PLDF Chapter 31

> Chapter 31: "Moving On to the Next Phase Before New Adventures Begin" (Sub-Entries 301-310)
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## Sub-Entry 301 - "Back on the Job at Space Time Continuum Agency":

I meant what I said about adventures beginning, but...I'd need more prep before I could pull that off.

Plus...

I needed to get myself reinstated into STC.

And...do the same for Asriel.

I twisted the tiny Allen Wrench a hair.

"There.  All functions restored.  Now was just wait for them to reestablish the link."

"Man...I've worn this so long but...I stopped using it after a while.  Even the Unitrix.  Never had a point I needed to walk around as a human."

"You know you and Frisk--"

WHAP!

"Don't take it there."  Bunnie glared.

Mitzi scoffed.  "You pervert."

"Besides.  They said that when it was time they'd adopt."

Oh boy...it's too obvious how to do the math on this one.

Let's just move on.

"Wow."

"Yeah.  Never gets less--"

The detail of guards pointed their weapons at us...mainly Frisk, Chara, and M.K.

I went up to their commanding officer.

"Ahem.  Do you know who I am?"

"..."  He hesitated as I pointed a finger at his nose.

"And do you and your platoon know who THEY are?"

A moment later and he ordered them to stand down.

"Don't ever raise your guns to friends of the Vice-Emperor of Space-Time-and Dimension.  Or you'll be the one doing field work."  I growled, folding my ears back.

"Y-yes, sir."

I wouldn't have bullied a guy like that if he weren't one of the Council's loyal bootlickers.  I knew him to be quite spineless and doing odd jobs for the council to get ahead.  In fact we'd met before.  Several times.  All of them on the receiving end of HIS bullying  Yeah, two wrongs don't make a right but...this was a long time coming.

"And do be careful with the chairman's drycleaning.  You know what he's like when things are...out of place."

That last one was to settle the score over being arrested back in Monsteropolis stadium when that freeze team took Azzy and me here to answer to my charges of dereliction of duty, desertion, and attempting to escape previous charges.  And...whatever the council ELSE the council was trying to bring me in for during Project Lost Dreemurr NEXT.

He knew what he did.

And that was the end of it.  Any attempt to press him further WOULD actually be bullying.  And while I'm not all THAT vindictive, there were some things even I couldn't let stand.

"Was that necessary?"  Frisk asked.  "We weren't really in that much danger."

"Just call it some owed justice."

Asriel just shrugged.

"Besides...you'll be severely tempted to change your mind when you see who they answer to..."

And of course the Council was...jovial.

"Agent Arcade!  Has every trace of sense left your skull!?!"

"You brought outsiders… timeline natives into our chambers!"

"And worse...its' the anomalies themselves."

"As well as some...NPC."

"Dude.  Rude."

"What does he mean "anomaly"?"  Frisk asked.

"Silence!"

"No.  You stay silent and let her speak."  Asriel glowered.

I decided to explain because I knew they wouldn’t'.

"It's because you both went off script.  Much to Madam Fate's chagrin.  You're supposed to play "PLAYER", Frisk.  Under her control and guidance, according to the rules of the game.

But...you actually kept to character rather than break it.  You followed your heart and acted with your soul.  And that annoyed her.  Mostly because it reminded of whose pawn you ended up."

"Pawn?"  Chara lowered an eyebrow.

"The awful truth of the game.  Even the good guy...goddess uses pawns.  Us.  It's a matter of opinion whether you excuse it because it's for the "greater good" and not done with malicious intent.  We're all still chess pieces in the grand game."

I crossed my arms and shook my head.

"Some of us just don't realize whose pawns we actually are..."  I slid my gaze to the chairperson.

"How DARE you!"

"Sooner or later you'll stop being in denial."  I scoffed.

"For what purpose did you bring them here?"

"Package deal.  But really, we're just getting our STC-A licenses reinstated.  Again."

I said with the most sugared-up grin.  Just to be painfully obnoxious to them.

"Tarnation..."  The one in the ten-gallon hat exclaimed.  "You got the position of one of the most powerful beings in the Gauld-darn infinity-verse and you just want to be put back on field work."

"It's more about the perks of the job."  I mused while doing my most Ferris Bueller "give no craps" head rested in the interlocked fingers with elbows outward pose.  I even had the gall to sit down in the empty seat of the council traitor just to exacerbate things.

"Why I NEVER!"

I could see Chara hiding her giggle.

"Not going to take no for an answer."

"You miserable mongrel!  You miserable flea-bitten mongrel."

"I tend to find fleas get fried to a crisp when they nest on my electrified fur's natural energy field.  Really saves a penny or two on flea baths, collars and meds."

Sometimes I had to remind as a Lycan I was still subject to some of the caretaking that canines required.  Just not as many, due leaning more toward human internal physiology in the long-run.

"Oh you smart--"

"Language."  Asriel cut in.

"D'ohhhh!"  The chairperson scoffed.

"This is what you do at these meetings?  I got to get in on this."  Chara grinned.

"OUT OF THE QUESTION!"  The chairwoman roared.  "You are an anomaly with a history of genocide."

"Way I hear it, that's the pot calling the kettle black."  Chara mused as she blew on the tips of her fingertips as if she just did her nails.

"How is big daddy Julian Kintobor...or does he prefer Ivo Robotnik?  At least when he still existed and one of you had an illegal arms deal with him.  Oh and of course how you ordered that universe's Sally Acorn be left to fall to her death after her rope got cut?  Sonic never did get to thank you for letting him be framed for murder.  Oh...and of course there's the whole matter of what you let happen to Knothole...and I thought the Wraith made ME a sociopath!"

I'd...shared more than a few painful memories of times the council burned me and by extension, the people I was trying to protect.  Chara decided to fire them right back in their faces.

"Duuude."

"So.  We doing this or am I going to let them get more "annoying"."  I asked.

"That's blackmail!"

"Nuh-uh.  It's 'extortion'.  The X makes it sound cooler."  Asriel followed up.  He learned so well.

"You have exactly--"

"Ten seconds to vacate these proceedings?  I don't know if you have the authority to do that anymore.  Buuuuut.  Since I'm in a good mood, I'll do so because the conversation's boring anyway.

So how about it?  We in?  Or are we out?"

A long period of growling, grumbling, fuming, snarling, and saying not-nice-things later.

"The council votes...unanimously...to reinstate agents Arcade and Arcade."

"You know I COULD have asked you to put them on the team, too--"  Just to rub it in.

"Oh sick!  That'd be SWEET!"  M.K. was dancing on air.

"GET OUT NOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!!"

One slammed mechanical door later.

"So...you're saying there's a chance..."  M.K. spoke into the intercom speaker.

What followed was screaming I'd only ever heard from Mother Brain after Eggplant Wizard accidently splattered her with a tomato.

"You know I'm really starting to open up to you, Dinosaur Jax."  Chara high-fived.

I shook my head at the Mortal Kombat reference.  But it was fitting.  Heck, I pardoned the other movie reference.  Why not?

"That went well."  Asriel shrugged as he looked at his holoprojection from his bracer.

"We're back in business."  I smiled as Azzy and I opted for a forearm bump in lieu of the usual bro-fist.

Oh the adventures of traveling time, space, and dimensions were coming back, baby.

Eat your heart out, Sanchez.

## Sub-Entry 302 - "Last Hurrah of the Block Party":

Until I had time to get things off the ground I was going to spend some face time with our friends on the other side of the Undertale Gateway.

Newest Home was looking inviting and the Block Party was still taking a little longer to wind down over there.

"Don't spread it around but prior to the 20th century on Earth realm, hot dogs were referred to as dachshunds."

"What do they call burritos?  German shepherds?"  M.K. quipped.

"And it looks like Frisk still has the record at 29."

I looked at the stack of hot dogs balanced perfectly on her head.

"How does she do that."

"Don't know.  Just know that she can't go over 29 for some reason."

"Yeah, it'll break the game."  I muttered.

"Say again?"  M.K. asked.

"Never mind."

It was shaping up to be a good carnival.

"It's kind of bringing back memories, you know."

"Oh?"

"Yeah..."

I thought for a moment.

"DeltaRune?"

"Chapter 2, I guess they'd call it.  But yeah.  I...shadowed those kids for a while and...well...carnival."  Asriel looked longingly at the Ferris Wheel.

"I hope Noelle is okay.  I mean...she's got Susie watching over her.  It's kind of a will-they, won't-they situation."

"Ahhhh."  I could read into it all I wanted.  It was fine.  But...I soon gathered Susie was dense as a brick over what was likely the real situation going on in Noelle's head canon.  What the doe was feeling in her heart.

Poor reindeer.

"I wonder if they're thinking about us?"  Asriel looked to the sky, temporarily forgetting about his soft pretzel.

"I hope so.  The way you described it left off on a disturbing cliffhanger.  One more disturbing than the one I witnessed."

"Kris is more of an anomaly than we are, huh?"  Chara bit into her chocolate fudge coated candy apple.

"Needs more dark chocolate chips."  She muttered.

"And mom would be so proud of how healthy we're eating."  Frisk actually had a moment of being sassy.

"Don't lecture me on diet.  I have to pound a few skulls in in the Soul Society when anyone remotely implies I'm going to get fat off of chocolate."  Chara gripped her fist tightly.

"I don't know what to make of them.  Kris is...nonbinary so I can't even call them he or she by mistake otherwise I'd be gender-labeling."

"Trying to get a grip on what's P.C. these days, huh, Volt?"  Asriel asked.

"It didn't matter back in the tail-end of the 20th century.  The eighties and nineties.  There was nothing to be offended about.  It was just casual.  Now...it's a thing.  And I see it as a landmine in this Reputation Era."

That was the most I was going to vent about the world that Millennials had crafted.  I did my darndest to be sensitive.  I went out of my way to not be triggered when the question of how I or anyone else identifies comes up.  And really. This was something that had been woven into Undertale's very nature and carried into DeltaRune.

"You don't have that problem at all, Azzy."  I must've sounded jealous.

He just rubbed the back of his head.

"Uh...subject change?"

"Right."  I nodded.

I always felt whenever I even touched ground on controversial topics I was inviting myself to be glared at and ostracized.  For me it wasn't gender stereotyping as more era-related.  If I were still mortal I'd identify as "Generation X-er"  So...I was kind of fluid compared to Baby Boomers but not fully committed like Millennials and Gen-Z's.

I was...the bridge between generations.  Just like Asriel was a bridge between worlds.  We had to work at it.  We had to do our best to appease both sides.  Peace...was not easy to uphold.  And there was no challenge quite like figuring out how to compromise between both in times where you had to be all-in or all-out.  Radicals.

"Volt.  Rest your head about such things.  It's okay.  No harm done.  We're all cool.  You cool?"  Asriel reassured me.

"Frosty."  And that's an ironic statement from someone who hates and despises the cold, the winter, and the snow and ice in general.

"When we get back to VGM-098, you got to take us to Neo Arcadia City.  I want to experience the Asteroid Coaster that you put Azzy on when he was just a small fry."  Chara grinned.

"Technically Sally convinced him."  I shrugged.

"Eheheh...scariest and most fun experience I had at that age."

"And you're dying to go back."

"You know it.  Not so much the dying part."  Asriel let a bit of rare dark humor slip.

"I know what Flowey would say to it."  Chara rolled her eyes.  "But I'm not repeating it because...language."

"Jeeze.  My other selves end up becoming real potty-mouths when they turn into a flower, huh?"

"Don't remind me."  I shrugged it off.

"He's...doing pretty much the same, by the way."

Silence among us. for a bit.

"He's in good hands with Lupe."

"Yeah...even if he doesn't know it yet.  He...really is pretty self-loathing."

"Yeah...the funny thing is...I understand why.  I know exactly why."  Asriel looked down.

"He’s beating himself up for the both of us."  Azzy frowned.

"But...you've moved on.  You're past that."

"Maybe...but it's like they say.  Forgive but don't forget.  No matter how over it I am it's always going to be the tiniest chink in my armor.  One I trust all of you with knowing."

"Dude.  You're getting deep, man."

"Yeah."

"Asriel.  Look at me."

Frisk placed her hands on his cheeks.  "We'll always be that patch on that armor.  Whether we're here with you or apart from you.  You know we got your back."

"And anyone who uses that against you better be ready to step to any of us."  Chara balled up her fist.

I smiled.

There wasn't a lot of action going on...but we sure had been having a lot of meaningful conversations every since we forged this forever crossover.

"So how about it.  Feel like a ride on the Ferris Wheel, everyone?"

"I'm game if you are."

"You two love birds enjoy your own seat together."  Chara pushed Frisk and Asriel closer.

"Chara...!"  Asriel started to protest, catching himself.

"Actually...I think I'd like that very much."

"Same here."

