of reproduction, but one sex fertilizes, or fathers, a child, while the other gestates, or mothers, a child."

Frisk nodded, following relatively well. It reminded him of a time so long ago when his own parents roughly laid it out when he asked. He was pretty young at the time, so he didn't understand much when told, but he had a general grasp.

"I've found that this general pattern holds across, well, every species of Monster I've researched, ghosts included." Calibri continued.

"So why do you refer to Mettaton as 'she' when everybody else uses 'he'?"

"I refer to all fertilizers as 'he' and all gestators as 'she'. Mettaton, as you've probably guessed by now, is a gestator."

"Alright... makes sense, I guess... but then why does everybody else call Mettaton 'he'?"

"Well, from what I've found, ghosts typically don't really care what sex they're called. 'He', 'she', they're all just words to them. So long as you get their name right, they don't tend to care."

"And don't ask if they're a ghost." Chara added.

Frisk gave a stern look to Chara, who was snickering under her hand.

"So, what, did somebody just refer to Mettaton as 'he', and it just stuck because she doesn't care?"

"Sounds about right. So long as she's the star of whatever thing is happening on-screen, and she looks *absolutely beautiful* or what have you, she won't care one way or another."

Frisk looked over at Sans, who's face had returned to its bleached-white shade. He looked to be listening intently to the conversation, or probably just asleep.

"You said all species of Monster you've researched. What if you find a species that has individuals that both fertilize and gestate?" Frisk asked.

Calibri shrugged. "I dunno. I've yet to find ones that do that, so I haven't worried about it."

"But what if you found one?"

"Then I'd worry about it then. Why worry about making new rules for something when you haven't even confirmed its existence?"

"Humor me."

Calibri looked off to one side. After about a minute, he turned back towards Frisk. "I'd probably just refer to them all as female. She."

"Why?"

"Of the two, the gestator is the more important."

Frisk shot upwards. "What!?"

"What?"

"What do you mean 'the gestator is the more important'? It takes both the fertilizer and the gestator to reproduce!"

"Sit down and relax, I'm already aware of this. I should elaborate my train of thought."

Frisk slowly sat back down.

"Thank you." Calibri said. "Now, for what I said, think about the female. Within Humans, the female must carry a child, gestating it for about nine months. Monsters share something similar, though the length of time varies from species to species. With Monsters, it's more like a smaller, developing SOUL orbiting the mother's SOUL, sapping energy from it in order to grow to term. Both females must carry this child, gestating them until they can finally become independent from the parent's direct energy supply. During this period of time, the female cannot start gestating another. However, the male doesn't have this problem, and could potentially impregnate hundreds of females in the same span of time.

"From what I understand, most Human civilizations originated around this idea, the early civilizations somewhat recognizing this great gap in value, making the men far, *far* more expendable than the women. As such, men often held the foundation of hunting parties and war bands, because if practically all the men were wiped out in a single bad hunt or battle, the tribe could recover in a single generation. Wipe out the women, and that tribe ceases to exist."

Frisk sat there, horrified.

*This... it's all... all...*

*Sick!* Chara's voice echoed inside Frisk's head. Looking over, Chara shared the same expression of disgust that he held.

"I understand that you find this vile and absurd. Disgusting and what have you. However, it *is* the most logical reasoning. Not that I agree whole-heartedly with this style of civilization, mind you, but it'd be wrong of me to admit it wasn't logical. Be sure to know that this type of civilization fills me with utter horror. After all, I myself am a fertilizer, and I'd like to think that I'm more than just the repopulator in case things go south or a warm body to throw against opponents. So no, before you ask, this is not the style of civilization I could see myself supporting. You asked why I said the gestator is the more important, this is why."

Frisk looked over at Chara. This conversation made him feel... awful... disgusting... sick.

"I do hope you don't think less of me for speaking my mind. You were the one to ask, after all."

"No, it's... it's fine... I'm... I'm gonna go..." Frisk stood up from the chair and made for the exit.

"Can't blame him." Sans said.

"I'm not. A purely logical world is a horrifying place that would make anybody disgusted."

Frisk stepped out into the lobby. Being a posh establishment, the room was very shiny and clean, and overall quite relaxing. This relaxing atmosphere helped Frisk as he contemplated what Calibri told him.

After about a minute, Frisk slapped the sides of his face and looked around. Right in the middle of the lobby was a circular, double-layered fountain with a glee Mettaton statue spewing water out onto the floor. Monsters nearby worked to mop up the mess from the fountain.

