Undertale: Reason to Live

Chapter 72

Frisk was so frozen in shock that he didn't even try to struggle to escape Mettaton's arms. He couldn't hear anything besides his loud heart beating either. Frisk was carried out of the room before he even noticed that his violin was not in his hands anymore.

"Wait," Frisk said while Mettaton strutted happily with Inferno walking briskly by his side. "What about the violin?"

"I'm getting someone to tune it for you, so you can play it later, darling," Mettaton responded briefly. "Do you play anything else besides the violin and the piano?"

Without thinking, Frisk blurted out, "the guitar."

"Acoustic or electric?"

"Uh…yes."

"Oooh," Mettaton gushed. "This should be interesting."

"But…but I…I can't do this," Frisk stammered out. "I've n-never ever played in front of people before."

"This might be a bit much for the boy, Mettaton," Inferno protested. "He doesn't even have anything prepared."

Mettaton stopped his strutting and said, "You might have a point there, Inferno. He can't play if he has nothing planned. Oh, well. I guess you'll have to play that piece you were just performing, son."

"I'm not your son," Frisk muttered under his breath as Mettaton ignored him and started strutting again.

"Boss, why are you insisting on this?" Inferno pushed. "The human has never performed in front of a live studio audience before. If he messes up, your audience won't be too happy."

Mettaton stopped, quickly dropped Frisk on the floor, and posed dramatically against the wall before he asked, "My dear Inferno, are you questioning my judgment? You know how much I value your input, but I thought you would trust me by now."

Frisk stared pleadingly at Inferno who wracked his brain for a good response that would please everybody.

"Mettaton, I do trust you, but I don't understand why you're taking such a huge risk on something like this," Inferno finally said. "Frisk has never performed before. He could choke. That's a lot of unnecessary pressure for a child…"

"Frisk won't mess up," Mettaton said striking another dramatic pose.

"What makes you say that?" Inferno asked.

"Call it intuition, Inferno," Mettaton said striking yet another dramatic pose. "Somehow I get the feeling that he's not as intimidated as you might think in front of a crowd. I mean, he was barely nervous at all when he was sitting in front of them, and the audience loved him then! How much harder can performing be?"

"Why do you keep talking about me like I'm not here?" Frisk asked in annoyance.

Mettaton looked at Frisk and said, "Hush, darling. Daddy's doing business right now."

"Whatever," Frisk said turning around and taking a few steps away. "I still don't want to perform. It's not happening. I don't care if that makes you unhappy. I'm not your dancing monkey."

As expected by this point, Mettaton crouched down and turned Frisk around by his shoulders. Frisk crossed his arms and stared back into Mettaton's eyes without flinching.

"You're quite the willful and stubborn boy," Mettaton said pulling something from his side compartment. "Aren't you?"

"Determination is what gives me my magic," Frisk said. "I can resist longer than you can push."

"Are you sure about that, darling?" Mettaton asked showing a pink sparkling bracelet with the letters "MTT" on them in white.

"Yeah, I can fight harder than you can," Frisk said using his left hand to move Mettaton's off his shoulder.

Unfortunately for Frisk, Mettaton quickly grabbed that hand, rolled back the sleeve, opened the bracelet, and shut it around Frisk's wrist.

Frisk's eyes flashed in panic when he saw the white letters pulsating. He tried to pull it off his wrist, but it wouldn't budge.

"You don't need to fight harder, darling," Mettaton said with proud smirk. "Just smarter."

"What is this thing?!" Frisk yelled while trying fruitlessly to pull it off. "Why can't I take it off?!"

"Boss, what-?" Inferno asked before Mettaton interrupted him.

"Inferno, would you restrain him for a second?" Mettaton asked.

"Sir, I can't…" Inferno protested gesturing to his flaming form.

"Then, I'll do it," Mettaton said moving behind Frisk and holding a hand over his eyes while he got out his phone with the other.

"No!" Frisk yelled as he desperately tried to pry Mettaton's hand away from his eyes, so he could see what he was doing. "Let me go!"

"Mettaton, what are you doing?" Inferno asked as Frisk struggled and Mettaton opened an app.

"This is a new product my merchandise department showed me this morning," Mettaton said pressing a few buttons and holding Frisk still. "It's a tracking bracelet for parents so they can keep track of their wayward youngsters. It sends a signal back to the app notifying the parents of their child's whereabouts, and the child cannot remove the bracelet unless they know a certain code that the parents input into the app."

Mettaton punched in his four-number code and showed the results to Inferno.

"See this?" Mettaton asked. "It's the same as my phone's passcode. Remember it just in case. Also, download the app for yourself so you can keep track of your kids. It's free."

Inferno nodded once to show he understood.

The bracelet beeped, and Mettaton finally released his hand from Frisk's eyes.

"I hope you like the trinket, Frisk," Mettaton said standing up and looking at his young charge who was looking at his new tracking bracelet. "You're the first child to wear it. I thought you could test it before I release it to the public. Please tell me what you think of it, darling, for marketing purposes."

Frisk looked down at his new bracelet and shuddered fearfully. Any chance he had of running away without Mettaton noticing was now gone. He was now officially his prisoner. A tear escaped the corner of his eye. Nonetheless, Frisk put on his brave face.

"It's ugly," Frisk complained before he unsuccessfully tried to use his determination to smash it against the wall. "I don't like it. I want it off now."

"I figured as much," Mettaton said crouching down in front of him. "You like such dark colors. We'll have to vary up our product line for children like you with more depressing tastes. But for today, darling, I'll take it off when we get home. Don't worry too much. After a while, I'm sure you won't even notice it's there."

"Yeah, right," Frisk said sarcastically. "You'll keep it on for all eternity."

"You think too little of me, darling. That hurts my feelings."

"I say I think too much of you, and I think you're an asshole!"

"I have to ask you to stop swearing so much. What if an audience member were to hear that?"

"TOUGH TITTIES, BITCH!" Frisk screamed at the top of his lungs as he looked straight into Mettaton's eyes. "YOU ARE NOT MY FUCKING DAD! I…mph..."

Mettaton quickly covered Frisk's mouth and pinned him against the wall. Frisk glared into Mettaton's eyes while Mettaton haughtily looked back into his.

"You need to calm yourself down, darling," Mettaton said while stroking the boy's hair. "You're about to perform on-stage after all. You need to be careful, darling. After all, you remember what happened the last time you disobeyed. Now, I don't want to keep punishing you on what's supposed to be the happiest day of your life, but I will if I must. Understand? So please, relax."

Mettaton let go of Frisk and let him get off the wall.

Frisk glared at him for another second and walked ahead of him. Once he was no longer looking at Mettaton, Frisk dropped his composure for a second and allowed a shudder to run through him.

Unfortunately, that was not lost on Mettaton.

"Oh, dear," Mettaton said scooping up Frisk in his arms again and holding him close in a hug while continuing to walk to their destination. "I scared you. I'm sorry. There, there, let Daddy make you feel better."

"Yeah, right," Frisk muttered under his breath.

Mettaton ignored him and kept walking while Inferno slowly followed behind them.