"Uh...we don't have to share a seat do we, Chara?"  M.K. asked.

"Oh don't flatter yourself, dino boy.  I said I was warming up to you, not ready to say yes to a date you dingus."

"Hey!   Dude!  I was totally not gonna!"

"Good."

"Oh grow up, both of you." Frisk scolded.

"Can't we all just get along?"  Asriel tried to moderate.

Oh brother.

Seriously.  This is a ship I don't think would happen even if there was something there.  Which there's not.

So one awkward bit of banter later followed by a begrudging apology and makeup...

"I feel like Starfire the first time Robin took her up on one of these."

Getting Frisk up to speed on our acquaintances and references and lingo and our long list of alliances went quicker than I thought.  And it was surprising how many of them she'd meet and greet in a short amount of time.  She wasn't the Ambassador for nothing.

"With a not-surprising lack of explanation of giant explosion that turn out to be fireworks and not a hostile alien invasion?"

"There you go."

It only took a couple months for Frisk and Chara to banter back and forth with us and start dropping nerdy references.

That's how I knew they were UltraVerse now and forever.  Our little AU cube had adapted as well as all the other worlds we'd been to.

I couldn't wait for the actual world tours to begin.

And where there was promise of visiting the stars and the planets and the worlds that lay beyond...there was promise of adventure.

I was so anxious for those days to begin.

But...crawl before you walk.   Walk before you run.

When they're ready?  Asriel and I are going to amaze them.

## Sub-Entry 303 - "Doll Festival Lights Up New and Old Faces in Newest Home"

As promised, I opted to make little sister's birthday special.  And for a change of pace we were going to spend it on the other side of the gate.  In Newest Home.  For the majority of the day, I'd let her celebrate Hina Matsuri, the Doll Festival.  Formerly known as Girl's Day.

"I am so glad you decided to join us, my child."

"Thank you, Mrs. Dreemurr."

"Oh, dear Gadget. You must not be so formal.  You may call me Toriel."

"If that's what you like, okay then, Toriel."

"My my.  Your big brother raised you to be so polite."

"Why thank you!  It doesn't take much effort to have good manners and be polite.  Anyone can do it!  It's just good practice."

"Oh you are so much like Asriel when he was so very young."

"What was big brother Asriel like?"

"Ohhh...he was such a splendid child.  So full of light, so full of curiosity.  He was so terribly shy though.  I felt so bad that he did not have many if any friends.  Some must I’ve seen him as unapproachable, being royalty.  Some of it was him being to scared to engage.  How non-confrontational he was."

"He was timid like me."

"I suppose so.  But you have hobbies you are passionate about.  That seems to be when you come out of your shell.  Much like Asriel.  When he was among the flowers he loved so much, it was like he lowered his guard.  He was so gentle."

It was strange.  Somewhere among the conversation it was like they both forgot they were talking about a different Asriel.  One who became a flower.  The other who became my best friend.  But...perhaps they were both identical at the point of their actual origin...rather than when Fate played her card and the game took over his destiny and turned it into a tragic fate in the form of a stealthfully crafted trap called "Chara".

As it was...our Chara was as much a victim as she was an instigator.   More so the latter, really.  But...it was hard to ignore that she still hasn't opened up to us about her tragic and terrible childhood before climbing Ebott and falling down.  Troubled children are a wild card we can't predict...and even under the best circumstances...we can't always keep them happy and on the right path.

"I just wish I could have known him then.  Been there.  Maybe...I could have been the sibling he needed..."

Gadget didn't finish her thought because it felt almost like she was implying maybe it was like she wanted to replace Chara.

"You are such a pure child, Gadget.  You have a good heart.  Do not concern yourself with what might have been.  The fates were cruel that day.  It is presumptuous to assume that his life would have continued given any other person had taken Chara's place.

As much as I grieve for the years Asgore and I lost as a family...as much as I felt cheated out of a proper motherhood...Destiny was kind enough to reward the faith I did not know I still had.

Your brother has done such a wonderful thing, encouraging me to keep waiting for a reward I did not know I had coming...for happier times ahead.  I thought...I thought Frisk was our second chance to redeem ourselves.  I was not wrong but...she was not the only one to enter our lives.

Now...now you have all brought my son back to me...as well as my daughter.  With the three of them...our lives are truly complete again.  We are a true family once more."

Did I say that Asriel inherited his talent for speeches from Asgore?  Perhaps it was the wrong parent I should have been listening to all this time.

"I'm so happy.  For all of you.  For all of us.  For everyone."  Gadget sniffled.

And there was the doorbell.

"Oh!  I shall answer it.  Do not get up, my child.  Stay and enjoy the snacks."

Gadget enjoyed more of the Hina Matsuri spread.

"Konichiwa, Toriel-sama."  Bunnie gave her most formal bow.

"Oh!  How formal and proper!  Please do come in, Master Rabbotou."

"I accept your hospitality.  May I?"  Bunnie said as she slipped her sandals off and gestured toward the shoe rack.

"By all means.  Bare feet are completely acceptable in this house."

Bunnie slipped them into an empty chamber and entered.

"Miss Bunnie!"

"Ah.  You are here, Gadget.  And I see you have followed my instructions to the letter on the proper Hina Matsuri doll placement."

"I take very good notes."

"So noted.  So appreciated.  Quite the good student you are.  Your brother is so proud."

"I know, right?  I just wish he could be here but...you know..."

"A holiday for the female gender.  He is consider to respect our time as such."

Bunnie then smiled.

"However he is not one to completely abstain from involvement.  If memory serves...is today not another special day?"

Gadget gasped as Bunnie presented the very purple grape-flavored birthday cake.

"You remembered!"

"We all remembered.  Happy birthday, Gadget-chan.  And...it's actually peanut-butter and jelly cake this year."

"Oh wow!  Mitzi really did it!"  Gadget's eyes just lit up.

Her two favorite flavors in one.  Gadget did love her PB&J sandwiches growing up.  She never outgrew them and anything grape or peanut butter was an instant like for her.

By this time I've certainly regurgitated the info from Bunnie's pamphlet on the order and placement of the dolls and why we celebrate.  So...let's just cut to the celebration.

As such more guests would arrive.  And not just for Hina Matsuri.  New faces certainly made it their prerogative of remembering her birthday this day.  Gadget was so easy to remember her day of birth.

In every year that she celebrated one.  Not one soul forgot.  Not even once.  She was that cherished.

"She'll be over soon enough."

And sure enough, there she was with Chara and Frisk in tow.  And soon after Willamina, Honey, Megami, and Shishiko joined in.

And before long even Sally managed to convince Undyne to come...practically dragging her along until the mention of sake.

Something about drinking rice wine just appealed to the bad girl in her.  Though it wasn't like any rules were being broken.  Every girl in attendance was at least the legal drinking age.

And that's all I'm going to say about that.

At least until Alphys had one too many and eventually passed out while doing a complete word-for-word karaoke of the theme to Mew Kissy Cutie.

"Oh, Doctor..."  Toriel tried to hide her amusement.  "Every year you never learn."

"That girl cannot hold her liquor."  Mitzi shook her head.

"She's really alright.  Sometimes she just doesn't know how to stop the otaku in her from overindulging in things."  Frisk shrugged.

"Still makes for some great hilarity."  Chara chuckled.

While there was a good gathering, some of Undertale's women did decline.

Muffet for example, for a surprising reason.

"Ah-huh-huh-huh-huh-huh...it would betray the hard work my dear spiders put into making our belove spider cider to partake in something so...substandard."

Oh boy.  I'm sure Bunnie resisted the urge to take offense.  After all it was her best cask of it; Brooke's favorite in fact.  If it's fit enough for a Queen, then I don't know what Muffet's issue is.

Of course, this is coming from a werewolf who's never touched a drop.

I think I want to change the subject right now.  Too much about wine and lack-of-roses.

While Dr. Alphys was laid out on the guest bed to sleep off her intoxication and inevitable hangover...

"Man, this party is bananas."  Undyne was finally some degree of on-board.

"It has been a lovely day, has it not?"  Toriel was quite happy with how it turned out.

"We simply must do this every year."  Bunnie offered her traditional onigiri rice balls.

"I second."  Frisk accepted one.

"Count me in."

"Of course we'll all be here.  We have to celebrate Gadget's birthday next year, right?"

"Awwww...you guys!"

What a wonderful time to be a girl.

Maybe in my next life I'll know for sure.

Then again...somewhere my rule 34 counterpart already did know.

And that just made me realize...what would Undertale Rule 34 be like...?

Well.

This just took a weird turn.  One I hope Violet doesn't read any time soon.

Oh well.  I'm sure the Major will toast to both of your health and well-being, Ampere and Asriella, wherever you are.

For now...I was happy letting the girls of my ranks enjoy themselves.

This was empowering and I was happy Goat Son brought it to their doorsteps.

Feminism really could be wonderful when it was cherished in a healthy manner of comradery like this.

Rock on, girls.  You deserve your own holiday.

## Sub-Entry 304 - "Pi/Pie Day is a Universal Concept"

When Toriel gets a time to shine, you better fasten that bib and ready your silverware.  Why?  The size of the pies are STILL intimidating.

And what better day to celebrate a day for pie than March 14th.  Or in mathematics terms, 3.14.  Pi Day.

Ah, the day with the double meaning.  One which appealed to culinary artists of the confectionary world and the other that appealed to mathematicians.

"Oh wow."  Hestia's jaw actually dropped when she saw the size of what Toriel had pulled out of her oven.

"That's...so...so...so very...um....big."

"Really?  It seems about my average."

They don't call it monster proportions for nothing.

"You'll get used to it quick, Hestia."  Asriel assured as he put the cross-weave dough strands on his own work.

"This should make for a good pattern, don't you think?"

"Visually pleasing to all the senses, Asriel."  Mitzi gave her thumbs-up of approval.

And boy did people take notice.

Rock-Afire Pizzeria, Hestia's, and Muffet's were all lined up around the block for patrons to partake in pie.

"A double order of cherry pies for Chameleon's residence."

"Yeah, he wants to be prepared for movie night after Red-Scale ate everything they had lined up while reporting in during Vi's upload to the VARS servers."

"Oh boy...I do not envy the cold shower he was in for."  I chimed in as I had a seat.

It wasn't long before pretty much the whole of Ultra Crew Institute's main action team staff had decided to drop in for the pie celebration.

And at these sale prices, who could possible pass them up?  Seriously...I think they were practically giving them away.

So while we had a moment in between waves of crowds, someone proposed we each call out our favorite pie flavors.

"Boston Creme."  I said, licking my lips.  "It's like having an eclair in a super size."

Fair enough. Unconventional from the fruit filled type but a valid entry in the list.

"Strawberry."  Bunnie said simply.

No on asked for explanation or clarification.

"My favorite isn't a pie!  I DO THAT CARROT CAKE, M'BITCHES!  YEAH!  TAKE THAT, CONVENTION!"

Only Violet would deliberately screw the rules.

"Mmm...I like them all!"  Jon was practically panting before stuffing his maw with a mincemeat pie.

"That's cheating."  I grumbled.

"Oh.  Um...apple I suppose."

"By any chance ambrosia apple?  Because of your cousin?"  Vi questioned.

"Well...I'm not saying no but--"

"Good enough, kiddo."  Violet cut him off.

"Key lime.  It's just so me."  Mitzi shrugged.

"Peanut-butter and grape jelly pie!"  Gadget chimed in.

Making a grape compote and swirling it with thick creamy peanut butter?  I could get behind that.

"Lemon meringue."  Willie waved.

"How you say...ze chocolate pie...um...French Silk I believe they are calling it, no?"  Antoine spoke up.

"Doesn't matter as long as you include the ice cream.  Ala mode is where it's at."  Skeeter smirked.

"Um...I don't know much about pie but I do like a good set of cupcakes."  Rotor shrugged.  "Sorry for going outside the rules."

"It's okay.  As long as SOME people apologize for it."  Mitzi glared at Violet.  More for the salty language.

"Obviously a good blueberry pie is the way to go."  Sally grinned before spinning her fork and sinking into a piping hot slice of blueberry pie.

"Raspberry.  Because only one person DARES to give me the raspberry."  Honey cackled.

I rolled my eyes.

"Well you all know my favorite."  Asriel  had lifted his plate up.  "But because not all of you are on the same page, I'm going to say Butterscotch-Cinnamon.  Because only Antoine's ready for Escargot Pie."

"Eww...snail..."  I heard Mitzi mutter under her breath.

Antione scoffed.  "Oui oui.  Zee world does not understand our tastes, mon amie."

"Don't really have a favorite.  Hard to make a pie out of military rations."  Scott shrugged.  "You grow up on whatever the mess  doled out, you don't then to know what to make of real civilian food when you're back on the outside again."

