Underearth/Book 1/Chapter 25

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As opposed to anywhere else in the Underground, the deeper cave was as pitch-black as the Citadel before Toriel lit the Torchweb. Soon after entering, Frisk's phone began ringing.

"H-hey, it's kind of dark in there, isn't it?" Alphys said through the receiver. "Don't worry! I'll hack into the light system and brighten it up!"

A moment later, large, stage-set lights brightened the area, revealing a kitchen, though lacking all but one wall. The ceiling was replaced with multiple rows of girders holding the lights as well as many other items.

"Oh no." Alphys said a few seconds later. Just as Alphys finished, Mettaton rose from behind the counter in front of Frisk.

"OHHHH YES!!!" they said dramatically. "WELCOME, BEAUTIES, TO THE UNDERGROUND'S PREMIER COOKING SHOW!!!"

Cooking with a Killer Robot

"PRE-HEAT YOUR OVENS, BECAUSE WE'VE GOT A VERY SPECIAL RECIPE FOR YOU TODAY! WE'RE GOING TO BE MAKING... A CAKE! MY LOVELY ASSISTANT HERE WILL GATHER THE INGREDIENTS." As Mettaton spoke, they gestured to Frisk. "EVERYONE GIVE THEM A BIG HAND!!!" they then said, clapping their hands off as confetti fell from the ceiling onto him. "WE'LL NEED SUGAR, MILK, AND EGGS. GO FOR IT, SWEETHEART!"

Frisk turned around and walked towards the fridge on the set. As he got near it, Mettaton spoke up. "DARLING, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Frisk turned his head to face Mettaton. "Getting the milk and eggs, of course."

"MILK? EGGS? IN THE FRIDGE? NO WAY, DARLING! THEY'D GET COLD!!!"

Frisk looked blankly at Mettaton. *Isn't that the point?* he thought as he turned his head back around, spotting all three items conveniently placed on the back counter.

Frisk reached over grabbing the eggs and milk in each hand respectively and placed them on the front counter before going back for the sugar to bring it forward as well.

"PERFECT!" Mettaton approved. "GREAT JOB, BEAUTIFUL! WE'VE GOT ALL OF THE INGREDIENTS WE NEED TO BAKE THE CAKE!"

*Isn't there normally more that goes into a cake than just these?* Frisk thought as Mettaton listed off the three ingredients before pausing abruptly.

"OH MY! WAIT A MAGNIFICENT MOMENT! HOW COULD I FORGET!!! WE'RE MISSING THE MOST IMPORTANT INGREDIENT!" Mettaton opened a drawer in the counter and pulled out a chainsaw almost as long as Frisk. "A HUMAN SOUL!!!!" they stated as they started the chainsaw and began approaching Frisk with it. Frisk backed up a bit before Mettaton appeared to suddenly start ringing.

"HELLO...? I'M KIND OF IN THE MIDDLE OF SOMETHING HERE." they said, lowering the chainsaw a bit.

"W-wait a second!!!" Alphys's voice came from Mettaton's shell. "Couldn't you make a... Couldn't you use a... Couldn't you make a substitution in the recipe?!"

"A SUBSTITUTION? YOU MEAN, USE A DIFFERENT, NON-HUMAN INGREDIENT? ... WHY?"

"Uhh, what if someone's..." Alphys stopped for a second. "Vegan?"

"VEGAN."

"Uh, well I mean—"

"THAT'S A BRILLIANT IDEA, ALPHYS!! ACTUALLY, I HAPPEN TO HAVE AN OPTION RIGHT HERE!!! MTT-BRAND ALWAYS-CONVENIENT HUMAN-SOUL-FLAVOR-SUBSTITUTE! A CAN OF WHICH... IS JUST OVER ON THAT COUNTER!!!" Mettaton pointed off-set toward a counter that had a red-labeled can sitting on top of it. "WELL, DARLING? WHY DON'T YOU GO GET IT?"

Frisk stepped around Mettaton and approached the counter. As he got close, the counter itself lowered into the ground a bit before rocketing off into the sky on a tower of identical counters. Frisk watched the tower get higher and higher as Mettaton approached from behind.

