"Is that who I see it is?" Papyrus put his hand over eyes, like someone trying to see something from a far distance.
"The lamp?"
"Oh yeah, it's a lamp."
…
"Why don't you look at the thing near the lamp?"
"Of course! That's a… a…"
"Sans, what is that?" Papyrus questioned Sans. He genuinely didn't know what that was.
"I believe it's a human, Papyrus."
"...A human!!?"
Papyrus placed his hand near his mouth and coughed. "Ahem. Human! Prepare yourself, for I, the great Papyrus, have a multitude of puzzles for you!! And after you get exhausted from solving all of them, I'll capture you, and deliver you straight to the capital!"
"Then Undyne will be proud of me, and I'll finally join the Royal Guard and make many friends!! Nye Heheheheh!" Papyrus laughed proudly to himself as he did a pose, one which he had practiced multiple times in front of a mirror.
Papyrus then ran away, deciding to prepare his puzzles ahead of time due to the human's arrival, after telling the human to 'only continue if they had the bravery to do so.'
Throughout all these happenings, Frisk had not sketched a single reaction, only looking at the scene in boredom, as if he had seen a scene like this multiple times already.
I had already seen similar things to this before. This no longer surprised me. Of course, a few hundred years ago, it did indeed surprise me. Since, usually, only Sans would be in this place, with Papyrus only appearing later.
I later remembered a theory created by a few scholars, which I had previously seen when I read research papers. It was called the 'Butterfly Effect.'
It consisted of a mix of another theory, the theory of time travel. It explained that certain actions in the past could cause changes to the future.
I obviously thought that was only bullshit created by scholars with a few screws loose. Until I experienced that time travel myself, and the butterfly effects.
Even though this child's body is weak… this power of Reset is something I've never seen before.
Something I thought only existed in mythologies… only I possessed that.
Even though I had this power for a long time already, I could still feel the excitement that only a child who had obtained a fun new toy would have.
Sans walked in my direction, intending to speak to me—like he always did—after Papyrus had left.
What is he gonna say this time? Last time he called me a weirdo that only had the appearance of a human.
Even though I started trying to guess what the skeleton jokester was gonna say, I wasn't exactly interested in it.
"Hey kid. Can you do me a favor?" Hm, a common start. It seems I wasted my energy on him for nothing.
"Please stay away from my brother."
Huh. Unexpected. Although I have heard this before. Still, unexpected.
"And what will you do if I don't?" I replied in defiance. Will he finally stop being a coward this time, and do something early for once?
Sans only looked at me deep in the eyes, and walked away.
Tsk. Well, it doesn't matter, I'll meet up with his annoying brother later. I should just end things here quickly and get out. That damn old goat. I couldn't find a jacket anywhere at all, now I'm here with only a t-shirt and shorts in this cold!
"Sans. What the hell was that?!" Chara yelled at me in anger.
"Are you stupid or something?! Why would you just threaten the human right away like that?!? What the hell are you thinking?" Chara tried punching me, but her hands passed straight through me, doing nothing.
"Arghh!!" She yelled in annoyance.
"Hey hey, calm down kid. You're gonna pop a vein like that."
"Calm down? How do I calm down? Your brother's life could be in danger after you've done this!"
Seeing her like this, so worried about my brother, made me feel a strange emotion, because I suspected her of having other intentions by approaching me, and I didn't know if I could trust her. But that made me have think that that couldn't be the case.
"Relax kid, I didn't do that out of a whim. I still have a plan.
"Are you sure that is gonna work? Challenging that person is a pretty dangerous thing."
I grinned at her uncertainty. "Heh, don't worry about it. Just wait and watch. Now it's time for the second part of my plan."
"And that is…?"
"Heading to the Laboratory in Hotlands."
Let's hope this will work out. If not… no, let's not think about that. If plan A fails, we just have to go with plan B.
Swoosh.
I teleported to my sentry post located in Hotlands. And from there, I headed in the direction of the Laboratory.
While walking there, Chara started asking me a few questions after seeing me teleporting there.
"Sans, how does your teleportation work? Is it even teleportation or are you just extremely fast."
I chuckled at that last part. There's no way someone could be that fast, to arrive at Hotlands so quickly. "A skeleton like me could never be that fast. No, it really is teleportation."
After that, she started asking me questions about how it worked. I only explained it in simple terms.