How holed up was Scott on the Vorostov Army base?  Did he get any action outside of being Kabuki Quantum Fighter?  In that  case...how did he get selected for the program?

Maybe his bio saying something about being well trained in body, mind, and spirit and being an expert on computer hardware and software at the time had something to do with it.  Although...now his knowledge of it was woefully out of date and obsolete.

"One word.  Peach."  Callista smiled with a blush.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised seeing as how she resembled alternate universe Princess Peach...I mean Princess Toadstool.  Even down to the red hair.

So before long we had all gone down the list.  And sure enough Mitzi had every one on the menu.

That was moments before the front door swung open and a hush fell over our crowd as Chameleon appeared.

"Hmph.  No one going to bring up my favorite?  I'm crushed."

"But Master?  If crushed would not have broken bones?"

"...okay that one's on me, Sparks."  He shrugged while looking me dead in the eyes.  I had a history of using expressions Tithius took out of context.

"We didn't forget.  And I included an extra at no charge just as Red-Scale insurance.  Consider it like a decoy."

"Hmph.  As if I needed proof you were a professional, mouse."

"Maybe so.  But what's the use of being considered one if you don't prove it time to time."

"Touché."

And Violet began singing "She's My Cherry Pie" by Warrent.

"...I'll allow it.  But make a habit of it and I'll make a rabbit into something else.  Get me, Violet?"

"Since you asked so sweetly."

"Don't push it."

"Door says pull anyway sooooo..."

"Oh you are in rare form."

"Master!  If Crazy Rabbit rare does not need more cooking?"

"You make a temping offer, Tithius....but hold that thought indefinitely."

"Yes, Master."

"And I won't say you never did me any favors."

"You do that.  You...do that."  Chameleon narrowed his eyes and picked up his order and left.

"That was...intense."  Monster Kid blinked.

"You get used to it."  Asriel shrugged.  "Or you don't."

"Wait, wait, wait!  Hold up!  We forgot somebody."

"What?  We did?  Who?"

"Well...the town pariah only knows one kind of pie."  Sally mused as Violet shot her a sadistic grin.

Then we heard Al Dente scream followed by a crash...and something really, REALLY foul-smelling outside.

As soon as we checked we saw his beat-up jalopy crashed into a manure truck ala Biff Tanen.

"Um...Al Dente only knows of cow pies."  Violet high-fived Sally.

"Woooooo......"  Jon pinched his nose shut and back away back into the Pizzeria while everyone else groaned and complained of the smell...and followed him back in.

"You know what...there are some pies that just have to stay OFF the menu...good luck paying that 300 GP damage to your car you son of--"

Mitzi cut herself off as she stormed back inside and called Border Patrol...and city sanitation.  I think she wasn't happy about it spoiling everyone's mood a bit.  As well as killed her sales, Hestia's sales...and yes...even Muffet saw a sharp drop in business for a few hours.

You know...I think this incident may have reduced our appetites a bit.  But once sanitation had the place cleaned up and sanitized, we would resume later in the day.  That is, once we let our cravings come back and the stench die down.  We really should have yelled at Violet, Sally and Honey over this practical joke on Al that about backfired on everyone.  Then again...given what Al Dente did RECENTLY...which I decline to reveal as it would probably get this log entry banned in the U.K. and considered a form of treason as Strongbad put it.

With that unpleasantness behind us...

"Man, do I love Pie Day."

"I thought it was Pi Day."  Violet held up her flag depicting the Greek letter of the alphabet.

"Only a mathematician can appreciate the world's most perfect non-repeating number."  Asriel mused.

Oh well.

Happy Pi/Pie Day to one and all.

## Sub-Entry 305 - "How Does Green Day Follow Me into Undertale!?"

"...why do I even bother?"

I looked dismally at the shade of chemical dye that turned my entire outfit gradients of green.

The annual accident in the chemical lab followed me into Alphys' research facility of all places!?  What are the odds she has the exact same coloring agents brewing...and I end up in the exact same circumstances.

At least it washes out of my fur.

No sooner than I left the chemical shower and put my clothes back on...

"V-V-Volt...w-we have g-guests."

"Major?"

And her response was priceless and expected.

"Laundry Day."

"Of course...the only gi you have is in green..."  I wrinkled my snoot.

"What's your excuse, Vi?"

"C'mon.  Do I need a reason to test out my Matrix Code kimono?"

Violet tinkered with the switches hidden inside the sleeve and the raining matrix code in her very green kimono sped up to an even crazier raining effect.

"That thing is an eyesore.  And you, Sally?"

"Alphys and Nikita are servicing the OGPX gear.  Gotta switch to the spare set."

"Yeah, but blue's more your color, lemon yellow is Willie's, and red-orange is Honey's.  Why green?"

"It was what Nikita chose for the development rig prototypes.  Obsolete now but they get the job done when we're not on the track."

"As good an answer as any."

So that just left Asriel.

"Can you believe they had a version of my old jumper sweater in my size?"  Asriel beamed.

"Green and yellow stripes.  Don't let Flowey see it."

Azzy chuckled.

"Ah, you left out the best part.  Stripes look slimming."

"And what's that supposed to mean, Aunt Vi?  You implying I'm on my way to taking after dad?"  Asriel leaned in close.

"Well--"

Silence...then a saucy grin.  Yeah.  He was messing with her right back.

"Oh you."  Vi stuck her tongue out.  "You had me going."

"O-okay, I crunched all the numbers an---"  Alphys broke off suddenly and dropped her precariously stacked boxes of printouts.

At first she was confused a bit before it finally hit her.

"Oh! It's th-th-that time again!

"Hi, Alphys.  Probably should have given you advanced warning."  Asriel waved.  "Just give me a moment to get a proper lab coat on and I'll be right with you."

"So. I have to ask, are there any differences celebrating Green Day here in Undertale?"

"Well not really.  I guess being that's it's here, we don't celebrate Miss Foxy's birthday.  But I at least remember it."

"Speaking of, she and Mitzi are on their way with some green-themed items on the menu.  They'll be bringing it to the lab's cafeteria.  You know...ever since the incident.  The only which we now have the policy of no food in the lab."

The other technicians kind of looked away and coughed and tried to cover up their shame.

"It w-w-was a l-long time c-c-coming anyway."

"Yeah.  I'm pretty sure Nikki would give us the stink eye catching someone with paptato chisps in here--"

"I swear, you have a Deathwish calling her that behind her back, Vi."  I growled.

"Her name is NIKITA."  Bunnie glared, getting close enough to touch noses.

"Uh...guessing she asked you to remind me in her stead?"

"You'd BEST believe it."

"Eheheheheh...ehhhhh..."

"Girls?  No fighting in the lab!"  Asriel held up his hands in an "I don't want none of this" gesture.

"At least not unless you're in the simulator."  Alphys managed to get a sentence out without stuttering.

"So...um...what's going out outside in the world where the sun's actually shining?"  Asriel cracked a joke about being cooped up in the lab.

"Well...actually now that I think about I did notice the town looking a little more green."  Sally pondered.

"Undyne seems to be okay with it.  Is it because she's a master of Green Attacks?"  Sally mused with a smug grin.

"Uh...actually y-yes."  Alphys seemed almost surprised by the question.'

"Not to knock green, but blue's more my color.  Still...a change of pace isn't bad.  As long as that pace doesn't lose the race!"

She said with a fist pump, which Asriel mirrored.

So some more playful banter and most of us headed to the cafeteria so Azzy and Alphys could work.

Come about lunch-time at exactly on the dot.

"Hi, guys!"

"Oh!  I s-s-see you're d-d-dressed for G-green Day, too!"

"Hmm?  This is what I always wear."

"And that's why the holiday is called Mitzi Day back home."

"You all must think highly over her to name it after her."

"Oh stop.  You're embarrassing me again!"

"Given all th-this, I f-f-figured That green-scaled member of R-Rainbow Wing would c-come with."

Foxy and Mitzi looked at each other for a moment.

"Actually...."  Foxy started.

"Green-scale kind of resents the holiday."

"W-w-what?  But...that's s-so surprising?  W-Why?"

"Well...accordingly it annoys her that leprechauns are honored on this day."

"Huh?"

"Basically...they're viewed in the same regards as Tiem views Kobolds."  Vi shrugged with a grin.

Alphys cocked her head.

"Like how you feel about Mew Mew Kissy Cutie 2."

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh."  Alphys immediately turned dour.

"Y'know this reminds me of the time that Tiem answered that Raxis ad for three years ago--"

"Which reminds me, Violet..."  Bunnie smacked her over the head with a tessan fan...three times.

"Oww."

"Tiem asked you NEVER to bring that up again.  You'd think twisting your ears up like a Bugs Bunny cartoon would have been enough punishment."

Awkward silence among us.

"So.  What have we got on the spread, Triple-M?"  Violet rubbed her hands.

"Well finding a way to make pizza green is no easy task."

"The obvious way is to load up a pizza with so many green leavy vegetables that nature does the job for ye."  Foxy set down the platter.

"But sometimes a bottle of food coloring will do the job when you want to make it REALLY green."

"Wow.  Did you use the whole bottle?"  Asriel sweat dropped.

"And various green sodas of different shades and hues.  Be it sour apple, lime, or white grape."

"Not too much soda now.  Too much of a good thing is a bad thing."  Asriel reminded.

"I also have healthier alternatives.  Colored green."

"And of course, Rotor's favorite.  Cupcakes.  Very green."

"Besides pizza we have a few other traditional Irish dishes, some very green...some not so much."

"Might be worth a try."

"By the way, how do Monsters handle real food."

"W-W-Well once in a w-while like today it's okay.  We can take humanoid food in small doses in moderation and the rare big meal like this."

"So devouring a full sized large pizza would be excessive?"  Violet grinned.

"That would be excessively excessive!"  Alphys gasped.

I had to do a double take.  I'm sure...I ran into this scenario somewhere.

"What is it?"  Asriel asked.

"I'll explain later but I might have to check my Undertale AU research."

"Now that you mention it I had a weird sense of deja vu."

"And because it's the holiday, I picked these up from Lupe.  They're normally very rare but...with me help, it's actually quite easy to find these wee nippers."

Foxy set down a set of potted...four leaf clovers?

"They say they're very lucky.  And you  know what?  They're right!  I would know."  Foxy beamed.

"Plus you can always use one or something for botany studies.  You do research plants here, too, right?"

"Eheheh...uh..."

"Oh.  I'm sorry!  I forgot about...well...him."  Mitzi looked off to the side.

"N-n-no.  It's...okay."

"Well...actually we do still carry on studies of plants.  But...Alphys opted to distance herself from that research.  You understand."   Asriel clarified, fixing the lapels on hi slab coat.

"Me?  I just find it a constant challenge of facing my fears.  Overcoming doesn't mean you're not still affected."

"Subject change."  We all said in unison.

"So, we're getting closer to the big date, Azzy.  You excited?"

"And still a ball of nerves."  I could see the cup shake in his hands a little.

"I mean...I know it's Frisk...I love her beyond words but...this is a commitment.  I don't want to screw it up."

"Asriel Tobias Arcade...you of all people shouldn't be scared of screwing up.  She knows how hard you're trying.  And she adores you.  You'd have to become a completely different person to derail things now."

"Yeah...but I can't help but worry about the little stuff, too.  Is that um...thing about the toilet seat really the start of many bloody wars?"

We all glared at Violet.

"What?  It's a thing."

I facepalmed.

"Azzy don't worry.  You're going to do fine.  It's still a couple months away."

"I know.  I just want to make things perfect for her.  But...I don't want to try to hard and be overbearing.  Just...give her the wedding she wants.  And...I know she probably wants to give me the ceremony she'd think I deserve.  There I go dropping the d-word there...but really.  I'll be happy with whatever we put together."

"Yeah.  Well, we're definitely going to do better than the Chapel O' Love."

I referenced 2015's Hill Dale.  It was all the McFly's could afford after the owner of the Rolls Royce pressed charged and sued Marty for everything he had in that take on the 1985 timeline.  Plus the injury to his hand forcing him to give up his music career didn't help with the bills.  And it all traced back to that temper over being called a chicken as to why no TV repairman would make house calls..........boy I really went off on a tangent, didn't I?

"Don't think you want to be married by an Elvis impersonator."

"Eheheh...point taken."

"Hey, come on.  This is the middle of March.  This is a holiday.  Let's celebrate some green."

"That's not all we need to celebrate.  After all...it was said earlier, wasn't it, Asriel?"  Mitzi mused as she produced the one item not on her and Foxy's invoice.

A very.  Green.  Birthday Cake.  With shamrocks done in icing.

"Ohhhh!  You wee devils went out of your way for me!  Bless ye.  Bless ye, all."

"Happy Birthday, Miss Colleen."  Alphys smiled.

"Happy Birthday, Foxy."  Mitzi followed up.

