Were We Doomed From The Start?

26.- Lasers, Cogs, & Puzzles

It was a few minutes before Gaster started to look around a bit, away from the papers and over to Ninja, realizing that he had been not paying attention at all to his surroundings in that time. Stepping away from it, Ninja motioned to him that there was an exit, to which they both silently walked to, their footsteps slightly echoing and the paper crumpling when they walked on it.

They got to the exit, opened the heavy door and walked out, observing some dark pulsating red pipes that seemed to lead upwards, no end or beginning in sight. The sides of the path seeping out small streams of lava into a void nothingness.

They continued in silence, down the path and taking a left, down to a small bridge of pipes with flames shooting up from the sides and 2 conveyor belts, one leading away and one returning. Stepping on it carefully, it brought them to the end where some pipes circled back, proceeding forward after the conveyor belt left them on the other side.
The next room was similar, with the conveyor belt making sharp turns instead. It made a total of 4 turns before leaving them back on solid ground, with a long pipe bridge being just up ahead.

It led to a room where lava covered the ground below their solid platforms, the lava moving rapidly and suddenly like waves on a beach. Even with the lava surrounding them, the whooshing sound of steam and cogs filled them with determination.

To the left was a platform made up of red-hot pipes in the form of a square with a solid centre, and straight ahead had another similar platform, this time with a glowing arrow on it, with a grey square vent below it.

Upon stepping on it, steam blasted out of it, sending Ninja over to the other side, that had another platform vent to take him back.
Gaster shifted in and out of existence to cross the gap, while following Ninja to a vent platform on the left leading them to another path with two platform vents, one going to the left and the other to the right in the shape of a "z". Ninja pointed to the left, turning to make eye contact with Gaster as if telling him to go that way, taking the right way to see what he could find.

On the other pathway, it led to a different room with more conveyor belts with a timed vent, the arrow switching between pointing left and right. With some good timing, Ninja stepped on it when it was pointing right, where he discovered a Frypan lying on the ground.
It was burnt, with some slight dents but was otherwise in good shape. Stuffing it in his backpack, he got on the conveyor belt to take him back to the centre. Going back to the other room, he quickly found his way to the end of the room, where Gaster stood awaiting him.

There was a long bridge of pipes in the next room, with even more shooting blue flames and a drone on the left shooting a constant orange laser. Getting closer to it, he saw another right next to it and a blue laser that moved back and forth rapidly, with more lasers up ahead.

Ninja walked up to it, waiting for Gaster to catch up before pushing him into the lasers, stumbling but not taking any damage. Ninja hummed, noting how it was fine to walk through the orange lasers. Gaster looked back at him, both confused and upset on how he got pushed through the lasers, while Ninja wrote it down. He stared at Ninja with an irritated look on his face, watching as Ninja walked through the laser carefree after noting how it wouldn't damage him if he appeared to be in motion.

"Do not use me as a guinea pig to test the lasers out. If you must experiment, do not involve me in the experiments. That was very inconsiderate of you, it's like you're treating this as some kind of game. You cannot be doing this while I am still carrying Shadow."

Ninja hummed, acknowledging it but not giving a full response, passing by Gaster and up to the moving blue laser, of which he tried moving his hand past, getting his glove slightly burnt when noticing how when he was moved it would damage him, opposite to the orange laser.
He walked towards it as it moved away, stopping when it got close and letting it go by again before moving more, managing to stay still when it passed by him to not take any damage.

Looking back at Gaster to see if he did the same, Gaster simply faded in and out of existence, going from behind the laser to right in front of Ninja, away from it. They repeated this process a few times, with an extra blue laser at the end before an orange one, being the final one in that room. As Ninja walked to the next one, Gaster emerged from the void, seeing a switch next to him that when pressed, deactivated all the lasers in that room.

The next room was a bit boring, the pipes leading to an average platform surrounded by pipes leading to the left and further down, four vents in the form of an upside-down "T".

Ninja could only reach the one in front of him, which kept changing where its arrow pointed to in a counterclockwise pattern. Ahead of him, was a huge door with seemingly no switch or door handles, so taking his chance, he went to the right first, down the small path that led to an open door, the interior being too dark to see from the doorway.

There were two monsters sitting on the edge up front, looking to be relaxing while having their feet dangle a few meters above the lava. Refusing to go speak with the monsters that just seemed to be observing the ambience around them, Ninja went into the dark room, finding a fox head on the ground to the right, wearing sunglasses.

In front of him however, was a red box with controls and on the left was a note, tossed on the floor which explained the puzzle he was facing.

*(Shoot the opposing ship!)
*(Move the boxes to complete your mission.)

He went up to the box and the puzzle lit up, showing a white triangle at the top and a big square box that had solid white boxes on its four corners, two hollow white boxes on the top and bottom. In front of him, right above the red box was a yellow triangle, which had two red bullets. Ninja moved the boxes up and left, shooting twice and breaking a box then the ship, cracking and breaking it, winning the mini game. A light blue congratulations was at the top, and the box turned green, before the puzzle's lights turned off again.

He walked out, taking a turn and going back to the main vents where Gaster stood, right in front of the huge door as Ninja went straight ahead to the puzzle on the left which was blocked off by a constant blue laser, being fuelled by what seemed to be a tube of lava. Using his stick, Ninja aimed at the machine and cracked its laser, leaving the stick impaled inside of its lens as he went inside the similar room, ignoring two more monsters.

Inside was a similar setup, with the same controls and paper to explain it, with only the puzzle being different. It was a four-by-four huge box, with solid blocks at what seemed to be random and hollow boxes in a sideways "U" form. Moving it up, left, down, and left, there was only one box in the way, allowing Ninja to shoot it, using one bullet then taking down the opposing ship, completing the puzzle again.

Returning to the main vent room, he watched as the large and bulky door opened, shaking the room a bit as it did. The next room seemed bottomless, the faint glow of lava barely illuminating the room, with more vents down to the left.
Platforms led the way, using three stream vents to get across which Ninja used, being blown over from one to the other, then finally back on firm ground. Gaster tried the same but quickly phased in and out of existence again, having realized it was a bad idea.

Going down a long room with the void all around them, their footsteps were barely audible due to no close walls for the sound to bounce off of, being otherwise entirely silent.
However, as they continued walking, they noticed a huge looming machine in the distance, being able to see it closer when they wandered into the next room which was mostly comprised of a long hallway.