UnderCorrupt

6 ~ Authority Issues

It was weeks before anything happened. And while Gaster could be very patient when he could see the results in-the-making, with something like this, he got very agitated with having no idea what was happening.

He was in the lab that evening. He had told Papyrus that he was working on something big, and might occasionally forget to watch the clock to meet Papyrus at home.

"Come on!" He Snarled in Hands, as he was prone to revert to when too irritated to speak properly in the Common Language. "It's not that hard! They just have to step on the thing and it triggers the thing!! That looked like a well-trafficked area, and we hid it perfectly. One of them has to have walked by there by now."

"Have you considered, Sir," one of the braver of his four assistants spoke up after taking a minute to translate Hands to Common, "that maybe the signal device is broken?"

Gaster walked over to the workbench in that particular lab, and picked up a device that could have easily been a cellphone. After a few minutes of jabbing at the buttons, he gave a roar of impatient irritation. "It says it's connected! It says the trap is fully functional and has not been triggered!" He just about chucked the small device across the lab with his wild gesturing. He continued, his voice and gestures becoming much to quick and frustrated for any of his assistants to understand. Speaking in Hands was, after all, a second language to them.

On the other hand, Papyrus, who had just walked into the room carrying dinner, as Gaster had long since forgotten what time it was as well as not eaten at all that day, had a quite fluent understanding of Hands, having been raised learning it.

After setting down the plate with some vaguely food-looking objects on it, he asked in Hands, "What's going on, Dad?"

Gaster hesitated, frustration replaced by a touch of anxiety. He had not told Papyrus about the trap; he hadn't wanted him to worry.

"Ahh-- ... Nothing you need to worry about, Papyrus. Just-- ... A project of mine isn't working as well as I-"

At that moment, the device in his hand started beeping loudly and incessantly, as well as started vibrating.

For a moment, everyone just stood, looking at the small transmitter in Gaster's hands.

Then Gaster's scarred face split into the widest grin it had since Sans died.

"Come now! No time to waste!" Now he was simply too excited to speak in Common. "The trap's been sprung! We have work to do! To the King!"

"Trap?" Papyrus wondered out loud. "Wait- what-"

He found himself suddenly swept up in Gaster's arms as he moved out the door and down the hall. "Papyrus, you're going to have to stay with Queen Toriel for a little while again. But don't worry, I'll only be gone for a few days, and it will all be worth it! We shall be that much closer to ending the war."

"But Dad, I don't understand. What's going on?"

Gaster just laughed. "We're getting a fighting chance."

Papyrus decided he was happy to see his dad happy, and Gaster would tell him eventually if it was important.

So Gaster and his assistants headed off to New Home to talk to Asgore, while Papyrus was again left under the Queen's care.

~o0o~

Oowww...

What...?