"It already is.  And as of now...I'm the luckiest fox in both worlds."

## Sub-Entry 306 - "Mettaton Reclaims His Karaoke Throne"

I figured sooner or later the statute of limitations would run out on Mettaton's grace period following Asriel, Frisk, Chara, and M.K.'s win over him on Karaoke Night.

What I DIDN'T count on was that someone would trigger him to double his efforts.

That person was Violet.

What was said wasn't that memorable or important.  But the end result?

Mettaton took it as a challenge.

And challenge was accepted.

What was the challenge?

That he could find any public domain "drek" on the internet and turn it into a music video sensation for the ages.

Violet would have paid money to see that but she was going to see it for herself...as Adam Sandler put it in Bed Time Stories: "For...FREEEEEEEE!?!?"

The sexy rectangle wasted no time in hooking himself up to the Global Internet and scanning trillions of bytes worth of music data.

But...

In his very high standards opinion?  Each one was more of a dumpster fire than the last.  Even he could only work with so much.

Not to crap on public domain music.  I'm sure the artists work VERY hard to put it together just so it can be plastered across all media without license or any privilege to sue should the copyright be infringed.  But yeah...there was a reason why it was public domain.  And free to use.  Free to download.  And well...just free.  I guess.

I probably should have asked Sally about her take, as a D.J.  Or Mitzi being an artist herself, with lots of licensed music to her name in both Rock-Afire Explosion and Toxic Audio.  And some licenses she had to shell out for to do covers, I'm sure.

But no.  I decided to watch from the sidelines without giving a word of advice.

Maybe I secretly wanted to know if you take a dumpster fire, in Metttaton's own words...if you spin it into gold...or just end up making another dumpster fire out of it.

Live and learn.

So when the night came, I headed off to the Undertale Gate with several of us in tow.

Bunnie, Violet, Sally, Willamina, Pit, Mitzi, Drew, Marcel with Josquin, Rainbow Wing and a few others.  And we ended up being joined by some old friends across the cosmos.

The venue was at MTT Amphitheater; their own equivalent of the Hollywood Dome.  Quite an outdoor venue with acoustics to sell your soul for.  I'm sure this "Spamton G. Spamton" could do just that.  Goat Son had given me the skinny on the marionette of 80's Wall Street madness.

We got our seats.

"So.  What song did he settle on?"

"Beats me.  Kept tight-lipped around us all.  Especially us."  Asriel shrugged.

"I've been dabbling with his firewall and I think I might have cracked the case."  Violet mused as she looked up from her holo-window.

"You have?  Lay it on us!"  Chara jumped right on it.

"Maybe we shouldn't.  Won't it spoil the surprise."

"Or maybe it'll give us better ammo to work with for our act."

"I don't know...seems shady."  Asriel wrinkled his snoot.  "I'd rather compete fair and square."

"Me too."

"Aw you guys are no fun."  M.K. rolled his eyes.

"That's the spirit."

"So.  What's the dumpster fire he found?"

"Well...it's...actually not that bad a song."  Violet pulled her earbuds out.  "It's this one."

I sighed and decided to look over her shoulder.

"Huh?  That one?"  I cocked my head.

"I...don't recognize it."  Mitzi looked it over.

"Yeah.  You probably wouldn't."  Sally tugged at her chin.  "But I have a feeling someone in the room might."  She slowly worked her gaze over to Pit.

As soon as all eyes were on him...

Pit pointed to himself with his mouth in a gaping awe.  "Me?"

"Well...we'll see."  Violet grinned.

"I hate it when she does that..."  I groaned.

And then Mettaton appeared in the spot light, gave his wordy thanks to the audience and his moment of self-adulation and such before leading into it.

"And without further ado...let the competition begin!"

And all spotlights focused on him as the fog and lasers fired up.

From the first drum beat...it all came back to me.

"This is...!!!"

***"Spotlight (hey)***

***So bright***

***Shinin' right down on you***

***Don't wait (hey)***

***Or hesitate***

***There's only one thing to do***

***Put on a mega move***

***Get into the groove***

***Nothing can stop you now***

***Put on a mega move!"***

Pit blinked several times and cocked his head...before looking over to his alternate Videoland counterpart whose eyes widened a little but he maintained his sour expression, crossing his arms.

"I feel like...I know this song but...I can't place it."

"Yeah.  When I hear this-icus I feel like something else should be playing in its place.  It's confusing me to the maximus."

"Oh puh-leeeeease."  Alternate Simon scoffed as he primped in his hand mirror.  "I couldn't be caught dead performing anything to this barrel scraping.

"Yeah?  Well I’d like you to mega-try to write a better one, Simon."  Alternate Mega Man retorted.

"That goes for me too-icus."

"I'm staying out of this."  Pit shrunk down in his seat and wrapped his wings around himself.

"Hey!  Pipe down in front!  We can't hear the music!"

I turned around to see...Mario...and Luigi?  The former stuffed into a red tuxedo?  The latter wearing a green one.  And next to them, Toad in a tux and Princess Toadstool in...er...a sweat shirt with a red NO stamped over a broken heart; one half reading "Milli"  the other half reading "Vanilli"  Plus she was wearing torn jeans and go-go boots.

I slooooow turned back to Violet.

Vi maintained that dopey grin.

But she was the only one who knew what was up besides me...and Bunnie, who cracked a smirk all of a sudden.

Everyone else from our staff just listened and shrugged.

As he sang, he danced with the full repertoire of his moves before...busting out some new ones that made me do a double take and check my records for Monsteropolis.

It also came back to me that his second EX body came from Light Labs...which meant...there was a chance he had some of Mega Man's hand-me-down parts in him.

Midway through, he did the splits in mid-air and his legs turned into an upside-down helicopter rotor...keeping him aloft as he hover-drifted around the stage.  It was like inverting Chun-Li's inverted Spinning Bird Kick.  So...turning an upside-down move right side up?  Except his upper torso was staying stationary.

This was some Inspector Gadget movie sequel stuff right here.  Right out of G2's repertoire.

Suddenly it became almost too obvious why Mettaton's choice was "Mega Move".

And then it hit me from the other side of the fourth wall.  From the times I had peeked at Earth Realm I was keenly aware of "theme music".  And the world of Captain N the Game Master was no exception.

Once upon a time...I remember Kevin's adventures being set to...much more familiar music.  Much more...licensed music, let's call it.

"Shakedown" from his first adventure.  "Danger Zone" a couple of times, most notably during Mega Trouble for Megaland.  "Thriller" and "White Wedding" in incidents in CastleVania.

Yeah...I was remembering.  And Bunnie and Violet made the connection from my research.

"You pointed him to this, didn't you, Vi?"  Bunnie narrowed her eyes.

That would make Vi's commentary about cracking Mettaton's firewall a load of B.S.  She had this planned from the start.  She was COUNTING on him proving her wrong.

Oh you sly little rabbit devil.  You win even when you DON'T win.  That's a real catch-22.

"Blame it on the Rain?  Blame King Koopa."  She replied.

"Goddammit..."  I facepalmed, getting and image of Milli Vanilli in my head...just weeks before the scandal broke...and reportedly Princess "Peach" Toadstool was beyond heartbroken.   That would explain the modified sweatshirt.

As I listened, yeah.  It felt like the most stock lyrical song you could set something to.  It wasn't like "Guile's Theme Goes With Everything".  No...I wasn't sure what to call this.  Either way...

That was when I noticed all of Undertale was eating it up.  He was knocking it out of the park.  Out of ORBIT, even.

I only had to glance at Asriel as he bowed his head.  That was how I knew that he knew that he and the others were beat even out of the starting gate.

Mettaton did it.  He won the bet.  And the song wasn't even over yet.

***"Get tough (hey)***

***Play rough***

***Take it right to the top***

***Motivate (hey)***

***Accelerate***

***Never never never stop***

***Put on a mega move***

***Get into the groove***

***Nothing can stop you now***

***Put on a mega move***

***Put on a mega move!"***

And like that, in the span of only three minutes, 29 seconds of Mettaton's loop of the song...

The crowd went wild.

"I think we're in trouble on this one, Azzy."  Chara grimaced.

"Now, now.  It's not over yet.  He performed first.  That means a lot of acts to follow.  We have a chance."  Frisk consoled.

"Duuuuude..."  M.K. shook off the dazzle.

As it turned out...the other acts couldn't hold a candle to him.

And even at their best...Azzy and the others came up short and got runner up.

"Ohhhh I KNEW I had it in me!"  Mettaton posed in a jaunty position.

"We'll get him next time."

"Are we really surprised, dudes?"  M.K. shrugged.

"He's right.  We rested on our laurels and came in expected lightning could strike twice.  But...it was Mettaton's turn to get his groove back.  Oh well."  Asriel acknowledged.

"Guess we got to start practicing again."

"Guess we do."

Violet hopped up on stage.

"Well, a bet's a bet.  And you won fair and square."

"Even though you gave me a bit of help with it?"

"Technically I thought I was giving you the hardest one to do anything with but...y'know it's only money and fame.  I got plenty to spare.  What's parting with a little of both now and again?"

"Ohhhh thank you, darling. You are one in  a million."

"More like one in a Googleplex but who's counting?"

And from there Mettaton was back on his throne.  The King of...rock...no....pop....uh-uh...........dang.  What title should have at this point since Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson had the respective titles.

He'd probably think of something.

For now?

It was Mettaton's turn to rest on his laurels.

## Sub-Entry 307 - "Establishing Ultra Crew Institute Operations in Collaboration"

Not to say it was inevitable but...sooner or later we were going to open a UCIAT branch elsewhere.  Just as it happened decades ago when we reached out to Miranda City, Fontraile...we were doing it again, this time with a whole different world.  This time on Undertale.

Arrangements were made through the ex-Royal Family and through Frisk while facilitated through the stand-in for the Royal Guard and made possible with the Alphys and her laboratory complex's staff.

And while we didn't expect to start engaging in missions on their world any time soon...we thought it would be best to at least start a training regimen.

Asriel had already laid the groundwork by building his own simulator chamber.

And thus it was we worked to build a few more in the Science Lab complex.  Until it was more like a multiplex theater, the way that it worked.

Just like back home.

"Every day that goes by, I keep wondering if I'm going to wake up from the best dream ever.  Then I pinch myself to remind that it's not a dream.  It's all real."

I looked over the roster of potential recruits at Asriel and Alphys would be interviewing in the times to come.

"It takes me back to when I was tasked with assembling my own Ultra Crew Institute Action Team, lifetimes plus decades ago.  Before I became immortal, before I establish STC-A.  Back when all I had was the legacy of the Arcade Family and Foundation weighing on my shoulders."

"Hmm."  Asriel didn't have much to contribute, because he was so invested in what I had to say.  Questioning me or interrupting might break up the flow of my old anecdote.

We were at Grillby's on break at the moment.

I walked over to the jukebox and found one of Mitzi's Toxic Audio songs.  Specifically a track called "Say Goodbye" which Gadget and I could relate to very much so.

When the time had come to set out on my own and leave my friends and family and the room that I'd outgrown.  Gadget had so many questions.

Questions like..."how do angels fly...do you know the reason why...the thunder roars and lightning lights up the sky"."

It got my choked up.  And she'd continue on.

"Do you really have to go?  Because I really miss you so."  She'd look at me with a sob and a sigh.

"I wish you didn't have to say goodbye"

That last one almost broke me and almost made me abandon my duties.  But I didn't.  I hugged her as long as I could....petting her little mouse ears...and forcing back my own tears.

I explained as best I could.

"Sometimes we lose loved ones and sometimes much too soon.  And life cannot be measured by the passing of the moon."

The first moment I was in the place I was staying in Miranda City...once the phone lines were re-established and we had a telecommunication path that connected to Neo Arcadia City...

I called her up immediately.

And then the questions came to me, so sweet and clear.  So I sang just for her and hoped that she could hear.

"Have angels taught you how to fly?  And have you learn the reason why the thunder roars and lightning lights the sky?"

"Did you really have to go?  Because golly, I miss you so.  I know you'd never want to see me cry.  So tell me, please, just how to say goodbye!"

It was some time down the road but some time before her unexpected arrival in Miranda City.  I should have taken it as a sign but...so much had happened and so much was on my mind.

We talked about my success and how I was doing.

"I've always tried to find the ways to make my life succeed.  Looking for the answers and the things I thought I'd need.  Then I remembered how you loved to hear your brother sing.  And now I feel you with me every time our voices ring."

"For you showed me how to fly.  Now I know the reason why...the thunder roars and lightning lights the sky.

It's to call out to the rain, to wash out every trace of pain, and I don't need to know the reason why.  And I don't really have to say goodbye.  For high up in the sky...you fly."

And even now as I tell Asriel this story, I felt the tears rolling down my furry face...at the same time I saw his.

"You really were the best brother."

