Determination (Charisk) [OUTDATED]

88 - THE CORE

(FRISK POV)

     Chara and I had already gotten up and gotten dressed in our usual clothes. I wore my blue and purple striped hoodie, and Chara wore his oversized green hoodie.

     The elevator that goes straight from MTT Resort to New Home was inconveniently out of order, as if if anything would go our way... We walked past the complaining office-workers and out of the building. It was a thin walkway, another bridge over a seemingly bottomless pit. Hotland seemed to have a lot of those.

     The CORE was a geothermal power plant. It turned heat from the abundant magma into magical energy, which was sent out via underground cables to everywhere in the Underground. From the outside, it was huge and intimidating, a masterwork of pipes and steam and moving parts, a mass of black steel looming in the distance... but up close, it almost looked like just a regular building, albeit with an industrial feel.

     There was a 'Keep Out!' Sign posted next to the door, as well as some sort of police tape barrier. Apparently, the CORE was under maintenance. This, however, didn't stop two shady looking figures from ripping the tape and entering anyway, before disappearing out of sight.

     "What?" Chara asked quietly. "No one else is supposed to be here..." We walked in.

     "Wow..."

     "What?"

     "I wasn't expecting this place to be so... extravagant." Halogen lights lined the ceiling. The floor had circuitry designs on it, the wallpaper looked like if Eiffel 65 tried to design an entire school dance around their hit song 'I'm blue (Da ba dee da ba da)'. In front of us was an elevator, and a fork in the road. I was getting a call, it was presumably Alphys.

     "Ready? This is it!" She said as soon as I answered. "Take the elevator up to the top of the CORE!." I tried pushing buttons, but the doors wouldn't open.

"About that..."

"This elevator isn't working either, huh?"

"Doesn't seem like it."

"W-Well then! Go to the right and keep heading up!" Alphys hung up. I looked at Chara.

"Well," he started. "Doctor's orders."

"Pfft- that was bad." He shrugged. We walked into a huge boiler room. Our path was blocked by steam valves and open flames. Huge pipes carrying... whatever to other ends of the core cris-crossed on the walls. There was no way we could make it through, even if Alphys found a way to completely shut off the CORE. My phone rang again.

"G-Guys? I c-can't see you on any of the cameras..."

"Yeah," Chara explained. "Cameras wouldn't last with all this fire. We're in a boiler room."

"Wh-what? That room... isn't on my map... T-try going to the left instead!" *click*

We walked out and into the left path. It was a wide corridor, again over another bottomless pit. Out from the pit, huge hydraulic pillars shifted up and down. The space echoed with mechanical noises. Clanging, gears turning, the sound of bubbling magma, the buzz of electricity... I could barely hear myself think.

     "Okay," My phone had somehow auto-accepted Alphys's call. At least I won't have to fish around in my pocket every time she had info to give us anymore. "You should be able to make it through here... Though I don't see you on any cameras..."

     "We'll just have to trust you, then. Lead the way, Alphys!" I'm not sure wether or not she heard my encouragement through all the background noise.