Wholehearted Half-Souls

Chapter 24: Sunset (Part 3)

"That lying rat fink." Susie slams her fist into the bar as she takes a swig of lager that sits on the counter. "At least my, er, 'ID card' worked, heh...love this place."

Images of fire, swinging blades, orphanages, and coarse words enter Susie's mind. She lowers her head and growls under her breath. Her teeth grit so hard together that her gums begin to bleed. After a few seconds, she sighs and licks her gums. Taking another massive gulp of her drink, she shakes her head. "Ugh...this is why my goat buddy was worried about me, and I don't blame him, either."

Susie shakes her head and looks up at the television above the shelves behind her and sees two teams playing hockey, one wearing burgundy and blue jerseys and the other wearing green and white jerseys. Swaying and turning with blistering precision, the two teams skate with great speed across the ice. The puck moves back and forth with grace, and the players move with sharpness, yet their arms and legs contain much muscle.

Susie chuckles and folds her arms. "Heh...be cool as ice. As long as I keep that stupid rat out of my brain, everything will be chill." Susie bites her lip and lowers her head. "Well, that's what I wanna think." She smirks sadly as her hair covers her bright, burning yellow eyes.

As Susie throws a couple of tortilla chips into her mouth from the basket, her cell phone blares death metal from her pocket. She pulls it out and sees the caller ID read "ambassador nerd" on the screen. She smirks and presses the "answer" button, holding it to her ear.

"'Sup, nerd? Get this; the Avs are winning 4-2 right now. You should tell Azzy; he'd be stoked...oh...oh really?" Susie lowers her head, and a yellow-ish smile appears on her face. Her eyes tremble with excitement as she grips her forehead. "Sweet...you'd better believe I'm ready."

Susie throws some money on the table, hangs up the phone, and grabs her backpack from beneath her chair. After running out the door, she pulls her battle axe out from her backpack, extending the hilt to the fullest length. She hoists the blade's handle onto her shoulder and runs full speed ahead toward Mount Ebott. "Watch out, Kris. I'm coming for you!"

Susie's limbs move faster as she reaches the edges of Ebott. When she stops short of the woods, she sees a small car pull up to the curb. She then looks ahead and notices that a cop car is parked with both doors open, blue and red headlights blaring. The crew of five from Alphys' car hops out, and Susie looks between the two cars again. She lowers her head and curses under her breath. "If the fuzz went in without any backup, they're gonna be in deep crap. Do they even know who they're dealing with?"

Frisk approaches Susie first, followed by Asriel, Undyne, Sans, and Blooky. Susie nods proudly at the group. "Right on time. You ready to charge in?"

Frisk points to the woods. "Yes. Let's go; we're running out of time."

Undyne holds her spear in the air and yells. "FOR ASGARD!"

Sans chuckles and nudges Undyne in the arm. "Ya mean 'for Ebott', right?"

Undyne shakes her spear violently and frustratingly spits into the air. "I was being dramatic, getting you guys psyched up!"

Asriel nods and leans in towards the forest. "Great, let's go."

The band of six charges into the forest, and Blooky is the first to exit the nothingness expanse. Up ahead, he sees a condemned house with rusted siding. Two officers are propped against the house on the front porch. Blooky's body trembles as Frisk walks up from behind him. He gasps, and Frisk runs toward the two officers. Blooky follows shortly after, and the other group members stop short just before the porch. Frisk checks their pulses and sighs in relief. "They're still alive, thankfully."