On the far-side of the lobby, Frisk spotted three Monsters standing next to an elevator doorway, above which had the words "MALFUNCTION" cycling across an LED screen. Beside the elevator doors was a brightly lit room blocked by translucent glass doors, above which were the words "MTT-Brand Burger Emporium" written in a stylish font.

Stepping inside, Frisk recognized the cat-Monster standing behind the counter, his face looking as though he'd suffer a stroke at any second.

"Welcome to the MTT-Brand Burger Emporium," he recited, "home of the Glamburger. Sparkle up your day™."

"Thank you. How you doing?" Frisk asked.

The cat-Monster simply stared at Frisk for a bit. "I'm sorry," he eventually said, "it's against the rules to talk to customers who haven't bought anything."

"Oh, I see. What have you got?"

The Monster pointed to a poster on the wall behind him. "Just what you see here."

Frisk looked at the poster-menu. In the bottom-left corner of the menu, a picture of something that looked like a purple hamburger made of glitter and sequins stood bright, the label beneath said "Glamburger". Above was a picture of something which looked like a sundae, labeled "Starfait". To the right of the starfait picture was a picture of a sub-sandwich shaped like a sword, the label here reading "Legendary Hero". Finally, in the bottom-right corner of the menu was a large steak simply labeled "Steak in the Shape of Mettaton's Face".

"I, uh, think I'll take a... legendary hero." Frisk said.

"That will be 300G."

*Holy crap, seriously?*

"Thanksy! Have a *fabu-ful* day!!!" the Monster said, handing the sandwich to him.

"Uh... thanks. Anyway, now that I've bought something, can you talk now?"

"What?" the Monster asked, his face looking even more like he was going to suffer a stroke. "Why do you keep trying to talk to me? I'll get in trouble if I get chummy with the customers."

Frisk stepped back. The Monster calmed down a bit.

"Sorry." the Monster said, looking down at the counter. "SO, I wanted to be an *actor*."

"Oh? Is that what you wanna do in the future?"

"Future? *What* future? Nothing down here *ever* changes. I'll probably be trapped at this stupid job forever..."

The two went silent.

"But wait! There's one thing that keeps me going! If Asgore gets just one more SOUL, we'll finally get to go to the surface! It'll be a whole new world! There's gotta be a second chance out there for me! For everyone! So stay strong, little buddy. When I make it big, I'll keep you in mind."

"No future here, huh. Why's that, is there something up with Mettaton?"

"Well... when I first came to Mount Hot, it was my dream to work with Mettaton." he paused. "Well, be careful what you wish for, little buddy!"

"Is Mettaton really that bad?"

"God, have you even looked around? This place is a labyrinth of bad choices. And every time we try to change something for the better, he vetoes it and says 'that's not how they do it on the surface.' Oh! Right! Humans are always eating hamburgers made of *sequins and glue*."

"Wow, geez. What else is there?"

"Well, a simple question I have is why people find him so attractive?? He's literally just a freaking rectangle."

"Good question..."

"You should totally ask him about romance." Chara said.

Frisk looked over at her, his eyes broadcasting a sense of disgust.

"What? I just think it would be funny to see what he says."

"Why?" Frisk seemed to say with his look, but that simple seed of curiosity grew rapidly inside his mind. Sighing, Frisk asked the Monster a new question. "Say, you got any romantic advice?"

The cat-Monster leaned down on the counter. "Listen." he said. "I like you, little buddy. So I'm gonna save you a lot of trouble. *Never interact with attractive people*. Unless you're 'one of them', they're just gonna take advantage of you. Like that time those two chicks asked me to sneak them some glamburgers. And I, naive teenager that I was, said yes to them. Bad idea."

"Why, what happened?"

"So I went out to the alley to see those two ladies, and uh... you know, see what'd happen next. ... then my boss, uh, saw me and asked me what I was doing. I was so startled, the hamburgers in my pockets tumbled out onto the ground. Not wanting to lose face, I scrambled to pick them up! But, as I was leaning over, the weight of the remaining hamburgers... caused my pants to fall down. Then the girls laughed at me. Everyone calls me Burgerpants now." His eyes then shot up and met Frisk's. "But you won't, will you, little buddy?"

"Sure I won't. What's your name."

"Oh thank you. My name is Birgir."

"Birgir, huh. That's... that's a nice name. Anyway, I should get going before Mettaton appears and chews you out."