"BY THE WAY, OUR SHOW RUNS ON A STRICT SCHEDULE. IF YOU CAN'T GET THE CAN IN THE NEXT MINUTE, WE'LL JUST HAVE TO GO BACK TO THE ORIGINAL PLAN!!! SO... BETTER START CLIMBING, BEAUTIFUL!!!"

Mettaton rolled back onto the set just as the tower finally finished ascending. Frisk looked back at Mettaton, who was watching intently. *I can't run, because Mettaton would probably just try to kill me.* He looked up at the tower. *Guess there's nothing left to do but climb.* Frisk had just started to climb the tower as his phone began ringing. Trying to ignore it, Frisk got back to climbing, but the phone seemed to answer itself.

"W-what are you doing? There's not enough time to climb up!" Alphys spoke from Frisk's pocket.

"Well what do you suggest I do?" Frisk responded.

"F-f-fortunately, I predicted Mettaton might do something like this, so I placed a jetpack in the lowest drawer in the tower. Open it up."

Frisk opened the drawer and, surprisingly, a jetpack resided inside. He pulled on the jetpack and, according to Alphys's following instructions, pushed a button at the end of a cord. When pushed, Frisk began rocketing upwards as well.

"You should have just enough fuel to reach the top!" She said as Frisk rose.

"OH MY!! SEEMS LIKE ALPHYS PREDICTED I MIGHT DO SOMETHING LIKE THIS! IF ONLY SOMETHING WERE TO HAPPEN TO HAMPER THEIR PROGRESS!"

Just as Mettaton finished speaking, there was a crackle in the air followed by a bolt of lightning that just narrowly missed Frisk. Frisk looked back at Mettaton, who had begun ascending as well. A few seconds later and Mettaton, moving rapidly, swooshed past Frisk with an "I'VE MISSED". Another few seconds and Frisk was at the top, closely followed by Mettaton, who past Frisk again, though not as closely, and stopped a little ways away from him.

"MY MY. IT SEEMS YOU'VE BESTED ME. BUT ONLY BECAUSE YOU HAD THE HELP OF THE BRILLIANT DOCTOR ALPHYS! OH, I LOATHE TO THINK OF WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED TO YOU WITHOUT HER!!! WELL, TOODLES!!" And with that, Mettaton flew off.

"Wait, but what about the can!?" Frisk said loudly, hoping Mettaton heard it. The rectangular robot then flipped around and flew back.

"OH YES! ABOUT THE SUBSTITUTION... HAVEN'T YOU EVER SEEN A COOKING SHOW BEFORE? I ALREADY BAKED THE CAKE AHEAD OF TIME!!!!! SO FORGET IT!!!" Mettaton then flew off once again as Frisk began lowering back down to the ground.

"Wow! We... we did it!!" Alphys began speaking once again from Frisk's pocket. "We... we really did it!!! Great job out there, team! W-well, uh, anyway, let's keep heading forward!!!" Frisk pulled out the phone to hit 'end call' before continuing through another cave orifice, this one holding light on the other side.

The other side was a lot hotter than anywhere else he'd been so far. Far off to his left, Frisk could see a massive, ominous structure looming in the distance, reaching up far out of sight. Frisk's phone began ringing again.

"That's the CORE." Alphys educated. "The source of all power for the Underground. It converts geothermal energy into magical electricity, by... uhh... anyway, that's where we're going to go, or at least the structure above it. Helios. In Helios Station is an elevator leading directly up to Elysium, to Asgore's palace. And from there... you can go home." The phone went silent again.

Frisk continued down the linear path, eventually finding a steel-grey tower with the glowing letter and number 'R1' above a double sliding door. Frisk got close to the door and pushed a button off to the side. Nearly instantly, the door opened into a small, yellow room with six buttons on the far wall. Of the six buttons, two were flashing, the lower-left-most one, and the middle-right one. Frisk pushed the middle-right one and the doors closed, and the elevator ascended. About half a minute later, the elevator stopped, and the doors once again opened, leading to an entirely new area.