"No.  Just a good one.  It's all I had to be.  It's all I needed to be."

Asriel looked a little down.

"You were a good brother, too.  You still are."

"I know...but...it took this long to work out.  This long to get over the guilt of being the only version of myself to survive the stupid plan.  And get over the regret of being separated like that."

"Better late than never.   Chara never really blamed you, you know.  It was the Wraith messing with her head and her heart.   I'm not sure what it was or when it was or how it came to be but something made her regret her choice.  Something made her have second thoughts and start resisting the Wraith.  By that time it had grown too powerful off her negativity to resist.  All she could do was fight for that last inch of herself deep inside.  Until you reached out to her."

"I know why I didn't give up on her.  But why did you?  Why did you go out of your way for someone who insisted on being your enemy at the time?"

"I think even you know this one.  Allow me to remind you of when All-For-One, using Shigaraki's body tried to steal the Quirk One-For-All from Deku.  The previous wielders of that quirk intervened and One-For-All was not stolen.  Despite everything...despite the fact Deku couldn't forgive Shigaraki for what he did...in that last moments of his vision he saw the face of the boy Shigaraki was...and it looked......like he wanted to be saved."

"Yeah...I'm up to date on that story.  A lot of things have spiraled out of control since Undyne got to meet Deku and....I'm sorry..."Great Explosion Murder God Dyna-Might"?

"Yup...Bakugo is compensating for something.  I have it on good word that his old classmates are about to mount a rescue to bring him back after he left U.A. and became a vigilante."

"Good to know but...I know the story has a point but we're getting off topic.  What I asked is why you chose to believe in someone you fought so hard against?"

"Simply put...I saw it in a dream."

"A dream?"

"Yeah...I don't think I ever told you about THAT nightmare out of the lot of them I did tell you about.  If anything...it felt more like one of Bunnie's sixth sense premonitions.  And I could clearly see what lay beneath the surface of that black ichor.  She wanted out.  She wanted to take it all back.  She...had become you.  Or rather the other version of you."

Asriel shook his head.  "Lady Destiny does have a sense of irony in rewriting a story.  So many versions of Chara, through Frisk trying to save me.  And I'm the only one who flipped the script...and saved her.  I didn’t even know Frisk's name until..."

"Until YOU had a dream.  Right?"

"Yeah...dreams are funny that way in the Ultraverse...aren't they?"

"Like Bunnie and Callista both say...dreams are windows into things that may be, might be, or should be."

"That dreams is what lead me to the question.  The one you were afraid I'd ask for fifteen years."

"And then you did.  And it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  I just felt...a great relief.  A weight had been lifted.  And I knew what we had to do."

"Once you were gone...I knew what I had to do...or rather wanted to do.  It was such a far-away goal and we'd both agreed that we had separate paths to take...time to be on our own.  Time to show a little self control that we wouldn't be knocking down each other's doors trying to visit.  Show we weren't completely dependent on one another and we could stand on our own."

"Wish I could say it went better for me.  I...kind of flubbed that test."

"No you didn't.  And even if it was as bad as you say, I would still forgive you.  It was time.  We needed our paths to join again.  And here we are.  In the next phase...the next chapter.  A road ahead that neither of us can predict.   A road with no guide.  Leading up to us going our separate ways, you at least had some kind of guide of where the road was going."

"Then...the road stopped.  And the path ahead was unpaved.  And I didn't know what to do.    Yet you found your way.  You really are amazing."

"All you needed was a guiding light again.  You were never really lost."

"Yeah.  And neither were you.  We were always going to find each other.  That's the secret to Lady Destiny's Project Lost Dreemurr."

And then we had nothing more to say.

Until Alphys' sniffle interrupted us.

"Oh!  I'm s-s-sorry!  I d-didn't mean to eavesdrop!  I--"

Any lesser person would have asked Alphys how long she'd been metaphorically hovering there, listening in.

But...

"Nah.  It's okay.  I don't really think it was all that private a conversation.  A little personal, yes.  But...I think you have a right to hear it, too, Alphys.  You were a little sad and lonely, yourself, you know."

"I agree.  I trust you, Alphys.  I trusted you with Asriel's story what seems like a long time ago.  You honored me by keeping that secret all this time.  When I had no right to dump all that baggage on you...all on the promise of better times ahead.  I asked you to have faith when you were at your lowest.  I gave you hope that could have blown up in my face...actually did once in a previous timeline.

Here you are.  Maybe the body and mind are reconstituted but it's the same soul.  And somehow you and others retained...phantom memories of the timeline before and clicked on a few things that shouldn't have carried over.

You've been the wind beneath my wings since I first started this.  The first Monster I trusted with the truth."

"I...I just didn't...have any o-other options.  I'm sorry but...I acted in desperation."

"And you made the right choice.  Thank you."

"It j-just felt l-like...dumb l-luck after s-s-so many bad decisions."

"No, Alphys.  You've always been great.  You just needed to..."

Asriel smiled before finishing with "BO-LIEEEEEVE!"

He quoted WWE Superstar, Bo Dallas' old catchphrase before extending his collapsible bo staff...a gift from Robin of the Teen Titans.

Alphys blinked before the pun set in.

"Eheheheheheh..."

"Solid, Goat Son.  Solid."

"Well...we've...distracted ourselves long enough from our d-duties.  We really should get things set up for our current UCIAT branch staff."

"Right.  Frisk, Chara, and M.K. should be about here--"

"Correction, Azzy.  We're just waiting on you to notice us."  Chara mused, arms crossed as we hadn't noticed them enter the room...and eavesdrop on our conversation."

"Ready to put the simulators to through their paces?"

"Totally, dude!"

"Alright.  Each of you has your own one-player campaign to go through; each one a different challenge from past, present and future simulations based on existing and recently discovered worlds and scenarios.

Frisk, you got the free-style air jog through raining Tetris blocks from Mushroom Kingdom Fusion.  We've minimized the enemies so you can do less fighting and more platforming."

"Excellent."

"Chara, you've got Pokémon Scarlet on the menu.  You should remember where you left off."

"It's a loophole letting the monsters do the fighting instead of me."  She winked.

"M.K. you're up in California Games World."

"Rock and Roll!"

"And Azzy, you've got Mega Man X DiVE.  Looks like you'll finally be finishing the Deep Log with your final boss battle against True Form ViA.  And you get to use the new Dante Trigger X or Vergil Trigger Zero hunter programs."

"I've been training for this, Volt.  Wish me luck."

"Who needs luck when you've trained your tail off and studied Mega Man X lore and strategies for as long as you  have the last month or two.  Give him heck."

"I'll do my best."

And with that the simulator doors opened and everyone rushed into their respective game worlds.

"To a bright future."  Alphys actually worked up the nerve to invite me into a fist-bump.

"To a prepared future."  I responded, acknowledging and returning the fist-bump.

## Sub-Entry 308 - "Go Fly A Kite...Again":

I have to say...it was tough to scrape together an entry this time.

But y'know.  I thought back to thinks in the old days of PLD...and I wondered...haven't...thinks kind of been a weird parallel to those days in these new times?

The only difference was...I wasn't trying to fix a world.

I wasn't battling a possessed dead child spirit wraith amalgamate.

And...I wasn't worried about a lost goat accepting his new life.

This was...like the times I was just...being a friend and showing him what was the new status quo for him.

What was old was new again.

And for old time's sake, I got my gears turning.

For the last week or so it couldn't make up its mind on our side of the gate whether the weather wanted to be winter or spring.

We'd get somewhat warmer days.

Then I wake up and look outside the window...and growl like the werewolf I am when I saw the covering of snow on the ground.

So.  Annoying.

Either decide on a climate or decide on the other.

This is what happens when the echo of that Groundhog not making its prediction makes its way out of Earth realm and spreads to our world.

Fortunately...Undertale has been an absolute oasis of good weather as soon as the last of winter gasped its last death rasp and spring rose from the dead.

So.  As soon as I asked Azzy, he was at my doorstep with Gadget, Pit, and M.K.  And we were off to the gate but not before making some stops at the hobby shop.

"Wow.  I haven't been to Smitty's in ages."  I felt like a kid in a candy store again.

I never expected his shop to move from Green Meadow to all the way out here on Fontraile.

Heck.

I got MY first models and kits and do-it-yourself labs and such at his original shop.  Now here it was rebuilt in pretty much exactly the way I remember it.

The same door chime.

The same model train sets in the window.

All those model kits.

Good golly.

Is this what old fashioned fun and activities were like before the invention of cell phones and mobile tech?

Honestly.  It kind of scared me.  Why?  I didn't know if I was leaning closer toward the Baby Boomer generation for thinking so old fashioned...or if I was seeing things as this...new generation that wasn't millennial or Gen-Z but was clearly taking an interest in things their grandpas and grandmas were introduced to.  I felt...dead center in the middle.

But...wasn't that the idea?  Being a bridge between generations?

Just like Azzy was a bridge between species...and worlds?  Neither monster nor human.  But Hybrid.  Just as Mirandian as he was Undertale.

Maybe...maybe I should just relax and say...this is fine.  While...trying not to picture a dopey dog in a kitchen with a cup of tea while the rest of the house is on FIRE.

Yeah, you know the meme.  I said it.  Let's move on.

"Oh wow...Mad Scientist!"  M.K. held up the old monster lab kit and the dissect an alien kit.

"Where you too can be a mad scientist!  TOOOOO GROOOOOOSS!"  Violet popped up behind him.

"I'm surprised you don't find that monster lab offensive."

"Nah.   Monsters don't have bones.  They should have done their homework."

Vi just stuck her tongue out.

"Heh.  Think that's horrible, check THIS out!"

"Dr. Horrible's line of lab kits.  Where you make gross things...and then you EAT THEM!"  Chara wiggled her fingers.

"Ewww!"  Frisk backed away.

Everything from microscopes to Radio Shack type electronic kits...

To yes...chemistry sets.

"They call THIS a chemistry set?"  Vi mused.

"Vi...if I have to acknowledge your bank account one more time..."  I growled.

"Most chemistry sets don't come with their own centrifuge, mass spectrometer, and install-yourself-fumigation hood."  I groaned.

"On the bright side at least they don't carry that radioactivity science lab.  The one that had an actual reactor and nuclear isotope included."  Asriel rubbed the back of his head.

"Worst idea ever."  I rolled my eyes.

"What do you think?  Is it me?"  M.K. held up the Big Foot R.C. monster truck.

"Remind you of...?"  Asriel prompted.

"You already remember.  Arlene's first outing with you.  And your first introduction to monster trucks."

"You know I don't even know how to be offended by that name."  M.K. grinned.  "Dude, it's so awesome!"

"I know, right?"

"Go for it dude.  But don't forget we're also getting kites."

"I saved up plenty so I got enough for both."

"Nice."

So we all picked and purchased and we headed out to the biggest, grassiest, windiest field we could get to and let nature do the rest.

"Wow this really takes me back."

Just to be a little over-obvious I picked...a Pikachu kite.

Gadget ended up modifying her kite design with a lot of her own pieces and recyclables. And before long had turned her box kite into a quad-copter drone.

"Now that's impressive."

Frisk opted for a pretty butterfly kite.

Chara went for a long Chinese dragon kite.

Skeeter...again ended up with his kite getting devoured by a kite-eating tree.  An actual kite-eating monster tree here in Undertale.

"Aww COME ONNNNNNNN!!!!"  He rage-quit in a tantrum, throwing his spool of line to the ground.

And of course Bunnie came to visit...almost in a step-by-step, beat-for-beat recreation of that day years ago.  Thanks of course to her ninja glider suit.  Like being a humanoid rabbit kite.

The best part about this was...it didn’t' immediately come off the heels of a month of being sick.

It was still the best February I could remember...but now I was warming up to this great March.

But this time we had a party pooper try to interrupt our fun.

"How the heck did he get here!?"  Chara growled.

"Security!"  M.K. yelled, actually coughing up a puff of flame.

"He thinks he IS."

Violet crossed her arms from where she was sunbathing on a lawn chair nearby, taking a break from her ungodly-expensive working scale model of the Avengers Heli-carrier.

You're deliberately sunbathing in that bikini to provoke him aren't you?"  I deadpanned.

"Maybe.  But can't you all appreciate the beauty in...MEEEEE?"  Violet tried to do her best attempt to sound like Mettaton at his most pompous.

"Sure.  When we actually find it."  I stuck my tongue out and blew a raspberry, preemptively.  She returned the raspberry as to not be one-upped in a battle of being immature.

Wait...why WAS I being--

Darn it she baited me into that somehow.

I could confirm it with her chuckle and grin as she lowered her sunglasses back down and crossed a leg over her other leg, while continuing to lounge.

"You know it's technically not summer yet."  I grumbled.

"Uh...guys?  Can we do something about Dente?"  Asriel asked.