"Any time, little buddy."

Frisk stepped out from the Burger Emporium. "Oh boy..."

"That was... interesting." Chara said.

"It was certainly something."

"We should totally go meet those girls he talked about."

Frisk looked back at Chara. "Why are you like this?"

"Look, I'm a ghost now. I gotta keep myself entertained somehow."

Frisk sighed. "Alright, let's go meet those girls. He said the alley out back, right? I think I might know the place."

Frisk walked to the main entrance to the Resort and exited.

"Thank you, come again." the bellhop said.

Upon exiting, Frisk turned left and approached an alley next to the resort. Walking down the alley, he quickly reached a manhole. Lifting the cover—which had the word "Bratty" written on one side and "Catty" written on the other, an ampersand being featured in the center—Frisk climbed down the ladder hidden inside.

"Hey!" a deep, yet feminine voice said as Frisk reached around half-way down the ladder. "Check it out!"

Stepping from the ladder, Frisk turned to face two Monsters, one looking like an alligator or crocodile (Frisk couldn't decide which fit better), while the other one looked like a large purple cat.

"Heya!" they both greeted.

"Um, hi. Who are you guys?"

"I'm Bratty, and this is my best friend, Catty." the alligator/crocodile-Monster said.

"I'm Catty," the cat-Monster said at the same time Bratty said her introduction, "and this is my best friend, Bratty."

As soon as they both finished, the Monsters looked at each-other, then burst out laughing for a few seconds.

*Oh boy, this is gonna be **great**, I can tell.*

"Alright, nice to meet you Bratty, and you too Catty." Frisk took a quick look around the room. Aside from looking completely indistinguishable from a garbage dump like the one near the Quiet Village from all the trash hanging from walls or lying on the ground or various ramshack tables, the ceiling above dropped bits of water every now and then, falling into buckets strategically placed beneath. "So, what is this place? What's with all this... stuff?"

"Well, the stuff inside, is like..." Bratty started speaking, but her sentence was finished by Catty.

"*totally* wicked expensive."

"But, like, this stuff we found is like..."

"*totally* wicked cheap."

"You should..." Bratty looked off to the side.

"Like..." Catty did the same.

"*Totally* wicked buy all of it?" they both said simultaneously.

*Geez, this is gonna give me a headache...*

"You said you found this stuff?" Frisk asked. "Where?"

"I mean," Bratty started, "like, where does anyone get guns, or food, or..."

"We found it in the garbage!" Catty said.

"It's *good* garbage."

"It's like, really good garbage."

"Where do you get this garbage?" Frisk asked.

"Like, the garbage store, duh!!!" Bratty said cheekily.

The two Monsters then looked at one-another.

"Waterfall mostly." Bratty finally answered.

"I found a gun by a skeleton in a dumpster!" Catty answered as well.

Frisk looked over at the old, antique revolver tucked in the heavily rotted holster beside a desk at the back of the room.

"So, you guys made a shop underneath the MTT Resort?"

"Yeah, like, pretty much."

"What do you think of Mettaton?"

"Oh my god. Mettaton." they both said, Catty much more enthusiastically.

"He's like... my robot husband." Bratty said.

"Actually he's like... *my* robot husband."

"I think we're like... both going to marry him."

"We're both like, *already* married to him. He just, like, doesn't know it yet."

*Mmm. Nice. That's not creepy at all.* Frisk thought.

"Where'd he come from?" Frisk then asked.

"So, like, Dr. Alphys built Mettaton, right?" Bratty said.

"That's like, what they *tell* you." Catty continued.

"But like... Mettaton always acts like..."

"... being built was *his* idea somehow."

"and even right after he was built..."

"... he acted like Alphys was an old friend."

"But they're like... not friends anymore."

"Yeah!!! Unlike me and Bratty!! Best friends for-*ever*!!!"

Frisk looked off to the side a bit. "What do you think of Alphys?" he asked.

"Oh my god. Alphys." they both said, looking at one-another.

"She used to live on our street." Bratty said.

"She was like a big sister." Catty said.

"I mean, like, if your big sister..."

"Takes you on trips to the dump."

"She showed us the coolest places to find trash."

"She was always collecting these weird cartoons."

"Then she became the Royal Scientist..."

"Yeah, we haven't seen her in forever..."

"How'd she become the Royal Scientist?" Frisk asked.

"So Alphys has always, like..." Bratty began.

