A New Era

Special: Take the Shot

PJ watched as Goth and Palette roughhoused in the training room. They could've been practicing magic attacks or anything else, but no. The two were wrestling as thought they were on a playground.

He rolled his eyes as he reloaded his gun. Of course they could play as they wished. At least they'd found dads that actually cared for him.

He did a final round of bullets before allowing the gun to crumble to paint. Goth and Palette had halted their game long enough to see the first two hits but were back to fighting. He wasn't going to deal with this.

He left quietly, looking around before heading to the exit of the building. He could probably hang out in the Plaza. Find something todo that didn't involve acting like a child.

It didn't take long to get to the Plaza, the Center basically be surrounded by it. Honestly the place had become more of a second home to him. He stayed in the Center in one of the guest rooms, Error not really much to do with him and there was no way in hell he'd talk to Ink.

He took a seat at his favorite bench, simply watching the other monsters moving around. He liked people watching even when it did get boring. Seeing these people, going about normal lives, made him curious about where they were during that fight. Had any of them ever been scared of the old Ink. What did they think of the new one?

He made a sketchbook and pencil, instinctively sketching. It was like scratching a weird itch that was always at the back of his skull. It was in his coding to be artistic, even if he doubted any of his sketches could hold a candle to Ink's work.

-Acid burned through his bones, the pain too much for him to even gasp. His world going dark—

He shook himself, looking down at his sketch. He quickly tore and crumpled the page, restarting and focusing on a Toriel waiting in a line with her Frisk.

The scratching of the pencil soothed PJ more than he liked to admit. He didn't like drawing much but his coding commanded him to do something like it.

    When he was finished, he looked at the sketch, deciding whether or not he'd want to keep it or throw it away. He looked up when he saw movement out of the corner of his eye.

    There was a Sans standing next to the bench, lazy smile on. His eye lights were scanning the Plaza as though he was looking for someone.

    "Need help finding someone?" he asked, allowing his sketchbook and pencil to dissolve.

    "Hmmm?" he hummed, looking over. PJ was pretty sure he knew the AU this guy was from, but he couldn't quite place it.

    "You seem to be looking for someone. Any way I can help?" he asked again.

    The skeleton blinked before smiling, "Sure kid. Can you help me spot my brother? He's wearing all black with a fedora."

    PJ blinked at the accent this guy had. He couldn't tell if it was New York or Italian. He gave a quick nod before scanning the Plaza. The guy didn't seem too worried about his brother, so he probably just wanted to know where he was.

    It took a few minutes of searching, but PJ eventually spotted him standing in the shadow of a building. He was a Papyrus and he wore a black dress suit with the black fedora the Sans had described.

    "Found him," PJ said, pointing. "Over there in the shadows."

    Sans looked over before smiling, "Great eyes, kid."

    The Sans made finger guns at his brother, the Papyrus turning and leaving down the alley. Sans smiled at that before sitting down on the bench.

    "Mind if I sit here a bit? I won't be long."

    "I guess not," PJ said, shrugging. "What are you doing here anyway?"

    "Just a bit of business," he said with a lazy smile. "How about you, kid? Sitting on a bench watchin' people doesn't seem like a thing you kids would do."

    "I'm not that young," PJ defended. "'Sides, my friends were distracting me while I was training."

    "Magic?"

    "Kind of," he answered. "More target practice."

    The Sans looked him up and down before cocking a brow, "Whatcha shootin'?"

    "A gun," PJ said simply, expecting the worried 'Toriel' look. Instead, the Sans smile at that.

    "How good of a shot are ya?" he asked.

    PJ blinked, "W-Well, I can hit the target consistently, but I can't seem to hit it in the middle with consistency."

    "How are ya holding it?"

"I'm not holding it with one hand if that what you're asking," PJ said, slightly irritated. "I'm not that stupid."

"Well then, how's your hand placement?" he asked.

"Why are you asking so many questions?" PJ asked. "Isn't your brother almost done with whatever he's doing?"

The Sans looked at the time before nodding, "Yeah, he should be now that you mention it."

He got up with a stretch before starting to pat down his pockets, "It was nice talkin' to ya kid."

PJ watched him looking for something in his pockets when it dawned on him to ask his AU.

"What AU are you from anyways?"

The Sans gave a sharp smile as he pulled a gun from his back pocket, "Mafiatale."

An alarm suddenly started ringing on the other side of the Plaza as Mafia teleported out. He looked over and watched as an old car came bursting from large alleyway.

The Papyrus was driving while Mafia Sans was hanging out the back, a gun aimed in his hand. PJ snapped out of his shock when the first gunshots started going off.

He made a gun, attempting to win before the car disappeared around another corner. PJ's eyes narrowed before he focused, opening a portal. Going through, down a ways from the corner and could see the car speeding toward him.

He raised his gun, taking aim at the tires. He jumped back a bullet nearly hit his foot. He looked up, seeing Mafia's lazy smile looking down at him as the car passed by.

"Work on your aim!" he yelled as the car sped away. "Maybe then I'll let ya take a shot!"

PJ stared after the car as police cars started to speed passed him. How the hell did he have good enough aim to know that he wouldn't hit his foot?

PJ forcibly shut down the idea of asking for gun lessons. No, he'd report the incident and leave it at that... but maybe a bit of hunting wouldn't hurt.

——

800 views?! When'd that happen?! Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed. I've been having a bit of an itch to write Mafiatale and the children, so here ya go.

Hope you're all having a wonderful day!