"Way...ahead of you..."  I called in a favor.

And like that Al Dente found himself speared from behind by the nose of Tsunderplane...and was soon getting a constant earful of "BAKA BAKA BAKA BAKA BAKA!"

"Wow...I've never heard her calll someone an idiot that many times."  Asriel sweat dropped.

"And she's still going."  Frisk pointed.

"And going...and going...and going..."  Chara laughed.

And with that we all let out a pretty sizeable group cheer.

"Back to the party atmosphere."

By the time Al Dente's makeshift flying apparatus got itself free from Tsunderplane.

"This day couldn't get any worse--"

And that was the moment he was struck by a random lighting bolt having gone so up in the clouds.

The next thing we knew we could hear Al Dente's deathly effeminate scream as he plummeted...right into the kite-eating tree...and set the whole thing ablaze with Skeeter's kite still in it.

"YOU...YOU...YOU JERK!!!"  Skeeter picked up a crab apple off the ground and just fast-balled it right between Al's eyes.

He fell out of the burning tree, most of his outfit ruined and his flying machine a wreck.

He hit the ground with a painful yelp...moments before passing out.  The tree ended up collapsing in the other direction once Azzy and I took only a moment to snuff the flames out.  We didn't want the grass to catch fire, after all.

"C'mon.  Looks like a storm is rolling in."

"Awww MAN!"  M.K. complained.

"Fun while it lasted."

"Hey, let's head indoors and see what Grillby's is serving on the menu."

"Yeah!"

"Sound good, Aunt Vi."

And like that she had quick-changed back into decent attire...at least decent enough.  The I <3 Toxic Waste shirt was debatable but y'know.  Vi had to be Vi.

"Let's get something very green in honor of march and stuff.  Even though St. Patrick's Day was a bit ago."

"Sounds good.  Green's still my favorite color."

And that came from a gold-furred werewolf that dressed in a metallic, mirror shine silver gi and a white lab coat.

Pit called after us. "Hey, wait for me!"

We did.

And we ate and enjoyed.

Not much else to say.

Maybe tomorrow our kite-flying day can last.

## Sub-Entry 309 - "MTT Game Emporium Resort Deluxe"

Well, I know Mettaton already had an entry in this log.  One where he reclaimed his crown as king of karaoke.  But someone as large as life as Mettaton inevitably would be inspired by our own larger-than-life personality, Princess Violet and thus...merit a second entry.  I just didn't think it would be in the same monthly set of ten logs.

And I know...if you just now caught my self-referential moment of being a little meta, congrats for being this dedicated to reading my little tale of cross-time, cross-space, cross-dimension adventures.  While I may never know how many of you out there in the InfinityVerse may be reading these declassified documents and know for sure that my efforts to document them were well-spent energy, time, and resources... ...I'd still keep cranking them out while having faith that the story isn't being passed by and fading into our universe's history.  Now I just have to convince myself that didn't sound a little pandering.  Oh boy.  I really do need to bolster my own self-confidence.

I digress.  This is about the sometimes sexy rectangle, sometimes mechanical David Bowie/Michael Jackson/David Copperfield hybrid.  That feels as accurate a description I can swing while shamelessly namedropping celebrities and forcing the in with a crowbar.

I've been picking up some of Violet's sardonic wit, lately.  Can you tell?

Okay, okay.  Enough meta-commentary (for now).  Promise.

So.  It didn't take much of a look around Computer Valhalla and many of Vi's cosplay performance shows for Mettaton to be inspired by his favorite white rabbit muse.  And of course...he took those ideas back home, with her blessing, to completely renovate MTT Resort from the ground up.

And in a super-compressed amount of time; ridiculously so by ANY construction crew speed-building records in known history...

MTT Resort had reopened with grand panache to an unsuspecting Newest Home with a theatrical flair and an open palm.  Just waiting for all to open their wallets, yes, but also open their hearts to not only dare to dream...but dare to interact.  Dare...to game.

In what I can only describe as one part classic MTT Resort, one part Annoying Dog's secret casino (shudder) complete with cardboard Sans stand-in.  A cardboard stand-in, I'm pretty sure was actually the real Sans in other Undertale AU's, including Undertale Prime, mind you.  Um...where am I going with this?  Hmm...

Darn...lost my train of thought.  Ahem.

In what I can only describe as an amalgamation of all those things and Violet's absolute nerdy shrine (or as I called it... brothel) of electronic entertainment, materialism in both literature and multimedia (and I mean comic books and Blu-ray discs) and yes...live entertainment, he'd built a BEHEMOTH of an entertainment center, bed-and-breakfast resort the likes that even made Violet want to shell out.  Both as an investor...and as a guest-customer.

And when you convince Violet to spend obscene amounts of money and have her actually deny that it's no mere moment of just meaningless money to burn but proclaim that it's a life-experience investment...you've definitely done something right.  Vi never lies about spending money on something she ACTUALLY wants rather than spread it around just for business expenditures and meeting quotas...and just to show off that mommy dearest owns not just a working full-sized Gundam but a whole fleet of mobile suits.

Yeah, the plot of both the original and the Richard Prior remake of Brewster's Millions are lost on her.  You could never get her to honestly hate spending money.  Ever.  She may complain about it and whine that she lost a frivolous bet...but you look into those eyes and she just thrives on it.

That's the subtle sign that I know Vi has never been truly greedy.  She might try to act it but she's not fooling those of us who know her.   I think in some ways...she wants to be a legitimate update to 1980's own Richie Rich.  The cartoon one not the Culkin live-action one.  But we know she'll never be that kind of Mary Sue.  She's too much of a mischievous firecracker for that halo to be at least not 50% plastic and an LED strip.

Ahem.

So.

Opening day, I guess.

And of course, Violet being the guest of honor...had to arrive in style.

In that gaudy, personalized stretched limo with the open roof hot tub  in back...that eyesore that matches her ears, hair, eyes, fur, and kimono...and sandals.  Yeah.  Somehow she found a way...to incorporate sandals...on a limo.  Don't ask how.  And do yourself a favor and try not to visualize it.

As may times as I mention the word sandals you'd think all of us were as crazy about them as Vi.

Really...they're just orthopedic recommendations for bipedal anthros like us.  Vi...takes it to a fetish level.  Let's leave it at that and I gladly exit this tangent.

Ahem...again.

So yeah...red carpet gala event.  Really.  For a video arcade, theater, cosplay stage, and all-you-can-nerd store?  Sure.  I mean...why not.  Akihabara in Japan on Earth Realm is no stranger to multi-story buildings that house this much electronic entertainment.  I guess it's just natural for Violet and Mettaton.

But...so...excessive.   How much electricity is this place eating up!?

So.  Out rolled the red carpet at EXACTLY the moment Vi's limo pulled up; the end flattening out right as the car stopped at Vi's door and the door opened.

She took her sweet time showing off a little leg and a lot of toes with those even gaudier spaghetti-strap heels.

"Oh you're too kind.  Too kind.  Vi waved the ornate fold-up fan before her face and batted her eyelashes.  When she got dolled up...she could milk a crowd.  You'd hardly think she had a severe Napoleon complex...then again...

I just realized it.  She's basically Miss Piggy when she wants to be.  Only infinitely better at suppressing her temper.  Eesh.

Bunnie and I reluctantly followed once she had plenty of leeway to stroll across the carpet and be greeted by the doormen and escorted in.  The sheer number of cameras and autograph hounds were out in full force.

Really.  I remind this is for a hotel and game resort, not a Hollywood gala at the Chinatown pagoda...the name escapes me at the moment.  You know the one.  That iconic Tinseltown structure.  Bah.  I need to dust off my Earth realm research again.

I tugged at my silver tuxedo's collar and straightened the bowtie.

"Only Vi and Mettaton could find a bowtie decorated end to end in sequins..."

"Do tell, Commander..."  Bunnie stepped out in an entire Jangese outfit covered ear tips to toes in hot pink sequins.

"Ancestors stay my hand..."  I could see multiple throbbing anime veins all over her head.  The closest I'd ever seen her to losing it and blowing her top.

"It's...just for a while."  Asriel climbed out behind her in a green, yellow, and white combination tuxedo with bowtie...and tails...and top hat.

"She insisted on that?"

"HE insisted on it.  Quote: Nothing's too good for our prince.  End quote.  I had to retract my horns to wear this thing. And he insisted on something else..."

Asriel got out the diamond-knobbed walking-stick cane.  The kind you'd expect Scrooge McDuck to carry...though his had more of the question mark hook at the top because it was...functional and practical for treasure hunting.

Right.

"I had to draw the line at wearing spats over top my sandals."

"SPATS!?"  I about sputtered.

"Spats."  Azzy nodded indicating there was a "but" there.

Toriel and Asgore's ride pulled up behind us as Vi's butler, doubling as a chauffeur (I think his name was Jenkins?  And yes...I'm sure Vi may PLENTY of Leeroy shouts in his direction to be saucy.) parked the car rather than trust it to the valet.

And yes.  As soon as Asgore stepped out, Asriel facepalmed.

On his bare feet...he was wearing...spats.  And with it...his disco leisure suit.

Toriel exited in a more appropriate gown and sandal heels...and she looked very irritated at Asgore's fashion choices.

"Salvage the pride, Asriel.  Salvage the pride."  I heard him mutter.

Frisk and Chara stepped out in complimenting gowns, elbow-length globes, tiaras, and heels.  Frisk in true blue, Chara in very blood red.

Frisk was trying to really force that she was having a good time and not super embarrassed by Mr. Dad Guy.

Chara didn't even try.  Just looking at them dripped with how opposite they were...and how opposite they were handling it.

And yet both were keeping tight-lipped...on account of no one wanting to risk a slip of the tongue and Asgore getting heartbroken by his entire family not having it.

And it was like this with a lot of major guests...who took one look at Asgore's outfit and struggled to keep a straight face.  No doubt things were going to be...interesting in tomorrow's newspaper.

"No one feels like saying anything, huh?"  Frisk finally broke the ice as she mingled with us.

"Nope."  I crossed my arms.

"Eh...we'd better not, dear."  Asriel rubbed the back of his head.  "Um...out of curiosity.  Is NOT saying what you think and feel the same as lying?"

"I wouldn't worry unless dad asks you directly."  Frisk looked off to the side, a little pink in the cheeks.  Trying to walk that slippery slope on the razor's edge of moral ground.

"Yeah, he's so going to end up bawling his eyes out before this night's over."  Chara wrinkled her nose.

"Frankly I'm just relieved we're diverting the conversation away from the aircraft carrier-sized elephant in the non-existent room."  I sighed.

"Come on.  Mettaton isn't that bad."

"Yeah...I was more leaning toward Vi, but he's not blameless either."

"Blameless?  It's not like they're doing anything wrong."

"No.  Just really obnoxious." I shook my head.

"Come on.  Let's just go in and see what they've made together."

Of course once inside....

"Umm..."

"Biggest...foyer...ever..."  Asriel's jaw dropped.

"This is big even for an entire outdoor sports stadium.  How does it FIT in this building!?"

"Good architectural design?"  Frisk shrugged.

"Duuuuuuuude."  M.K. was gaping in awe.

"Hey.  It's at least modern."  Sally said with a cocky grin.  Only she and Undyne could come to the event wearing gowns...with leather jackets on and fingerless biker gloves.

And yes...there was Alphys in that black dress with the white polka-dots all over it.  Really...I think that was the only formal outfit she owned.  If you could call it formal.  Oh well.  It apparently passed Mettaton's fashion inspection.

Did I forget to mention that?

Most clubs have a bouncer that lets you in if you're on the list or at least "cool enough".

This one had two bouncers that had to FASHION CHECK you.

...so pardon my language...but HOW THE HELL DID ASGORE PASS INSPECTION!?

Then again I was not surprised when both physically threw Al Dente into the dumpster across the street.  Which Mettaton insisted such an unsightly thing be rolled out of view as to not bring the property values down.  And I found it even funnier he allowed the open dumpster to be there all this time until Al Dente was dumped into it.  Makes ya think.....nah, not really anything to read into.  It is what it is.

Back inside, the program went about how you'd think it would and of course Mettaton made the grandest entrance of all time, in his humble opinion; welcoming us to his big unveiling as each of his assistants would break us off into groups and give the grand guided tour.

Let's just shortcut through this.  If you have a degree of knowledge over the layout of Vi's place...even if it's just an idea or assumption of what it must look like...

...yeah, multiply it up a few tens of times and you got pretty much the same thing here.

Where Vi had her emporium for manga, magazines, and vital literature (cough)...Mettaton built a whole library of congress within his facility.

Where Violet had a juice bar as a nod to Ernie's place in Angel Grove...

...Mettaton sprung for an entire Banquet Hall.  And yes...racks and racks of only the best sugar-coated breakfast cereals for that ala cart experience for guest patrons.