"Basically, how it works is like fast travel in a video game. If you have visited that place before, it will leave a kind of checkpoint behind, where you can then go in the map to select that place and instantly go there. My teleportation is more or less like that."
I couldn't trust her completely, and even though she seemed like a trustworthy girl, you never knew if someone you trusted your life with would stab you in the back. So I only told her half the story.
Yes, while I could teleport, I could only teleport to places I had the complete coordinates memorized.
But there was another thing. My magic. I discovered that, since it is connected to me, as long as I have some of my magic in a place somewhere, as long as it's still there, I can teleport to where my magic is placed.
After much walking, we had finally arrived at the Laboratory.
Time to find Alphys. She's an important piece in my plan.
After knocking on the door, I waited for a while. However, no one answered.
Deciding to see if I could open the door, it did indeed open.
The door is unlocked?
Entering the Laboratory, I noticed there wasn't anyone there. Neither Alphys, nor Mettaton, a robot she had created.
"Huh, that big screen is turned off. That's rare, it's usually turned on. I guess she turned it off to not waste energy…?" Chara noted.
Alphys is not here, nor is she in the place she rests upstairs. So the only place she could be is…
"You're heading underneath the Laboratory?" Chara asked in curiosity.
"Yes, that's the place she could be inside the Laboratory. If she's not here, she's evacuating the citizens by now." I answer.
"But it's most likely she's still here, since the human hasn't progressed very far yet."
Beep!
I pressed one of the buttons inside the elevator, and a soft hum could be heard as it headed down.
The Laboratory is composed of 2 parts, the upper layer, where the monsters in the underground pass through if they are heading to New Home or Hotlands—which is also where the Royal Scientists have their breaks—and the lower layer, where all of the experiments and research of the Royal Scientists are done.
Its been a long time since I've been down here…
As the elevator stopped, I started thinking of where Alphys could be. The Laboratory underground was considerably huge, and walking the entire place looking for her would be a considerable waste of time. And time was of essence now.
I decided to ask my ghost companion to see if she had any ideas, after all, 2 heads think better than one.
"Ummm, honestly I don't know where she could be, as I've never been to this place. It's my first."
She continued. "Because every time the human got here, the elevator was always out of power or not working, so they couldn't use it."
I see, that's very good information. That helps me a lot.
So, where could Alphys be? Is she maybe working on her research on DT right now? Or perhaps storing data on the computer?
But before I could guess any further, Chara stopped my train of thought. "I have an idea of where she could be though, but I'm not sure about it."
"Tell me then, any idea could be of help." I ushered her.
"You see, there were times where the human looked in bushes, in trees, or behind some sentry posts. And sometimes, they would find a camera in these places."
"I don't know who placed these cameras there, but I have a hunch that it was this person you are looking for here that placed them. Maybe they use them to monitor the underground? I'm not sure."
How long is she gonna keep yapping? "Just get to the point."
Chara looked slightly annoyed at me for rushing her. "I was just getting there. Anyway, if I were to guess, she is looking at the camera footage right now."
"Do keep in mind this is just my guess, ok!? Don't complain if I was wrong. If you have any other idea of where she could be, it's better if you check that place first."
Does she have a lack of confidence or something? "No, your idea sounds good, it makes sense. Let's head there. I think I remember where the camera room is at."
Alphys… Is she even cleaning this place? It looks like an abandoned house with how dirty it is.
The place was dark, with very few lights illuminating it, only enough to maintain a certain level of visibility. And the air had a certain musky smell of mold in it.
As I walked through the corridors of the Laboratory, I noticed the several terminals connected to the walls. There was always one after another, from the left and right walls.
Looking at them gave me a sense of nostalgia. How long has it been since then?
Sadly however, I didn't have time to look at the contents of each one, and bask myself in the nostalgia of it. I had to do this as quickly as possible and head back to Snowdin.
Finally, after a long time of walking, I had reached the camera room. And there was Alphys, looking at the multitude of screens in front of her, illuminating the area around her.
She turned around to look at me, and I noticed her tear-filled eyes.
"Sans…" She said with a shaky voice.
Behind her, were footage of the human's slaughter throughout Snowdin. In one of them, I could see a video of the human killing a Snowdrake.
My heart felt heavy with guilt. But I could only convince myself that it couldn't be helped.
No matter what I did, someone would have died. I can only hope that their deaths won't be in vain.
"Alphys, are you still conducting your research on DT?"