Strange Times, Stranger Places

Chapter 10: Labratory Struggles

Connie and Steven followed, fatigued from everything that just happened. Mabel and Dipper helped them while Frisk went on ahead. Finding a save point, Frisk saved in case and waited for the others.

"These guys are beat, and so are we. Do you know where we could all rest?" Dipper asked.

"This is the furthest I've ever been into a Pacifist run. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do right now, let alone where we could rest. Ummm... Let's go down this way and see where it takes us."

They headed down to the left, and the two sat down on some of the examination tables. Frisk went to check the sinks, trying to see what they could do about the power situation. Dipper had gone down a small hall, and found out one of the keys was inside of one of the sinks.

The last sink Frisk turned oozed out a white goop. It filled the sink, and sprang to life, scaring Frisk as well as Mabel.

"What is this?!"

"I... I don't know!" Frisk replied. Dipper pushed his sister behind him.

"Let's figure this out now, alright? Maybe..."  Dipper stopped as Frisk's phone started ringing. They picked it up, and the garbled voices of the memory heads came into focus. 

"Come join us...."

"Uhhh.... HOW BOUT NO?" Mabel screeched in a bit of a panic. The memory heads seemed upset by this, but complied, leaving the children alone and disappearing. They left the red key in the sink, so Frisk picked it up, and ran down the hall to plug it in. 

Going the other way, the children found the room full of beds. All five of them sighed in relief, picking a bed and laying down. Steven and Connie passed out as soon as they hit the sheets, but the rest of them were awake while a tall, white figure towered each of them, tucking the children in snugly. 

"That was creepy..." Mabel whispered loudly. Shaking off the weird figures, they all fell asleep. 

Waking up hours later, all of them felt refreshed. Sitting up, Steven bounced off the bed, ready to help out. Connie woke a little after, rolling over and saying quietly, "Do I have to get up?"

Mabel woke much like Connie, except she replaced speaking with a groan, and Dipper woke as if he had a slight nightmare. Unfortunately, he had Bill in his mindscape overnight, and was scared half to death by being left there with the crazy triangle. 

I heard that!

I ain't wrong Cipher. 

True, but still Dinosaur-

DO NOT CALL ME A FUCKING DINOSAUR.

Awww is the Dino getting a bit angry? Should we worry if she's about to roar?

FUCKING STOP.

We don't want to.

GAHHHHHHH

Frisk was fine, just getting up as nothing had happened. They all were ready. 

Heading up, they went to the right, and into a air-conditioning room. Turning off the fans to explore further, another white figure appeared behind them. From reading the logs on the wall, they had figured out part of what was going on here- These creatures were Amalgamates- combinations of monsters from injecting Determination. It's too much for most monster's bodies, so they all became these creatures. This one seemed like a combination of various dogs.

So the children treated it as such. Having the amalgam disappear, they went toward the left of where they started in the Bed Room, and into a hall. 

"That's also really creepy..." Mabel said behind Dipper, who was going to check out the bathtub at the end of the room. The shower curtain moved by itself, showing the tentacle that was waving faster and faster wasn't actually there. Instead, there was a green key. Pocketing it, they moved into the next room, which contained a large machine that looked like a head. Seeing a star one way and a room, they went to the room. Placing down the yellow key they had found in the bedsheets of one of the beds they used, Steven and Connie were messing with the VHS tapes. 

"Let's see what these are... Maybe they have little butler?" Steven asked. 

"Little Butler?" Mabel asked.

"It might be something around the east coast..." Connie replied. The videos were actually of Asgore, Toriel, and their two children, Chara and Asriel. Recognizing them, the kids theorized what happened. Frisk explained what they knew, and connected it to the VHS tapes they had found. 

Looking at the star, Frisk knew it wasn't real. It grew into another amalgamate, which attacked. It smelled like lemons in the room, probably because the amalgamate was named Lemon Bread. 

Finding a way around the creature by appealing to the various monsters trapped in it's body, they headed down the hall to a refrigerator room. Putting the green key into the room beyond it, they began to head back but was stopped by a sad looking amalgam, Snowdrake's mother. 

They told her a few puns to make her feel better, and went on. Mabel, Steven, and Connie looked back, saddened by the tragic creature. 

Moving on to the last hall, they all read the case of implanting Determination into a flower, particularly ones that grew in Asgore's throne room. 

"But isn't that where Asriel died?" Connie asked. Frisk nodded, and caused a bi..

One last amalgam tried to fight the group, but was stopped again when they treated it as the individual monsters. Finally placing the last key, they headed off toward the door. They passed through an unpowered elevator, and past two monitors. In the power room, they went to flip the switch, Frisk closest, when several amalgams approached. They flipped it, and the lights all came on. Steven summoned a shield, and then Alphys came. 

"H-Hey!" She called. They all backed off, letting her pass. 

"S-Sorry about all that... They're just hungry..." She gave a speech about how she was ready to stay down in the lab because she didn't know how to tell everyone what happened, so Connie and Mabel took her aside and gave her a huge pep talk, convincing her to tell everyone what happened, and despite the consequences she had tried her best to see if she could save them. What ended up happening was not the best, but it was something. She agreed, and left with all of the amalgams. 

Going back, they read on the monitors that one of the flowers actually became sentient.

And it escaped. 

"Flowey..." Frisk mumbled. 

They informed the others about Flowey before, sort of, so they finished doing so. Getting on the elevator, they moved up, seeing there was a button to go straight to the capital. 

The alarms started blaring again, the elevator going extremely fast, and all the kids blacked out.