I'd seen Donkey Kong cereal before.   But he REALLY impressed me with having the sequel, Donkey Kong Junior cereal next to it.  Think about that, gamers.  Think about that and get very green with envy of the guy who brought it back to this place.

Oh and he had two Pac-Man cereal variants.  The original and the one with the Miss Pac-Man additions.  Oh.  And for each cereal dispenser, directly above; a monitor playing their respective TV commercial in an endless loop.  You can do the Pac-Man, indeed.  I'm now going to have the Nintendo Cereal System jingle stuck in my head for a few hours so...he went above and beyond.

I think Vi's been one-upped as a hardcore gamer culture nerd...and she's oddly LOVING every minute of it.  Not a drop of jealousy in even a whisker.  Oh yeah.  Mettaton was going to be a friend for life.

Where do I even begin with the game arcades?  That's right.  PLURAL.  Each one was its own wing, divided by major company and organized by genre.

Don't get me started on the entire floor dedicated to electric go-karts on a full-sized track.

But an entire indoor AMPITHEATER for cosplay?  I'm sorry, I meant to say...THREE ENTIRE AMPITHEATERS!  Each its own floor.  And each its own hand-written screen play of Mettaton's own pen.

"Holy schnikees..."

"I totally know.  It's great, right?"  Vi managed to break away from her hobnobbing with the crowds and rubbing elbows with the elite 1%-ers.

How...does a place like this get this high-class a gala event gathering!?  I guess...mostly because most of the patrons were investors  And it looks like this place stood to be gold, silver, AND diamond mine wrapped in one.

"The size of the hotel is intimidating."  Chara managed to blurt out.

"Damn right it is!"  Vi fist pumped.  "Anyway...I'll catch up with you lovely people later.  Tah."

"Did she just say...'ta'?  Not even a full 'ta-ta'?"  My eyes were about to bulge out of my head.

Everything was pretty standard until it came to the debut of the live entertainment.  And wouldn't you know...a preview of its Karaoke Paradise room.  With who on stage?

"Nyeheheheheheheh!"

"Papyrus!?!   We all gasped in unison, expecting Mettaton.

"I simply had to give the spotlight to one my biggest and greatest die-hard fans of all time.  Who am I to not make his dreams come true?  With that delightful lead-in out of the way...I move on to his introduction.  You know him as the head of our Royal Guard (mostly disbanded) and hero to one and all.  He's the skeleton with ambition!  POWERFUL! POPULAR! PRESTIGIOUS!!! THAT'S PAPYRUS!!!   Give him all some warm love, ladies, gentlemen, and other non-categorical genders!"

The spotlights focused on him as Papyrus came out in...what the HECK!?

"A very good day to you all, my wonderful, wonderful fans!  Nyeheheheh!  For your entertainment pleasure tonight I have perused many of these video game sound tracks you all enjoy so much and I found the perfect vocal track that proudly exemplifies what it means to be a skeleton with hopes and dreams!"

"Huh?  A song about a skeleton...what game soundtrack has--"  I started.

Asriel realized it a split second before I did and give the most sheepish grin I'd seen in a while.  Like he was simultaneously amused and trying not to chuckle but also loving every minute of it.

"Oh...I bet it's that one."  He muttered.

"It has to be."  I responded as soon as I recognized his VERY obvious cosplay.

"This song comes straight from the marrow of a skeleton, who while may be villain, is also a sensitive warrior with goals and the drive to pursue his dreams.  A tragic song about being bested by not one but two rivals...brothers who crossed many lands to get back the one true love of theirs!"

"Oh gods, it is."

I was moments away from pointing out his full Giga Skullmageddon cosplay.

And thus as only sung by Sean Velasco backed by Jake Kauffman and Jeff Luke, originally...from the Majesco revival of an old beat-em-up franchise known only as Double Dragon.  Track 25 of the Double Dragon Neon soundtrack: "Dared to Dream".

Paps' backup singers lead him off.

***"Ooooh, ooohhh, aahhhh...***

***You beat the Gaaaaaaaame!"***

***[Piano]***

***[Heavenly Chorus]***

***"AHHH, AHH, AHH, AHH.....!!"***

And the monitors display the lyrics...and the cue prompts......boy this feels some level of meta.

***-Verse 1A-***

***"Never thought they could stop me...***

***Thought I had the girl,***

***and she rocked my world!***

***(Heck yeah!)***

***Tried to keep her away...***

***In my secret hiding place:***

***Outer Space"***

I was...really impressed by how well he was covering this.  It was like this song was MADE for him to sing.

***"Things are fading to black,***

***There's no turning back...***

***I'm on a roll!***

***Maybe tomorrow...***

***Won't bring me sorrow"***

***-Verse 1B-***

***"Nyehhhhhhhhhhhhh...***

***Fallin' right into the void...***

***Got me thinkin' that I was destroyed***

***And I'm hopin' that you have enjoyed:***

***Beating me down...***

***(So-se-tsu-ken)***

***Here's a Medal for your Victory:***

***To remind you ~ of what you did to me!***

***Cause you've gotten***

***me down on my knees***

***Where's the ground?***

***(Look below you, aaaaah!) "***

I saw Frisk cover her ridiculously big smile.

And I saw Chara actually crack one.

And Asriel?  He was on the edge of his seat.  He clearly had no idea.

***{Radical Solo}***

***[Instruments]***

***[Guitar]***

***[Drums]***

***[Piano]***

***"YES!***

***Nice Guitar Solo!***

***Play faster - Williams!"***

Sure enough, Papyrus' guitarist actually WAS wearing a nametag that read "Williams"...and dressed as the flunky from the game.

***"That's Abobo on Drums!"***

Ditto.

***"(Aw yeah, nice Solo!)"***

***-Bridge / Ballad-***

***-Verse 2A-***

***"Please...***

***Remember all the friendship;***

***I brought into your life! (Lives)***

***For Williams, Abobo, and Linda...***

***(He's Ottoman)***

***Together, they skinned ya,***

***(They're not your friends)***

***Forever; my loyal color guard,***

***(they are your rivals)***

***And I,***

***A Magical Skeleton,***

***(A Ske-le-ton, no skin)***

***A-rendered to gelatin!"***

***-Verse 2B-***

***"Because I...***

***(In bone armor, great style!)***

***I Dared to Dream...***

***And in my dream...***

***(So happy, so happy!)***

***I made Marian...***

***My girl fray-i-end***

***(I'll make her my wife)***

***(She brings out the best in me!)***

***And in my dream;***

***We lived happily,***

***She and me...***

***(My plan was foolproof... ahh...) "***

By this point there were actual tears in Papyrus' cartoony eyes...how does he DO that, anyway?  Where do those things...come from?  What...fills the normally empty sockets?  And...how do the sockets actually change shape?  I gotta research this more...

***"Ahh.. Back to Reality..." \*Cynical\****

Speaking of, he even gave a perfect deadpan.

***-Verse 3A-***

***"But it was not meant to be...***

***They caught wind***

***and they came after me!***

***I never expected to see...***

***Billy Lee...!"***

***(Jimmy: JIMMY TOO..!)***

Yes,  cosplayers popped up in both Billy and Jimmy disguises.

***"Barely had time to prepare...***

***(Here they come!)***

***They were fast on the way to my lair,***

***(Help me, someone!)***

***The tank and the plant and the biker,***

***(Tank, plant, mecha biker)***

***Caught unaware!***

***(Ahh, one by one they bit the dust!)***

***Yeah!"***

***Verse 3B***

***(Got to my palace at last,)***

***(They were on a tear***

***and I had to think fast)***

***(But they fought right past!)***

***I can't believe!!!***

***(But)***

***I'll be back!***

***Nyeh-heh-heh-heh!***

***I'll return one day to antagonize***

***YOU, Billy and Jimmy!"***

And Paps gave the absolute best Nyeheheheheh he had ever pulled off.

His cosplay was EPIC.  His voice?  Perfect.  Everything about this was good enough to be on the Masked Singer.

And Mettaton merely produced it.  He had no directorial stake in it.  He just let Paps be Paps.

And.  We.  Ate. It.  Up.

He wins Karaoke Night for LIFE.

After all that wound down, I had to admit...I honestly was having a good time.

And we'd all forgotten about our complaints and grievances...

"......"

"Asgore...."  Toriel grabbed him by the ear and dragged him out the door.

"Coming dear."

"We're going to talk about this old thing..."

"Yes, dear..."

Almost all of them.

"Well.  That's a wrap."

"It was truly...gorgeous, Mettaton-dono."

"Dono!?"  We gasped.  She usually reserved that praise for Brooke.

"Charmed, Master Rabbotou.  Violet is so lucky to have someone of your recognition in her circle.  You are quite the amazing friend indeed."

"Thank you for those kind words.  I am truly moved."  Bunnie bowed.

When the last of the guests arrived and the place was officially open...

"Well I guess we're off to the races and to get a good night's sleep."  I finally tugged off that bowtie.

"Coming, Aunt Vi?"

"Actually.  No."

"No?"

"Didn't you know about the additional perk of being the guest of honor here?"

"What perk?"  Asriel asked.

"Guys.  Did you forget this place is also a 5-star hotel resort?"

"What are you saying?"

"I got a full week's stay, all expenses paid.  And in the Penthouse Suite, no less.  Nothing but Triple S-Ranked served; hand and foot.  Especially foot..."  Vi grinned as she wiggled all her toes.

"Goddammit..."  I groaned.

"Congratulations, Aunt Vi."

"Come now, darling..."

She yanked Miyamoto Usagi aside.  He was absolutely pink in the cheeks under that white fur.  So much so we could actually see it.

"We've got some living to do, my sexy little samurai."

We all just shrugged and let her have her fun.  We would NOT ask about it later.

For now...way too much luxury for my tastes.

But...at least they got a proper fountain.  One that wasn't spilling onto the floor constantly.

Burgerpants-approved.

Speaking of which...

"Is he...?" I watched him exit a room...in a maid's outfit and a janitor's cart.

"Only 999 more rooms to go..."  He sobbed.

"Burgerpaaaaants!  Spill in the conference room!  Chop-chop!"

"I still...can't go to Hell...I'm already there..."

Fade to black for the poor guy, already.

## Sub-Entry 310 - "Officially Initiated into Ultra Crew Institute Action Team and Ready For Duty":

So the hype and hoopla over Mettaton's big day blew over eventually.

It was time for yet another celebration.

But this time down to...Earth, I guess the expression is?  I don't know how that translates to on our planet...or Undertale's.

But things are as they are and it was time we launched this ship...no, not pairs of lovers...like metaphorical boat.  You know what?  Forget it.  You know what I mean.

So...it was actually kind of a quite, casual set-up the previous day.  It wasn't like we were rushing around and driving ourselves crazy.

"Hey.  I know a lot of depressing news has been coming out of U.A.  I...know their world has been in dark times for a while now..."

Asriel acknowledged that when we brought Midoria and Bakugo to the lab for our big reveal to Undyne...it was actually in an earlier point in their timeline.  Before the big raid on the Doctor's facility...before Shigaraki awoke...before Dabi's scathing reveal...before Shigaraki dismantled the prison, Tartarus...before All-For-One escaped...and before Deku left U.A. and began that "Dark Deku" road to where we are now...back before everything spiraled downhill.

In truth...not a lot of us on this side of the world or on any world were fully up to speed on what was going on.  Some were just now learning about all the pro's and the students in the hospital and the escape of all those villains.  The media blackout on the kids' participation in the battle.  And of course no mention of Deku or the ones at ground zero outside of the Number One and a few others.  That would be something All-For-One would spoil later.  And why people would turn on Deku once they knew All-For-One was after him.

Yeah.  Those that knew?  Just the initial fallout.  Not the dark times that had been there for some time now.  I guess if no one was up to speed to this point, I'd have to apologize for this being spoiler territory.

Asriel kept up, rather mortified as the news rolled in from our agents and from our deep-space telemetry through A.E.O.N.'s omnipresent eyes.

Superhero society collapsed.  Villain society prospered.  The people didn't want the heroes' help anymore and demanded the Number One, Endeavor explain himself.  And yeah...Deku had left UA...and gone vigilante.  A hero without a license.  And at some point...All-For-One left him a taunting and haunting message with the parting words "...now...you're next".  Perfectly mirroring AND twisting All-Might's final words as One-For-All's flames extinguished and his days as a hero were officially over.  It messed with Midoria's head far worse than anything.  And sure enough...the burden wore away at him physically and mentally...and in attitude.

I think I actually saw Asriel grimace and wipe his eyes on his sleeves when he read the report that mentioned he actually refused All-Might's hot meal and left him face down in the rain.

With the cold words that he didn't have to chase after him again.

Irony.  Terrible, dark irony.  After all...chasing after him is how you met your hero, Midoria.