"Thought Asgore is a *super* cutie." Catty continued.

"So, like, I'm pretty sure she..."

"Made Mettaton to, like, totally impress him."

"A robot with a SOUL..."

"That's, like, *super* relevant to his hobbies!"

"So after seeing Mettaton, Asgore..."

"Asked her to do all the science stuff for him! But nobody's, like, seen anything from her yet."

"Or... her at all..."

"She must, like, just stay in her lab all day."

"Like, live a little, girl."

"Yeah!!! Like us!!!"

"Nobody's seen anything from her?" Frisk asked. "Do you... do you guys think she... ended up like Gaster?"

"Nah, I'm sure she's fine." Bratty said.

"Maybe she got distracted watching all those weird cartoons." Catty laughed.

"Do you guys know what *happened* to Gaster?" Frisk then asked.

Bratty and Catty both looked at each-other.

"No, sorry."

"He just... vanished one day..."

"I remember Alphys got depressed for a bit after he vanished."

"Yeah. She did look up to him. At least she didn't lose her internship."

"Her internship?" Frisk asked.

"Yeah. Dr. Gaster got all impressed with a network structure Alphys built or something."

"He asked if she would work as a royal engineer on the spot."

"She almost fell out of her seat when he asked that." Bratty laughed.

"Wait, Alphys worked for Gaster?" Frisk asked.

"Well, sorta."

"Alphys, like, didn't work *directly* with Gaster."

"Yeah, more like a much lower position."

"Never heard that she created anything after that..."

"Never even heard, like, an official announcement that she'd been hired like that either."

"I see." Frisk said. "Say, what about Bir— Burgerpants?"

"Oh, that guy from the store?" Bratty said. "Yuck, what a creep."

"Yeah! He's a creep!" Catty said. "But he's kinda cute, too..."

"C'mon, Catty, don't you have *any* standards?"

"Nope!!!"

Bratty looked back at Frisk. "Okay, like, the annoying thing is..."

"He'd be okay if he just treated us with some respect." Catty finished.

"But he just acts... really weird."

"And then acts like it's *our* fault he acts that way!"

"Like, when we asked him to get those Glamburgers..."

"He dropped them and ran away before we could even say anything!"

"We were, like, going to share them."

"Really? I wasn't."

"Catty!!" Bratty said as they both broke into laughter.

"We should tell Birgir he should chill out." Chara said.

"I agree." Frisk mumbled.

Frisk looked back up at the gun in the back. "Hey Catty, how much do you guys want for that gun?"

Catty looked back. "Uh, 350G. Bullets *not* included."

"That's fine." Frisk pulled out 350G and handed it to Bratty. In turn, Catty handed over the gun and holster. Thanking them, Frisk climbed back up the ladder and went back inside the MTT Resort.

With the gun now firmly attached to his leg, Frisk walked back into the Burger Emporium.

"Oh hey, what can I do for you, little buddy?" Birgir asked from behind the counter.

"Bratty and Catty were talking about you."

Birgir looked stunned. "The girls were... talking about me...?"

"Yeah. They said you should stop acting like they owe you, and if you wanna be friends with them, you should see things from their perspective."

"Wait, really?" Chara asked.

"Not really, but don't worry. I got this."

"Wow." Birgir said, absorbing this like a sponge. He then started laughing as he pulled up a stool and sat down. "Poor, naive little buddy. They've brainwashed you. 'Friendship' is just a hot person's way of making you their slave." he then went silent for a few seconds. "So, uh, what time would they wanna hang out?" he asked, leaning forward. "Well? Don't keep me waiting, little buddy!!"

Frisk stepped out of the Burger Emporium. "You see, told you I got this."

"This is going to end in tears, you know that, right?" Chara asked.

"Nah, I'm sure it'll work out just fine!"

Frisk exited the MTT Resort and went back down into Bratty and Catty's hole.

"Burgerpants wants to know if you'd wanna hang out with him." Frisk said upon seeing Bratty and Catty.

"Oh, uh..." Bratty said.

"Yeah!! He should come look for junk with us!" Catty said, super enthralled at the idea.

"But like, if we let him hang out with us... I just worry it'll..."

"... be really super fun!"

"Um, that was *not* what I was gonna say."

"But I was close, right!?"

Bratty cleared her throat, which sounded something like a truck trying to start up. "Well, he kinda reminds me of That Kind Of Guy... You hang out with him once, then he wants to hang out... All. The. Time."

