Determination (Charisk) [OUTDATED]

83 - OH! DUNGEON

(CHARA POV) [F]

     I proceeded to fall on my butt. Frantically, I looked up, the ceiling closed.

     "Again with the trapdoors?!" I asked no one in particular. I looked around. I was now in a control room looking over a large room with colorful tiles. What was this? A disco?

On the control panel, there was a huge sliding tile puzzle. Upon closer inspection, the sliding tile puzzle matched the layout of the colorful tiles in the main room. I can tell where this is going.

     Frisk was in front of the tiles, rubbing her head after the fall. Mettaton, that prick, was effortlessly floating courtesy of sequin-encrusted jets.

     "OH NO! WHATEVER SHALL I DO? MY LOVE HAS BEEN CAST AWAY INTO THE DUNGEON. A DUNGEON WITH A PUZZLE SO DASTARDLY, MY PARAMOUR WILL SURLY PERISH! O, HEAVENS HAVE MERCY! THE HORRIBLE COLORED TILE MAZE, CONTROLLED BY MY DEEPEST RIVAL!" Spotlights blinded me for a brief moment... God, I hate this. So much. "...WHO WILL NOW LIST THE RULES OF THE PUZZLE!" I read the rules off of a teleprompter in thee shape of Mettaton's face.

     "Each colored tile has its own sadistic function. Green tiles sound an alarm, and then you will have to fight a monster, Red tiles are impassable, Yellow tiles are electric, Orange tiles are... Orange scented? At least they'll make you smell nice. Blue tiles are water tiles, if you smell like oranges, piranhas will bite you, and if it is next to a Yellow tile, you'll get electrocuted. Purple tiles are slippery, but the slippery soap will make you smell like lemons, which piranhas don't like... uh...got all that?"

     "No!" Frisk looked like she was on the verge of an anxiety attack.

     "WELL YOU'D BETTER HURRY. BECAUSE IF YOU DONT GET THROUGH IN 30 SECONDS.... YOULL BE INCINERATED BY THESE JETS OF FIRE." A wall of fire jets materialized on one side of the room. Frisk looked up at me. The fear in her eyes made me want to cry. The only way to help her is to play along, I told myself. I remembered what happened the last time I used a shortcut... It's not worth it.

Frisk ran through a few tiles before getting stuck in between a red tile and an impassable blue tile. Quickly, I looked for a possible solution on the tile board in front of me. Once I found one, I shifted tiles around until Frisk was able to move on.

Curiously, every time she stepped on a green tile, there was definitely a sound, but no monster showed up to fight. After a few seconds, Frisk needed my help again. It almost felt like we were in sync, every movement she made seemed to make my job moving tiles so much easier, almost if we were sharing the burden of moving across the floor and moving the tiles around at the same time.

The last time we were this connected... I wavered for just a second. That second of hesitation was just enough for Frisk to run into a yellow tile. Frisk shivered as the tile made a loud buzzing noise. I guess the electric shock wasn't as powerful as I thought it would be. Still, it was my fault that it happened, and her pause was long enough for the fire jets to catch up to her.

"OOOOH, IM SO SORRY! LOOKS LIKE YOURE OUT OF TIME!!! HERE COME THE FLAMES, DARLING!" The jets closed in on Frisk. "THEYRE CLOSING IN!" The speed at which the fire got closer to Frisk slowed to almost a crawl. "GETTING! CLOSER! OH MY!... ANY MINUTE NOW!" Mettaton faked a robotic cough.

Frisk looked extremely uncomfortable. Maybe the heat finally was getting to her. Out of nowhere, her phone rang. She picked up and put it on speakerphone.

"Watch out!! I'll save you!" It was Alphys. "I'm hacking the firewall right now!" Frisk and I stood in stunned silence. After a few seconds of hearing the exaggerated sound of keyboard clacking coming from Alphys's end, and Mettaton doing absolutely nothing to stop it, the flames shut off, and the the jets sant into holes in the floor.