"So.  Class 1-A?  They found him?"

"And brought him back...there was...a lot of resistance and anti-hero sentiment but...U-ravity lit the torch and...started a movement and...got people to see Midori's burden...and agree to let him back in.  Those students never gave up upon him.

I guess if everyone...is now spending a little more time thinking about everyone...things are going to get better.  I think...this is the first real instance of...progress.  And I'm just so glad it came to my attention.  I don't think I'd want to be blind to the truth about how much he's suffered while under a past memory of last seeing him."

"You've been a busy bee, Azzy."

"Have to be. After all...isn't it a hero's job to meddle?  Isn't it a hero's nature to be nosey?"

"Heh.  Yeah, but careful with that.   You had a stint with being a reporter and trying to uncover the true identity of Hammerman.  Glad you didn't pursue it further on a world that you might actually end up in danger because of it.  You don't want to end up like April O'Neill and kidnapped ever other episode."

"Fourth wall, Volt."  Azzy grinned.

"I'm tempted to say, on their world...WHAT fourth wall?"

"Oh you."

Asriel filed away the updated dossier.  "I'll have Kitty send this down to Jon in cold storage to be properly added to our library."

"Good man."

I cleared my throat.

"I get why Frisk, Chara, M.K. Papyrus, Undyne, and Alphys are on their way...but why are you taking your place with them?  You already graduated--"

"Because I've gotten my UCIAT license and credentials renewed and officially reinstated.  It's almost like I'm UCIAT for the first time...again."

"Indeed."

I had a seat and leaned back in my own executive chair as he did in his, behind that desk.

"I know it's words and I know I've said them to you over and over.  But they lose no meaning even now.

I'm proud of you, Asriel.  I'm proud of each and every one of you."

"And it means the world to me.  To each of us.  Thank you.  You already know you're my best friend.  But I don't say enough that you're also a good friend."

"Yeah.  I...sometimes I just need to hear that every now and then."

I pondered.

"So.  How is each handling it?"

"Frisk is just filled with joy.  It's like the more responsibility she can take on without spreading herself too thing, the more challenged she feels...the more determined she gets.  Like she won't admit to wanting to be Supergirl or something.  But...you can see it in her soul."

"Yeah...I could see her put on a blond wig and do a great Kara-El cosplay.  Thinking of being Kal-El?"

"A goat Superman?"

"Why not?  I'm sure he is in some alternate universe variant.  The DCU and DCAU's both have more Earths than they think they know.  Remember the one Earth that's up to numbering them to beyond Earth-22?"

"Now there's your real Action 52."

"Oooh.  Let's not muddy the mix with the Cheetahmen.  Completely different Action 52.  Or...whatever the name is in DC comics."

"You know, I'll have to look it up sometime.  But yeah...that number's important.  But anyway.  we're getting off track with gushing over Superheroes and Superhero universes."

"Yeah, let's move on before the Dossier on the Kang Dynasty comes down the pipes."

"And we get a visit from Loki?"

"Or worse Miss Minutes.  Or Victor Timely."

We both kind of looked at each other with uneasy nervousness.

Let's...not address the next big Avengers two-part sagas just yet...in fact, in a related but different matter at hand...

Yeah...let's not give the Council a reason to preemptively ignite old misunderstandings and rivalries...and outright blood feuds in some cases.  I'm at least glad that the Time Lords will uh...give us the time of day when we encounter them.  Heheheheheh.

Oh, I'm terrible.

"Anyway..."  I changed the subject further.

"Asgore and Toriel well be in attendance.  As if I have to tell you what you already knew."

"Yeah, but hearing it from word of mouth from my best friend certainly makes it feel right."

"But not straight from them?"

"I'm pretty sure they wanted it to be a surprise."

"Well.  Act surprised."

"I'll try."

Asriel mused, as he got up and extended his horns again.  He wanted them out for show.  And I think seeing them made Asgore all the more prouder.  Violet preferred him with them retracted because it made him look more like a lop bunny.  The way his ears hung down to his shoulders rather than stood straight up like hers or slightly bent like Bunnie's.

"What a long road we took to get here.  And we didn't even know "here" existed even just a couple months ago.  April is about on our doorstep and here we are now."  Asriel sounded winded but not tired or exhausted.  Like he was ready to get back up on the track and run another 500 laps.  Like Papyrus usually did.

"Yeah, but we all made every step together whether we knew it or not.  We've all been walking to the same end.  And it isn't even an end.  Just more new beginning.  More new road to the unknown.  Just...what's present is now prologue to times to come."

"New play on that Metroid: Other ' saying?"

Azzy arched a slightly bushier blond eyebrow than I remember him having when he was a kid.

"Yeah.  I don't think Samus is going to object."  I shrugged.  "Never really met her until these crossovers began. But that's yet another tangent in this multiverse of madness...this endless lists of right and left turns we keep taking from the conversation to make a point or give an example or paint a picture."

"That's how we are.  We reference things.  We nerdgasm.  It's a geek's paradise here and we make no apologies and have no shame over it.  We wear our dorkiness as a badge, baby."

"But we're also humble about it."  I grinned.

"Of course.  Of course."  Asriel laughed.

So that was pretty much the gist of our office talk/backstage banter.  So of course time slipped away and we got to the actual ceremony.

A manageable crowd compared to Mettaton's extravaganza.  By far.

In fact it seemed more to us like a parent-teacher conference or a school play turnout than a real major gathering.

But...when Asriel's and Frisk's names were dropped...Undertale and Miranda came to attend in full gusto.

To that end...once again, we found ourselves going to Mettaton's new resort to host the ceremony there.

Being that this was a joint effort between our UCIAT and Undertale's newly established one...it was actually more like our agents had dual faction status.  As much official in Miranda...as they were in Undertale.  And either was free to draw upon the others resources if need be.

It was quite an arrangement at that.  I think we'd actually perfected the art of applying "parallel processing".  From a computer term, mind you, to a people term.  Somehow we'd successfully get our two groups to synergize.

Someone suggested we elevate ourselves from "UCIAT Global" to "UCIAT Galactic".

Well....as much as we meddled in other worlds and timelines and dimensions and such...why not?

But no.  It's not up to me to make that executive call.

While I did say Parent-Teachers meeting or school play earlier...

...what I should have compared it to was a high school or college graduation.

So that's how we handled it.

Like we've done for years.

Asriel even suggested we have a montage set to Chaz Jankel's "Number One".  You know...kind of throwback to the before times.  Meta-reference.  Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more.

"You look great, Frisk."

"Yeah...it's like graduation all over again."

"I know, right?  You never forget the feel of the cap and tassel and those robes."

"Speak for yourselves.  Some of us are technically uneducated buffoons."  Chara crossed her arms with a snarky expression.

"Chara..."  Azzy looked only partially unamused.  The other half was trying to hold back a laugh.

"Duuuude.  How DID you make the minimum job requirements?"

"Oh I have a feeling someone hacked the computers.  Who else would use the cryptographic code crack that spells out "James Tiberius Kirk"?"  Asriel sloooow turned to Violet.

Vi just whistled.

"Subtle."  I deadpanned.

"But it was only...logical."

"For god's say, Violet.   You're a hacker not a master liar."

"C'mon!  I'm givin 'er all she's got, cap'n!"

"This could go on for a while."  Asriel  rubbed the back of his head.

"Then allow me to disrupt the flow..."  Bunnie stepped before Vi and glared her in the eyes actually getting close enough for Vi to bend backwards a little to avoid touching noses again.

"This is not the terrible punchline you're looking for."

"...this is not the terrible punchline I'm looking for..."  Vi whimpered after sweating for a bit.

"Hmmph."  Bunnie reciprocated and turned on her heel to continue preparing.

"Sensei."  Asriel called after her.

As she turned he gave the Vulcan salute.

Bunnie smirked before replying with: "May the force be with you."

After she was gone, a moment of silence before we all had a good laugh.

So...how many fandoms has my log referenced in this sub-entry alone?

No shame.

So...graduation ceremony.

"I'm please to present you all with your I.D. cards and official documentation as well as other standard issue addendum to being part of Ultra Crew Institute.  Welcome to our team."

Garfield Arcade actually came here to do the job personally.

"We officially recognize you, Agent Monster Kid.  Or M.K. for short."  Garfield attached the magnetic clip to M.K.'s magic-level monitoring collar.

"Duuuuude!  Er...I mean, thank-you, sir."

"No need to be formal...m'dawg."  Garfield replied with a sassy wink and smirk.

"I thought Odie was your dog."  Chara spoke out of turn.

"And of course we recognize our team's new sarcastic joker."  Garfield called her out immediately.

"Guilty as charged, boss."

"Welcome to the team, Chara Dreemurr."  Garfield pinned the ID badge to her robe.

"Thank-you so much for extending this great honor, Garfield Arcade, sir."

"Oh, well aren't you formal?  You don't have to try so hard, Frisk.  You're in.  There's no extra credit for being extra polite.  But it's appreciated."

Garfield pinned the badge to her robe.

"Yeah, yeah.  Save the wishy-washy and just tell me when we get issued our swords."

"Talk to the armory about weapons.  But for now...hope you're ready for action.  Cause we're gonna expect your best when we call on you."

"As if I'd be a total wuss about that, furball!"  Undyne grabbed the I.D. and pinned it on herself.

"To our latest lab technician and engineer and hopefully many things in addition to that if you so wish to contribute..."

Garfield hung the ID badge around her neck.  Hers was more like a medal than something to wear on a lab coat.  I think he wanted her to feel like she was being honored rather than merely just employed.

"Th-th-thank-you s-so much."  Alphys was jittering and her glasses had fogged up.

And finally...

"Asriel Tobias Dreemurr-Arcade.  You have gone above and beyond the call of duty, yet you are humble enough to reapply and renew your vows with us as Ultra Crew Institute.  I saw great potential in you long ago and you have not only not disappointed...you have far exceeded expectations beyond our wildest imaginations.  You are truly one that comes once in more generations than I can fathom."

"And I was glad to meet expectations but even more elated to surpass."  Asriel bowed his head.

"You have demonstrated the traits of kindness, patience, integrity, bravery, justice, perseverance and determination in ample capacity.  You have embodied every virtue it is to be Ultra Crew Institute.  You have proven yourself more than your average hero.

I salute you and present you with your I.D. Badge..."  Garfield pinned it on.

"...and this medal of exemplary service and conduct."

"D...Did you know about this?"  Asriel turned to the others than to me.

I said nothing.

A little flustered for just a moment...

"I am...honored."  And pinned right above the badge.

"Th...thank-you."

"No.  Thank YOU."  Garfield smiled.

Asriel held out his hand for a handshake...and Garfield pulled him into a big man-hug.

"You are an Arcade.  And I love all of my family members from the bottom of my heart.  You have brought honor to our name, our family, our operation, our very legacy.

Keep up the good work, son.  You've earned your place in our hall of fame."

That last moment only surprised me for a split second.  The time it took for it to come back to me when I was in that same moment.  I still had my wings pinned above my ID badge.  Like his.

You know now that I think about it...this medal...these flight wings...they kind of resembled those old Nintendo Power pin-on wings that came with certain subscriptions.

Coincidence?

I'd debate it later.

For now.

I was standing in the presence of a continuing legacy.  I hadn't felt this way since Zordon had offered the original Mighty Morphin the choice to keep remaining Power Rangers after Rita's first long-standing defeat.  Before Lord Zedd arrived to correct that mind you.  When offered?  They chose to remain in service.  And...they celebrated as Power Ranger family.

The energy was the same.

And the future was brighter than ever.

Though...when I thought of the Rangers just now...I had no idea that thought would be a prelude of things to come.

Maybe...a little too much of an omen.  And maybe carrying too much of a spoiler.  Was it coincidence that as Bunnie was picking up her belongings as we were exiting the auditorium...her picture of Trini Kwan fell out of her wallet.

"...?"  She hesitated before picking it up and putting it back in.

Something to worry about now?  Or later?

...

Later.

Celebration now.

"Hey.  One to make it official."

"Go Team Venture--"  Chara held up the V-sign.

"Very funny, Chara."  Asriel wrinkled his snoot.

"You know what I mean."

"Goonies never die?"

"Chara..."  Frisk scolded.

"Can I at least give Al Dente the slap heard round the world?"

"Maybe afterward.  If he's still conscious."  Violet called up to the stage.

"You're shameless."  Frisk shook her head.

"Come on.  For serious, this time."

"Oh alright."

We all shared a six-way knuckle-bump.

"Ultra Crew Institute Action Team, Undertale Division FOREVER!"

And there it was.

Goodnight, everybody.

This actually IS the perfect way to end this log entry.

Volt Arcade, signing out.

*CRYPTOSMASHER LOGOFF*

*END TRANSMISSION...*

Chapter 32

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