"But don't you feel bad for him, Bratty?" Catty asked. "Poor Burgerpants... Think about how cool we are compared to him!!! We'd be saving his *life* with our friendship!! His *life*, Bratty!!"

"Uh, so?"

Catty looked over at Bratty, who was wearing a cheeky "I don't care" kind of face.

"Think of all the Glamburgers he could get for us!!" she eventually said.

"So is he free after work?" Bratty asked Frisk.

"I'll go ask." Frisk stepped back up the ladder and went back inside the MTT Resort, back into the Burger Emporium.

"They wanna hang out with you after your shift." he said soon after entering.

Birgir started laughing, throwing his hands up and punching at the ceiling in glee. "Yes!!!" he shouted. "I won't let you down!! Little buddy... thank you." he said after calming down a bit. "You've brought a tear to the eye of this old man."

*Old man...?*

"So, uh, where do they want to hang out?"

"The garbage dump near the Quiet Village."

Birgir just stared at the counter for a bit. "Well, nowhere to go but up, right?" he asked, looking back up. "Thank you, little buddy."

"No problem. Have fun!" Frisk exited the Emporium.

"So, shall we continue to Helios?" Chara asked.

Frisk looked over at her. "Yeah, sure."

Stepping around the corner, Frisk followed the dark hallway down to a double door and stepped through. Beyond was a long, narrow bridge spanning a ravine between the summit of Mount Hot and Helios Station. Crossing the bridge, Frisk entered the massive solar emitter.

Within, much of what originally happened followed. Frisk, this time using magic, bypassed numerous puzzles within the defense area. Reaching the Helios Array, where light poured up from below and the smell of ozone permeated the atmosphere, Frisk spotted Greek letters decorating the different paths of the crossroads.

"Chara, you can read this stuff, right?" he asked.

"Yeah." Chara looked at the sign above the path ahead. "'Warrior's Path' is what that one says." Looking down the left path, she read that sign next. "This one reads 'Sage's Path'." Looking off to the right, she read the final sign. "'Control Room' is the last one."

"I see. Thanks."

Walking down the "Warrior's Path", Frisk eventually made it to the room with the three Elysian Guards guarding a button at the end. Taking a deep breath, Frisk used gravity magic to cause himself to fall down towards the end, slamming right into the button before any of the Elysians could respond. Upon pressing the button, Frisk simply strolled to the Control Room, where he knew Mettaton stood waiting.

"OH YES. THERE YOU ARE, DARLING." Mettaton said as Frisk entered.

"I already know Alphys is a liar and that you're about to betray me. Before we get to the grand finale of your show, shouldn't you look your grandest first?" Frisk said.

Mettaton looked awe-struk. "WH... WHAT...!? MY MY, NOW *THAT'S* A TWIST."

"Not as much of a twist as you standing here in a dark room in front of a mirror."

"M... MIRROR...? RIGHT, I HAVE TO LOOK PERFECT FOR OUR GRAND FINALE." Mettaton turned around. In that moment, Frisk dashed behind Mettaton and flipped her switch.

"DID YOU. JUST FLIP. MY SWITCH?" Mettaton asked.

"I did say you should look your grandest first, didn't I?"

Mettaton emitted numerous mechanical beeps, wobbling back and forth on her wheel until a sudden burst of smoke shot out, revealing a humanoid body within.

"Ohhhh my. You're desperate for the premiere of my new body. How rude... lucky for you, I've been aching to show this off for a long time. So, as a thanks, I'll give you a handsome reward. I'll make your last living moments..." the smoke surrounding Mettaton shot away, revealing her new humanoid body. "*absolutely* beautiful!"

Frisk and Mettaton then fought, which turned more into a dance-off than anything, until her ratings hit critical and she performed her viewer call-in milestone. Upon answering, Frisk recognized the voice of the first caller. Napstablook. Watching Mettaton's face as Napstablook spoke, it dawned on him that she must know him personally as she, though trying to hide it, showed great amounts of pain in her facial expressions.

When Napstablook hung up, Mettaton took a few more callers, each of which expressing their love for her show. Heartwarmed, Mettaton told Frisk, as in the first World, to continue forward and leave the Underground before falling backwards, out of batteries.

Frisk then pressed the button on the control console to open the doors. Alphys ran in, and everything happened exceedingly similar to how they did in the first World, straight down to Alphys confessing that she was an awful person just as Frisk stepped aboard the elevator to Elysium.