The Tables Have Turned - Undertale Fanfiction

2 - Timing

"Shit." Frisk said as she noticed the Riverperson was not in their usual spot. Frisk knew they always were around Snowdin during the night, so this too, surprised her. "Guess I'll need to go by foot. And I need to hurry the hell up, too." Frisk whispered to herself as she ran back to Snowdin.

Despite there being no light sources bright enough to cast shadows, a strange shadow followed her until she reached Waterfall.

She turned around, only to see a vague, dark figure disappear into nothingness, before walking into the cave and to have a short moment to catch her breath. "Could it be..?" she thought. She shook her head as if she tried to shake off the thought like it was a leaf in her hair and continued running again.

~~~

Being as unfortunate as she was, Frisk had tripped over her untied shoelaces. "What a stupid cliché.. and right at this moment, too.." she complained. She was now halfway Waterfall, around the same area where she and Undyne had their first chasedown. She remembered Undyne, clad in her heavy armor, running after her and making spears appear out of and into thin air. She remembered being cornered by Undyne and falling down when Undyne broke the wooden platform she'd gotten stuck on.

~~~

She'd noticed the end of that wooden platform just in time. Frisk almost had fallen face-first into the bed of flowers. That would've been fine if she hadn't been in a hurry. And if she didn't mind any permanent injuries to her face.

All the other times Frisk had had to travel from Snowdin to Hotland and vice versa, the Riverperson would bring her with their weird dog-boat, but now Frisk had no hooded captain or wooden dog-boat to transport her to Hotland.

She cursed as she tried to think of a safe way down. The river's current was too strong for her to walk in on her own. She checked her phone. It was 1:24 a.m. It'd been around 0:46 a.m. when she hung up the video call with Alphys. She was late. Much later than she would've liked. Very late, even. "Stupid Riverperson, deciding to change their resting spot.." Frisk thought, as she practically drowned in a flow of angry and upset thoughts.

~~~

With a very bad headache and some bruises on her legs, Frisk woke up in front of Alphys' lab and she had no idea of where she was whatsoever. She mumbled as she looked around. She quickly came to her senses and realised she'd arrived in Hotland. "Maybe I fainted because of the heat?" she thought. Wait. "I was in Waterfall last time, wasn't I?" she mumbled to herself.

Frisk looked at her phone. Despite it being in her pockets the entire time, it had no scratches on it whatsoever. Of course it had been designed by Alphys, who seemed to be specialised in making phones that wouldn't even break if used as shield against a bullet.. but the length of that fall off the wooden platform onto the flower bed must have been at least 50 vertical metres.. that couldn't have left it, and herself as well, undamaged, right? She had tested several prototypes and they all got at least a small, but visible, scratch when dropped from a certain height.

Before putting it in her pockete again, Frisk looked at the time on her phone. "1:27 a.m." the display read. She had been knockout for only three minutes? Surely, that couldn't be right..

Frisk slowly got up and the doors to Alphys' lab opened automatically. Frisk was greeted by the usual cameras pointing at her and several screens displaying every single movement. Alphys' laptop was on the floor and Frisk checked the time in its bottom-right corner. "1.28 a.m." it said. So had she be gone for nearly 24 hours? No.. Alphys and Toriel definitely would've called her then. Heck, Toriel might even have looked for her in person. Poor goat mom, she would've been so worried.

"Alphys?" Frisk called out. The cameras withdrew into some place in the ceiling and Alphys revealed herself.
"Alphys? Do you know what happened to me? I woke up in front of your lab. I thought I'd been gone for hours but I was unconscious for only a few minutes.. and I do not walk fast enough to go from Waterfall to your lab in less than fifteen minutes."
"You j-just appeared on the m-m-monitors.." Alphys stuttered again. "I h-hid upstairs until you.. uhm.. re-regained conciousness but.." she stopped. "Something l-like a shadow ap-appeared too but I couldn't f-find any data of it in m-my files.. s-so maybe it's a.. uhm.. a n-new monster. Yes t-that could be it, r-right?"

Frisk nodded in agreement. "Probably. But that's not why I'm here. There was something else. Shoot it at me." Frisk said. Alphys moved a pile of Ramen Noodle cups too the side and sat down on the stereotypical white, tiled floor. Frisk did the same and Alphys started explaining the situation.