"OH NO!!" Mettaton started. "HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN??? FOILED AGAIN BY THE BRILLIANT DOCTOR ALPHYS!!"

"That's right! Come on, Mettaton, give up already! You'll never be able to defeat us! Not as long as we work together!" This was starting to sound like the end of a cartoon episode. Soon, we might even be able to harness the magic of friendship and break the barrier that way. "Your puzzle's over.. now go home and leave us alone!"

     "PUZZLE? OVER? ALPHYS, DARLING, WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT...? DID YOU FORGET WHAT THE GREEN TILES DO?" Everything started to click. "THEY MAKE A SOUND, THEN YOU HAVE TO FIGHT A MONSTER. WELL DARLING... THAT MONSTER... IS ME!!" All the color drained from the area, and Frisk's SOUL appeared in Front of her.

     Frisk pressed her ACT button and listed off Mettaton's stats. "Mettaton, ATK 30 DEF 255. His metal body STILL renders him invulnerable to attack."

     "THIS IS IT DARLING, SAY GOODBYE!"

     "H-Hey!! Th-this seems bad, but don't worry!! There's one last thing we can try!" Alphys exclaimed. "Just focus o-on the bond we've forged throughout y-your journey!" Frisk looked confused for a second before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. Mettaton still is not doing anything. I am still trapped in this box.

Suddenly, Frisk sparked with Red electricity and yellow light swirled around her. Her SOUL turned upside-down; into the unlocked position. She looked nervously back at me. Her eyes were yellow. Her SOUL was also somehow yellow.

"Alphys?" Frisk asked, not breaking eye contact with me. "What the hell did you just do?"

"I-I uh... Im using long-range y-yellow magic! I-I'm sharing s-some of my magical a-a-abilities with y-you! Essentially, y-you can cast m-magic through my S-SOUL!" Frisk held out her hand, and a thin stream of magic shot into Mettaton. Mettaton wobbled back and forth.

"OOH! OOOOOOOHHH! YOUVE DEFEATED ME!! HOW CAN THIS BE, YOU WERE SO MUCH STRONGER THAN I THOUGHT, ETC. TOODLES!" Mettaton then flew away, clearly unscathed. Frisk fell to the ground, her SOUL and eyes returning back to their normal shade of brilliant red.

The broadcast shut off, and I could no longer hear Frisk. The wall behind me opened to reveal a passageway.

. . .

(FRISK POV)

"L-Looks like you beat him! *pant* *pant* Y-You did a really great job out there."

"It was just— man that took a lot out of me —because of your yellow magic..."

"What? Oh no, I mean... You were the one doing everything cool! I just, uh... gave you superpowers for a second..." Alphys was quiet for a few seconds. "...um, h-hey, this might sound strange, but... c-can I tell you something?"

"Uh, sure. What's up?"

"B-before I met you, I d-didn't really... I didn't really like myself very much." Oh.

"I've... felt something similar."

"For a long time, I f-felt like a total screw-up. L-like I couldn't do anything without letting everyone down. B-but! Guiding you has made me feel... A lot better about myself. So... Thanks for letting me help you." Alphys paused for a moment. "Uhh, a-anyway, you're almost to the CORE. It's just a past MTT Resort. Come on! Let's finish this!" And then she hung up. Soon after, Chara came running from out of nowhere and almost tackled me.

     "FRISK, DIOS MÍO, ¿ESTÁS BIEN, CASI MUERES?" She held me tightly.

     "Chara, I'll be fine." I lifted up her chin so that her eyes met mine. "I'm a fast healer, remember?" She buried her face into my shoulder.

     "I can't lose you, Frisk."

     "You won't. I promise." Chara and I stood there, silently waiting in each other's arms for what felt like centuries.

     "...Okay. I need to get out of this dress, I never want to touch these damn things again."

Chara Fact #3
Frisk looks really hot in a suit.